Beschreibung:

Leandro Erlich Rain 1999 Steel frame, wood wall board, sliding glass window and casing, faux brick interior, water circulation system, sound and strobe light installation. 188 × 243.8 × 66 cm (74 × 96 × 26 in). This work is from an edition of six and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.
Provenance Galerie 43, Buenos Aires Exhibited New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Whitney Biennial 2000, 2000 (another example exhibited) Catalogue Essay A master of illusion, Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich has amazed audiences with whimsical installations, sculptures, photographs and videos for the past decade. Heavily influenced by Rene Magritte and the Surrealist movement, in the present lot, an early installation entitled Rain, Erlich presents the viewer with the illusion of looking through an apartment window on a rainy day. This eerie work is about the transformation of what we can easily recognise and accept as real into something unreal. Erlich’s use of trompe l’oeil techniques and beautifully executed optical illusions leaves the viewer with a lingering sense of confusion, doubt and irony – humour is replaced by a gnawing sense of being ill at ease. Speaking of his influences for Rain and his working method, Erlich has said, “like most of my projects, the idea came from the consideration of everyday architecture. I’m interested in the background places that hold our experiences and emotions on a daily basis, even though we are unaware of them. For Rain, I looked for a particular mood: a nostalgic scene, where the viewer participated in the act of contemplation. The windows looked out on a narrow space between two extremely close urban buildings. I built an enclosed set and used pumps to recycle the rain. In the end, as often happens, Rain took on a life of its own and became less about nostalgia and more about a violent storm” (the artist, quoted in ArtKrush, 29 November 2008). Read More