2024
Acrylic on plexiglass
LED light, 4 paintings
60 × 90 cm
Carl-Robert Kagge has utilized the generative fill function in Photoshop for his works, which generates a new visual based on web database references ancontinues the existing image from there, essentially extendingit from the edge of the picture. By feeding a fragment of his work into the program’s artificial intelligence, the artist has allowed it to further develop it. The resulting images are then passed through silk screen printing process, adding analog layers to the digital work. Hito Steyerl discusses in his essay In Defense of the Poor Image the ability of digital images to spread and transform, generating more and more versions.
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Exhibited at ARS Project Space
26.04–18.05.2024
Artists: Vano Allsalu, Gerda Hansen,
Siiri Jüris, Carl-Robert Kagge, Mart Vainre
Curator: Liisa Kaljula
Techinal assistance: Oliver Kadakas
Photos: Päär Keedus, Frank Abner
2020
Acrylic on PET-G plastic
60 × 77 cm
Carl-Robert Kagge's solo exhibition "Four-Grain Image" is a site-specific work inspired by the location of Vitriingalerii, displaying a hauntological image of Instagram's infinite database. Replacing the glass walls of the gallery with a canvas of bent plastic, Kagge continues developing his original artistic technique.
The title of the show refers to the manual technique the artist uses to apply the motifs onto plastic, silkscreen printing. On the other hand, this marks the process an image uploaded to the internet goes through before reaching the viewer: mutations on the screen used to view the image.
Carl-Robert Kagge is a painter, focusing on images found on social media and their materialisations in physical space. The artist's original technique consists of silkscreen printing and applying the images on heat-shaped plastic. Gathering his visual material on various online platforms, Kagge creates a subjective archive of past and present that has not much to do with collectively perceived space of reality. Using already existing visual material, the artist composes a unique field of images that does not always comply with straightforward categorisation. Kagge skilfully navigates multiple fields: painting, printing, design, internet culture, technology, and graffiti. Looking at Kagge's work on computer screen, it may resemble Photoshop comps, however, exhibited in physical space we see painting-hybrids, blurred photos abstracted until they become unrecognisable. A similar effect occurs when phones fail to load Instagram photos in full resolution due to slow internet connection. All of this leads the viewer to be confronted with hyper-physicality: a mix of virtual and material shaped into something almost haunting. Kagge's work skilfully reflects a state increasingly taking hold of people – a time and space, where technology has become a permanent artificial limb and where it has become almost impossible to distinguish between the real and the simulated.
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Exhibited at Vitriingalerii, Tallinn, Põhja pst 35
Curator: Lilian Hiob
14 August 2020 – 7 September 2020
Text: Lilian Hiob
Photos: Kristina Õllek
Techinal assistance: Oliver Kadakas
2019
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Exhibited at Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe, Germany
02.02.–09.02.2019
Ways of Mapping
2018
150 × 100 × 170 cm
Aerosol paint, polyurethane foam, wood, and LED light
Video projection, 3 min (loop)
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Part of group exhibition “Mindmapping”
at Vaal Gallery in Tallinn, Estonia
Curators: Kristi Kongi and Merike Estna
17.08.–15.09.2018
Photos: Stanislav Stepaško and Solveig Lill
2018
150 × 100 × 170 cm
Aerosol paint, polyurethane foam, wood, and LED light
Video projection, 3 min (loop)
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Part of group exhibition “Mindmapping”
at Vaal Gallery in Tallinn, Estonia
Curators: Kristi Kongi and Merike Estna
17.08.–15.09.2018
Photos: Stanislav Stepaško and Solveig Lill
Picture Stumbled In Its Title
2018
Aerosol, oil and acrylic on canvas
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Work made together with
Mart Vainre for Mart Vainre’s exhibition
“Self-Contained Pictures” at Hobusepea Gallery
07.11.2018–26.11.2018
Photos: Anu Vahtra
2018
Aerosol, oil and acrylic on canvas
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Work made together with
Mart Vainre for Mart Vainre’s exhibition
“Self-Contained Pictures” at Hobusepea Gallery
07.11.2018–26.11.2018
Photos: Anu Vahtra