Of Rab­bits and Ducks

In the exhi­bi­tion Of Rab­bits and Ducks, the Kun­sthaus Lan­gen­thal brings together four young painters living in Switzer­land who play in dif­fer­ent ways with the bound­ary between a rep­re­sen­ta­tional func­tion and a formal approach to paint­ing. The exhi­bi­tion focuses on the painted form and the ques­tion of at what point an imme­di­ate expe­ri­ence of paint­ing gives way to an indi­vid­ual asso­ci­a­tion with a world out­side the canvas. Things like steamships, flow­ers, stick­ers or pin­cers can be rec­og­nized in these paint­ings. Or per­haps not? Recur­ring is the idea of tilt­ing fig­ures, which, like the well-known rabbit-duck dilemma, never allow for any real clar­ity. Other works are in the tra­di­tion of expanded paint­ing and appro­pri­a­tion with sub­jects that the artists appro­pri­ate through copy­ing, rep­e­ti­tion and variation.