SuperRich. Installation by Ray Bartkus

The installation SuperRich, by Ray Bartkus (b. 1961), an artist living and working in New York, is a continuation of reflections and experiments he began one decade ago. The idea for this piece arose while working on various commissions from prominent New Yorkers – people with almost limitless possibilities, enormous ambitions and responsibilities, wealth, beauty, and power. Bartkus found it interesting to think about this visually and to find a way to depict, without moralizing, the icons of today and their rules of life. 

The atypical theme of this work is accompanied by an unconventional technique. Nails are driven into an aluminum mesh and the nail heads, like pixels on a computer screen, create drawings that are reflected many times over in mirrors. This creates an unexpected contrast: Everyday, crude construction details are used for shiny façade portraits and their negatives on the opposite side of the glass.

The subtle mosaics of these portraits – not those of specific people, but abstract signs – are created using footage from Alain Resnais’ iconic film L’Année dernière à Marienbad. At the same time, they are also a kind of mandala, reminding us of the transience of time: When the net is moved, the unfixed nails fall out and the portrait disappears.

Another work by Ray Bartkus, One Size Fits All, can be seen in the exhibition “Longing, Not Sure What For”.