Versions

2012 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

6:00 minutes

Oliver Laric

location: Berlin, Germany
year born: 1981
gender: male
nationality: Austrian
home town: Innsbruck, Austria

Oliver Laric’s video Versions is part of an ongoing body of work that has continued to evolve and mutate over time. Comprised of several video and sculptural works that share the same title, the Versions series reflects Laric’s key concerns: the mutability of images and objects and the negotiation between original and copy. In this video, we see several 3D renders of recognizable objects and places, while an ubiquitous feminized robotic voice that evokes the domestic familiarity of voice recognition tools such as Siri and Alexa, speaks of issues relating to identity, language, and translation. Formally, these concepts are reflected through strategies of doubling, mirroring, translating, transferring and mimicking: images of ancient Greek busts are reproduced in postal stamps for Mali and Peru; two popular Disney characters dancing side by side reveal how the same motion was used for both of them; and iconic basketball moments are immortalized both through photographs and interpretations in Manga comics. In addition to the formal strategies, there’s an array of historical references that bring the same concerns to the fore, including a piece by piece architectural render of the Ise Shrine, which is demolished and rebuilt every 20 years as part of Shinto belief system of death, renewal, and the impermanence of all things. Another key reference that appears in many of Laric’s videos and sculptural works is the bust of Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, Laric’s interest centered around the proliferation of adaptations of his ancient military treatise Art of War, which have been disseminated globally.


Oliver Laric is a Berlin-based, Austrian multimedia artist whose work is centered around issues of authorship, originality, and ownership—with a specific interest in visual culture in the digital age. His work and broad research addresses an ongoing history of the mutability of objects and images. From ideas of copyright to examples of iconoclasm (the destruction of religious iconography), Laric’s focus is on how objects and images are continually re-represented, appropriated, remixed, augmented and modified. Several of Laric’s work evolve over time, at times relying on the voracious contribution of online communities. From 2006–2012, for example, Laric was part of the project VVORK, an art blog as exhibition space, which gained a large following and led to the group working as a curatorial collective. He has also collaborated with a range of museums to make 3D scans of sculptures available and free to download online. Even his own sculptural practice is often based on versions of classical and neoclassical sculptures, which he then reinterprets. His interest in reinscribing or opening up material, however, is not in the new or hybrid objects that result, but rather the moment of transfer, the metamorphosis of objects into other objects or images, and the endless potential of mutability. That is what Laric tries to capture.


Colors:



Related works sharing similar palette

SFMoMA Reacts to Super Bowl Win With Promise of Kansas City Barbecue
© » ARTNET

The Museum Bowl wager will bring the famed dish to the institution's restaurant, temporarily...

Weekly Picks: Indonesia (18 – 24 February 2019)
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Weekly Picks: Indonesia (18 - 24 February 2019) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Weekly To Do February 18, 2019 Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Bali, Bandung and Jakarta from 18-24 February 2019 To celebrate the TiTian Art Space’s 3rd Anniversary, the art space and organization presents EXPLORATION , a group exhibition that serves also as an initiative to encourage artists to break boundaries...

The Living Legacy of Funerary Arts
© » HYPERALLERGIC

The Living Legacy of Funerary Arts Skip to content Toraja people of Indonesia; central Sulawesi, Rongkong area, “Burial Cloth” (19th century), cotton, warp ikat, 65 1/2 x 152 x 107 1/2 inches (image via Wikimedia Commons) Death is one of life’s few universal experiences...

Temps mort
© » KADIST

Mohamed Bourouissa

2009

The film called Temps Mort (Dead Time or Time Out) presents an exchange of short video footage assembled into one final edit...

‘Art Has Kept People Going Through the Pandemic’, Says Collector Kiran Nadar, Founder of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art
© » LARRY'S LIST

London’s Tate Modern encouraged visitors to browse through its digitised collection of over 77 thousand artworks, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art produced 360° virtual tours of its spaces and, closer home, the National Museum in New Delhi kept up with its patrons through regular informative posts on Instagram....

“A Land Imagined” and The Ghosts We Forget
© » ARTS EQUATOR

"A Land Imagined" and The Ghosts We Forget | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Photo courtesy of Akanga Film Asia & Philipp Aldrup Photography Photo courtesy of Akanga Film Asia & Philipp Aldrup Photography February 21, 2019 By Alfonse Chiu (1200 words, six-minute read) The three definitions of the word “ghost” from the Oxford dictionary are as follows: the first, “an apparition of a dead person which is believed to appear or become manifest to the living”; the second, “a slight trace or vestige of something”; and the third, “a faint secondary image caused by a fault in an optical system, duplicate signal transmission, etc.” In all three, presence is a suggestion of memory, amenable to corrections by means of a quick scrub of one’s spectacles...

Strip Color
© » KADIST

Elsa Werth

2019

In the video Color Strip by Elsa Werth two-dimensional versions of all the national flags of the world (197 in all) are compiled into a long horizontal strip...

Regard Eating Every Single Time as a Formal Declaration, My Stomach is Sexy out of Anger
© » KADIST

Xiaoyun Chen

2006

The image of rusted nails, nuts and bolts as shrapnel sandwiched between a fried Chicken burger highlights the contrast between decadence and destruction...

The Utopia Project at Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum
© » STEVE LAMBERT

The Utopia Project at Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum - Steve Lambert The Utopia Project at Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum - Steve Lambert Steve Lambert wrote a book!!! Art Works News Writing About Steve Contact Resume Now Newsletter Book Creative Commons BY-NC-SA November 2022 Exhibitions Center for Artistic Activism The Utopia Project Location: Anacostia Community Museum, Washington D...

It's a right Heath Robinson affair, by Ryan Gander
© » KADIST

It’s a right Heath Robinson affair, by Ryan Gander March 14 – May 2, 2009 A double exhibition in collaboration with gb agency, Paris...

Faltenwurf (Stairwell)
© » KADIST

Wolfgang Tillmans

2017

Wolfgang Tillmans initiated the ongoing series Faltenwurf in 1989, representing compositions of unused clothing, with special attention paid to the ways in which they drape and fold...

“Hijrah”: In Between Body and Gender ‘Migration’
© » ARTS EQUATOR

"Hijrah": In Between Body and Gender 'Migration' | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Sapto Agus October 9, 2018 By Michael HB Raditya (1018 words, five-minute read) Read this review in Bahasa Indonesia ...

Joao Ruas Returns With ‘Knots’
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

Joao Ruas brings his striking, ghostly paintings to Thinkspace Projects with the new show “Knots.” The show, running through Jan...

Japanese ‘rainbow artist’ Ay-O’s debut solo Hong Kong exhibition the first in a series highlighting significant Asian artists
© » SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

Japanese ‘rainbow artist’ Ay-O’s debut solo Hong Kong exhibition the first in a series highlighting significant Asian artists | South China Morning Post Advertisement Advertisement Art + FOLLOW Get more with my NEWS A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you Learn more Japanese artist Ay-O’s screenprint “Homage to Rousseau” is part of his exhibition at the M+ museum of visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District...

Tips for Starting Your Own Art Collection from Two Collectors - via San Antonio
© » LARRY'S LIST

Lori Dunlap and Charlie Biendenharn say you can boost the local art scene and the ambience of your home with local art (even if you don't want to spend a ton of money)....

The $4 Wyeth Painting Bought in Thrift Store Sells Big
© » ART & OBJECT

The $4 Thrift Store Wyeth Painting Finally Sells | Art & Object Skip to main content Subscribe to our free e-letter! Webform Your Email Address Role Art Collector/Enthusiast Artist Art World Professional Academic Country USA Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canary Islands Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Ceuta & Melilla Chad Chile China Christmas Island Clipperton Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard & McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands North Korea North Macedonia Norway Oman Outlying Oceania Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St...

Black Curl (CMY/Five Magnet: Irvine, California, March 25, 2010, Fujicolor Cyrstal Archive Super Type C, EM No 165-021, 05910)
© » KADIST

Walead Beshty

2010

Black Curl (CMY/Five Magnet: Irvine, California, March 25, 2010, Fujicolor Cyrstal Archive Super Type C, EM No 165-021, 05910) is a visually compelling photogram...

A kiss, a queen and a battered Venus: the Art Fund celebrates 120 years of saving art
© » THE GUARDIAN

A kiss, a queen and a battered Venus: the Art Fund celebrates 120 years of saving art | Art and design | The Guardian Skip to main content A kiss, a queen and a battered Venus: the Art Fund celebrates 120 years of saving art The largest grant in its history to date, £2.5m, went to help save Joshua Reynolds’ Portrait of Mai (Omai) earlier this year Photograph: David Parry...

I Was Always in Love with Asian Art — Collector Désiré Feuerle - via Today UK News
© » LARRY'S LIST

Bitcoin's predictable four-year cycles suggest its price could reach $108K-$219K per coin by October 2025, driven by increasing mining costs and growing institutional adoption...

Xaviera Simmons, Nectar
© » KADIST

KADIST presents Nectar , a solo exhibition by New York-based artist Xaviera Simmons...