By introducing a level of the real into his works, Pamminger perforates the concept of the artwork as a simulacrum. He places the image in view. Large-scale Plexis [Plexiglas works] are mounted a few centimeters apart in front of a wallpaper background. The Plexis, whose imprint or foil inlay repeats the wallpaper pattern diaphanously, initially appear as clarified image carriers. The distance pushes graphics and graphemes into the space. The repetition of the motif refers to a referentiality that underlies the image.
Two aspects of this disposition seem to us to be essential. On the one hand, diaphaneity permits a "seeing through" (as the symbolic form of central perspective has always been described), which here presents precisely what Pazzini calls the "sitting of the image on the image". One must also recognize the irony in Pamminger's approach. On the other hand, the "seeing through" is a broken one, insofar as the viewer sees his own reflection, albeit dimly. What characterizes the Plexis in front of semi-transparent mirrors, however, is the simultaneity of diaphaneity and reflection.
The image must first and foremost be understood as a dispositive of repression - it not only covers up the physicality of its subject, it excludes the "anaesthetic", the invisible, the inexpressible, the other. In Pamminger's work, the image is foregrounded, i.e. its object is in the background - it is forced into this relationship and thus exposed to a gaze that is able to penetrate it.
(Konrad Toenz, 1995)

 

Associated texts [DE]:

Ausblicke und Einsichten – Bildräume als Erfahrungsräume (by Cosima Rainer)

Closed circuit. Wohn-Kunsträume von Klaus Pamminger (by Uwe Schögl)

Zu den "Stand-by Inszenierungen" von Klaus Pamminger (by Sabine Schaschl)

Spielräume der Wahrnehmung (by Peter Möseneder)

Plexies (by Konrad Tönz)

Garçonnière für Alice. (by Konrad Tönz)

Geschäft mit Schwarzbau. (by Jandro & Iris Brüggler)