Semmering – Bosch sander, 2012, 40 x 12 x 12 cm oil on sandpaper
The track through the Semmering Pass was the first mountain railway in the world. It was ceremoniously opened in 1854. It has become a phenomenon and inspiration to those who had the courage to build similarly challenging engineering works in the wildness all over the world.
I have painted a realistic landscape depicting a part of the view from the train rising to the terminal of the Semmering Railway on a rotary belt of a Bosch sander. I attached the sander to the wall in a gallery. At the moment when the viewer approaches the painting close enough to enjoy a painterly detail, the sander starts running, displaying the landscape with an aggressive roar. The landscape belt is reminiscent of moving backdrops in film and theater simulating, for example, a ride in the car. Thanks to this effect the viewer becomes a passenger. Subconsciously he finds himself inside a moving train. As the belt of the sander keeps bending and straightening, with increasing number of meters damage to the painting occurs, i.e., a feeling of accelerated aging of the painting.
Semmering – detail, 2012, oil on sandpaper
