Thomas Zipp

World Kantzler Office

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Der Schlaf IV (y-drops) (2006) is an ominous installation in greyscale, consisting of a painting, a framed sheet with a crossed line and needle pricks, and chandeliers made out of fluorescent tubes. Sleep (the English translation of Der Schlaf) and the dark realm of the unconscious are referenced in the title and the mountain topped with sexually charged shapes painted in black. The framed sheet, with its unreadable message, points to indecipherable depths of dream logic and the impossibility of understanding even with the help of the bright lights overhead.

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

Schwarze Ballons (1. down, 2. up, 3. S.K., 4a. tumb…tumb…, 4b.ABCE, 5. little U-light, 6. L.E.M., 7. O.E., 8. Elektrizitait)

World Kantzler Office – detail

Thomas Zippâ€™s installations appropriate the language of museum and scientific display to convey a madman-made, foreboding view of western civilisationâ€™s achievements. Schwarze Ballons (2005), a nine-part installation, includes among its components framed drawings that look like archival documentation, and roughly painted portraits of menacing individuals with brightly lit eyes, like undead gangsters. Two large black balloon-shaped sculptures, one suspended and one resting on the floor, fill the space with a sinister air. The work as a whole feels like a futuristic memorial, the result of an unfamiliar modern witchcraft.

In Zipp’s works, the free-association of the unconscious is an entry point into investigating collective guilt. E-Licht (2006), another museum-like display, juxtaposes two paintings – one of a flying zeppelin and the other a large, nervous abstraction – with a schematic drawing, like a minimalist condensation of idealist values from a previous era. A.B.:H.G.:B.16. (2005) and World Kantzler Office (2004) appropriate the codes of war-cabinet imagery to playfully question the way history is constructed.