The artist became jeweler impressed by the ambivalent combination of its dry objectivity on one side and the extreme illusionary world of value creating attributions of the alluring materiality of the stones themselves. The gallery turned into an exchange for stones and another illusionary trading place for rather ephemeral exquisite exchange, long echo of the „Metaphysical Store“, „Montezuma Jewelries“ „Galerie Meerrettich“ , „Il Comercio de Lamentos Finos“ expands into further discoveries of the dream to emigrate from art reference into the complex and somehow paradox realms of precious stones or particularily following into the very puzzling gravitations, synonym of attachments, sometimes opening in little steps the doors to trading with spirits even, the magnetism of meteorites or other gravitations, metaphors to humans souls desires and sufferings whenever influenced by their many gravitations and consequently impacted by their erosions and attritions, attachments to become like the attrition of the stones.

To work with stones is a slow exercise of overcoming the bias that connects simple stones or rocks to poverty, to lifelessness and emptiness at the same time, excluding those paradoxes of stones, as well as they are incredible containers of pain and of happiness and watchful eye from their comparably almost eternal life‘s perspective and containing their secrets of their memories, as often referred to in ancient or premedieval literature.

The story of the stones as living stones in an animated universe, the medieval or pre-medieval perceptiveness for the life of stones, both in historic literature and contemporary science, finding the stones that are refused, to practice of showing discoveries, findings, although appearing as the worthless, committing to trash findings of long walks, trading them like trading stones or even as numbers, later fleemarket lamps or found metal pieces and titles and stories attached and trading rather their little titles hopefully too.

The artist connects stone and meteorite objects in an exercise of throwing little pieces of seemingly disconnected “ideas” on paper or little objects into boxes and waiting, as if it was an interior box somewhere within the brain and then later, observing the box, waiting, if these little ideas develop connections automatically, beyond intentionality, somewhere in the brain’s imaginary box, and then kind of harvesting the box to put a little tag with names on it and transferring results into the more public trade box, the trade site of objects and desires and regrets of the public businesses of galleries.

After a year long longing and following his own footsteps, and after the most pleasant memories of mimicking the craft of jewelers, the jeweler sets the stones found in Mexico into smooth metal bases, using the soft and easy burning tin, and later throws them slowly, one after the other, in the content, in most incidental ways observing the developments of patterns, onto the yellowish, almost golden landscapes and surfaces of the canvas, like ideas in the “cybernetic” boxes, the pattern imitating unintentionally the meteoric, almost eternal lives and pathways through time within the empty space of the universe still far away from powerful bigger gravitational impacts.

The first thing I wished to paint was an angel because it is the guardian above the bed of a child. It could be the first image they see, their first painting and eventually even their first view into an exterior imagination, into another world, or possibly behind.

So I wanted this imagined guardian to be the first image made for this exhibition and then see what will be “demanded” in the process as the next one, and hopefully more of the same image, hoping to having invoked a prototype by such an exercise and then to be following this prototype of the first angel in all the later works, presuming it as the prototype for all the images in the exhibition, still considering to having to develop one and the first exhibition painting and the first real baby painting too.

A prototype is in relation to serial production, but the series are still being made as the application of a certain craft, those serial originals might enhance the feeling of cinematic movement. The long and painful time spent within the rituals before the “birth” of the first image, the prototype, all this I tried many times before, but here I added and followed, although still little, some of the rules I have been learning recently from studying ages old scripts for the training of Russia’s mystical icon painters. I understood that somehow I was restricted by my rejection and fear of idolatry to use the typical byzantine painters subject matters with the necessary faith and intensity. But I found out during my own introspection that maybe I could develop such interior and necessary faith when projecting an angel and to my huge surprise, while looking up in the old icon school books I read, that it was the rule that in the second step of the training the scholar was asked to paint an angel and only later include other sacred persons or “objects”. It should be most natural to almost anyone to imagine the angel and to have faith in it, but as well to invoke one and as a result of such exercise to establish its helpful and inspiring presence for further works as an artist.

Though I realized the decision was not to try to make icons, or credulously assuming such a role model for myself too fast, but to, at the very least, be able to reproduce some sort of reminder or echo, triggering a memory of them, remembering and recounting the model of the really observant icon-painter who isn’t supposed to claim doing-icons for ones own benefit. The fear of doing idolatry and the fear of doing heresy was becoming a balancing-act.

I knew there is no original prototype in the creation of art, so after combing and searching very long through the infinite amount of internet angels I found the one in the multi winged angel made by Theophanes, generally one of the most incredible byzantine painters. He painted it in the 14th century in the very special and short timed country of the Republic of Novgorod, a free medieval state far in the
north of Russia. Theophanes himself referred to this prototype because it was the only image representation allowed in the First Temple in Jerusalem.

So at last I found the angel somehow, during production and through elaborate work times, strongly and almost entirely framed in the tin metal from contemporary Mexican icon painters. The metal appearance of the angels surrounding the soldered plane felt more and more like a reminder that the angels are contemporarily one of the most drawn subject matters in the entire world, particularly painted or tattooed by the many inflicted ones, by the prisoners, by people suffering incredible pains, or the ones feeling humiliated or feeling deeply abandoned and submitted to endless harsh and almost unpaid labor in all countries, those intensely seeking and praying for relief and for charity. Usually such depictions of the angels appear to be harsh and scary to the proud and educated ones, but paradoxically the harder they look the closer they are in fact to the true angelic spirit of charity. Once being given such an angelic license to paint them, it starts appearing while working on them, to be an incredibly great angelic mercy in itself to being permitted such a perfect labor.

Josef Strau (b. Vienna, 1957) is an artist living and working in New York City. Recent solo exhibitions include Tears and New Tears, Greene Naftali, NY; Invitation Epiphany, Kunstlerhaus Bremen, Germany; Loyalties, Gaga Mexico City; A Turtle Dreaming…, Secession, Vienna.

redemption, with partial disablement and circumvention

The three terms of the title enumerate some of the basic exercises which constitute the works of the artist. The exhibition in the gallery House of Gaga somehow repeats certain aspects of earlier work, but at the same time tries to return with it with a particular awareness to repeat them as exercise of redemption, accompanied by texts investigating and clarifying the idea of redemption, for instance about the difference of photographic and redemptive subjective exercise, both dealing for instance with a certain (and possibly lost) moment of the past.

Certain theologies relate to how redemption could be practiced or how it could be mediated. There are two models of these mediative works. The first is provided in the model of the works of the angel and the second is in the works of the prophet. As the work of redemption is not directly, not primarily a work of creation, it is not productive in the profane sense, and should not be considered and legitimated by rules of productivity, it still is, the first and dominant force. The two main model ways are deriving from the mediation model angel and prophet. In the concept of division of divine labor the angel’s work is called repair and the prophet’s working of the divine force is mediated by telling it.

Posters of different times and themes, the photos and the reappearance of the older work in context of the recent works, like the lamps built out of broken and repaired elements are introducing the theme of redemption.

The exhibition appears as a collection of objects in full bloom presented in very early morning dusk, complete with silver roses embedded in cheap hardware chains. The exhibition consists mainly of fences, flowers and texts and the photos express the particularity of the way all these objects look in the moment of special light like in the moment of the very first appearance of the light of the day.

They are still-life-ing by still leaving a gleam through violet and multicolored dots like murals of shadow patterns cast onto the garden walls like embroidered lace in the dark look of an installation that introduces a sense of an almost traditional presence of the language of color awareness. Within its affirmative fragments of color pattern it repeatedly contains fragments of text always and all through relating to ideas of redemption in its many facets and is topped and illuminated by real and individually produced lamps, welded and constructed with cutoffs of old garden fences and with relics of old Mexican chandeliers. As if embroidered, the metal surfaces become paintings. The lamps as sculptures seem to allegorically echo brass instruments as if portraying musicians. All broken elements together re-appropriate somehow the secret of the traditional garden look as an embroidered enclosure cast into the very contemporary condition of the art gallery space.

Taking the certain theory literally, like that each of it is evidence of the immanence of photography, meaning it is recreating an immanent melancholy, as it is transferring a moment of life into a moment of image, it is philosophically immanently dark, it becomes a photo of Nezahualcolyotl.

The exhibition includes as well a new edition of Montezuma jewelry with the object and text elements of the general particular focus on flowers and redemption themes.