If It’s Too Long – Make It Longer

“If It’s Too Long – Make It Longer” is an exhibition at the MAK in Wien by Thomas Bayrle. German draftsman, graphic designer, painter, and sculptor – who explores contemporary media – develops a narrative around the interaction between communication design, the individual, and society. Weaving, interlinking, repetitions, and the serial principle are all defining aspects of Bayrle’s oeuvre. Having trained as a pattern designer and weaver before studying commercial graphic design and printing, he systematically renders his fascination for machinery in his artistic production.

Using the metaphors of dyeing, weaving, and programming, he explores the ambivalence of art, craft, and industry and gives rise to kaleidoscopic shapes—mass ornaments. Influenced by op art (Victor Vasarely, 1906– 1997) and pop art (Andy Warhol, 1928–1987), Bayrle was one of the first to combine manual techniques with the computer-generated art of the Digital Age. He derives the subjects for his works on paper, photographs, collages, and objects from everyday culture and political contexts. In the interplay of their component parts, his legendary “superforms” – collages made from an endless number of miniature pictures—produce a micro – and a macrocosm. Due to their reproduction of “cells”, images, and ornamental forms of analog and digital dimensions, his works can be read as statements on the masses and mass production, according to the artist.