- Improvisations – National Hotel Pune
MICHAEL STRASSER
Educated in artistic photography at the Vienna University of Applied Arts, Austrian artist Michael Strasser likes to combine and shift between artistic media like photography, installations, and performance. He focuses less on the definition of a concise visual language than on the flexible use of techniques, and this in turn helps shape and sharpen his respective concepts.
- Assembled in Japan #4
Strasser's recent works were inspired by his travels in India, where he was engulfed in a multitude of sensory experiences. The photographs in Improvisations feel very intimate but are devoid of the human element, an unexpected quality considering that India has the second-highest population density in the world. The images reflect on our fear of disease and make us aware of the survival mechanisms of people living in slums throughout India. At the same time, they offer a sense of refuge and force us to confront our concepts of travel.
A different approach is evident in works such as Assembled in Japan, Designed in Japan, Assembled in Austria, which represent the artist’s attempt to examine the trade strategies adopted by multinational corporations. First, Strasser arranged a variety of international goods in a Tokyo parking lot to create an assembled sculpture of sorts. He then shipped them to Vienna, where they now constitute an installation made in Austria that investigates Japan’s history of international trade relations.
- Blew Hawaii – Installation view ACFNY 2009
Strasser’s installation Blew Hawaii was shown at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York in April 2009 as part of the OPEN SPACE UNCURATED 2009: CREATIVE MIGRATION project. The piece is based on photographs of the devastated Coco Palms Resort on K’auai, Hawaii. Elvis Presley’s first Hawaii movie, Blue Hawaii, was partly shot at the same resort. This high society destination of the 1960s was destroyed by hurricane Iniki in 1992 and was never refurbished. The photographic documentation combined with a sound collage consisting of six portable turntables all playing different fragments of the movie's title song is a reference to common concepts of paradise and success.
During his recent show at the Infernoesque in Berlin, the artist’s intervention Incandescent drew a dystopian picture. It dealt with a future black market resulting from the impending European ban on light bulbs that will commence this September.
Michael Strasser's extraordinary attention to detail and his keen compositional sense are reflected in a consistently intricate style throughout his oeuvre. In the past few years he has received several prizes and grants, including the 2008 National Grant for Artistic Photography awarded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Art and Culture.
