THE HUNTERS AND THE HUNTED
Hunting for society and culture

SYLVIE PROIDL painting
WOLFGANG GAROFALO painting
CHRISTIAN JUNGWIRTH photography
G.R.A.M. photography

May 21 to June, 2010

Castle Farrach
Zeltweg-West
Styria

This exhibition encompasses the many aspects that hunting occupies in society today, from traditional small and big game hunters to modern "hunters" who turn many others into their "prey". These include paparazzi, politicians hunting for votes, fighter planes, poachers and hunters foraying in "foreign" hunting grounds. The key contributions in this exhibition are the painted statements by Sylvie Proidl and Wolfgang Garofalo along with contemporary photographs by Christian Jungwirth and G.R.A.M.
Sylvie Proidl begins with the Wild Men series, resembling colorful official portraits in frontal perspective, but with the typical insignia of poachers … the kill and the weapon. The second room harbors the shadow installation rainforest up in the air, which depicts the threats that the rainforest poses to humans. The next room is devoted to fleeing and escape; the oil paintings from the series Walking on the moon and the Canadian bear complement each other perfectly. In the red room, the artist focuses on the endangered Amazon and the culture of this region's indigenous people, the hunt of commercial interests for irreplaceable resources. The final piece is the oil painting Katarakt2, a powerful synonym for nature's instability and might.