Press Release 01.09.2024
The Künstlerhaus Götz is pleased to present a mural by artist Niall Dooley. This painting visually transforms our entrance gate into a dialog about the current progression of artificial intelligence in regards to our embodied connection to, and dependency on, nature. The large-format mural creates an interactive opportunity for reflection, and interpretation about how we coexist with impending technology.
In this work, the digital and natural worlds are counterposed through a striking visual composition. Six bodily figures form a protective arch over a central scene, set against a background of matrix-like binary code. At the heart of the image, a young woman waters a plant, symbolizing humanity’s connection to both the earth and nature. This arch acts as a boundary, separating the dark, code-lined frame from the bright, open sky with the sun, moon, and stars, representing the challenges of balancing technological development with our natural world. The mural’s visual language conveys that nature can only thrive within a space of solidarity, as suggested by the arrangement of figures. Meanwhile, the binary code, cascading from above, increasingly penetrates our daily lives through artificial intelligence and the digitalization of everything, reflecting the growing force of technology in our world.
Dooley shows this as a physical conflict – the anatomical sphere becomes the battleground. Perhaps an echo back to a now renewed conversation. Beyond Barbara Kruger's gender identity and reproductive freedom, the phrase "your body is a battleground" can now also become a question of the continuity of "humanness."
Particular is the work's composition: The bending figures create an arch that locks the viewer's gaze to the central scene of plant care. The two-dimensionality invites visitors, as if into a Hortus Conclusus, to walk into the image and through the gate. The possible third and fourth dimensions remain for us, the viewers, to digest. Day and night coexist simultaneously; the sun, moon, and stars lend a timeless, cyclical dimension.
Niall Dooley's mural prompts reflection on fundamental questions of our time: How can we preserve our human existence and connection to nature while spiraling into the digital age? In which direction is technology growing – does it fall upon us uncontrollably like a collapsing dimension or like heavy rain? The artwork suggests, perhaps even optimistically, that the answer lies in interpersonal solidarity.
The gate mural is accessible to the public around the clock.
