The exhibition Shake-Up Environment brings together works by Devin Kenny (*1987, born in Chicago) and Franz West (1947–2012, born in Vienna). It is the first of a three-part exhibition series in which curator Pia-Marie Remmers has invited artists to select a per-son from the programme of Galerie Thoman, founded in Innsbruck in 1977, for a joint exhibition.
DEVIN KENNY works with various media, including sculpture, painting, artificial intelligence and web, music, performance, video, text, and clothing, to further complicate the dynamics of contemporary culture. One focus is on linking subversive cultural practices such as graffiti, skateboarding, or digital forms of youth culture with the exploitative as well as dehumanizing workings of global
financial capitalism.
FRANZ WEST’s main concern was the contextualization of his works in interaction with works by other artists – starting with collages of partly his own, partly other artists’ works, to group exhibitions with artist friends, assistants or students. In his sculptures, furniture, and collages, West combined the “high” with the supposedly lower arts to create situations that were intended to unsettle viewers. He described his famous “Passstücke” as “neuroses turned into sculpture,” and he intentionally turned his seating furniture with its back to other works in the room. Yet the works hold out possibilities for communication, with oneself and with others.
