Introduction

In her Wolfsburg exhibition, Bulloch will return to her early Drawing Machines series by presenting two early pieces from this series and a new one that she has especially developed for the space at the Städtische Galerie, Wolfsburg. The exhibition will also feature prints and drawings.

In the run-up to the exhibition, Bulloch intensely studied the history of the Städtische Galerie during several research visits. She was particularly fascinated by a small scandal from the history of the Arts Prize of the City of Wolfsburg: in 1961, during the opening of the Junge Stadt sieht junge Kunst exhibition, the Viennese action artist Arnulf Rainer simply took a drawing by prize winner Helga Pape, an artist of mainly regional recognition, and painted it black with a thick paintbrush. This less than friendly action towards a fellow artist is considered to be the first of the great art scandals in the young Federal Republic of Germany.

What Angela Bulloch likes about this concept is the idea of obliteration, of erasing, but also of marking – an act that is often also carried out by her art machines: her 1993 Mud Slinger No. 1, for example, covered the walls of the exhibition space with light brown streaks of mud. Her classical Drawing Machines, on the other hand, are directly activated by the presence of visitors detected, for example, via sensors on entering the room and by using simple, commercially available control mechanisms such as microphones, infrared cameras or light barriers. Besides these mechanisms, there are no further means by which the visitor can interact or interfere with the objects. Bulloch’s Drawing Machines are often reminiscent of simple rebuilds of drum recorders that were used in industrial or laboratory environments to record readings such as temperature and humidity or certain events. Equipped with a pen, Bulloch’s machines draw their lines directly onto the wall until eventually there is nothing but a monochrome image that will be whitewashed again after the exhibition. Bulloch introduced the principle of erasing in 1991 with her On/Off Line Drawing Machine that was not visitor activated: a pen drew a horizontal line from left to right. When the machine returned to its standby position, the newly drawn line was immediately erased.

A fundamental theme, running like a thread through Bulloch’s work, is that of choice. Similar to computer programming languages, this is about binary codes: on/off, either/or, yes/no, black/white. “To a greater or lesser extent, this is fundamental to all my artistic practice”, says Bulloch. Behind this, are often complex theoretical considerations, but also humorous or mocking allusions to everyday phenomena.

Nicole Büsing & Heiko Klaas