Frischzelle_26: André Wischnewski

Wischnewski develops his spatial drawings as three-dimensional continuations of his knife
cuttings, which are also shown in this exhibition (for example silence, Soundpiece 1, and
Soundbook 1, fig. pp. 12, 30, 32/33). These works are based on comic books, but ones in which
the story with pictures and dialogue have been cut out, revealing the otherwise little noticed
structure and the onomatopoeia typical of this genre. Through this gesture of reduction,
Wischnewski presents comics in their basic media form, demonstrating their fundamental
characteristics and making their essential, otherwise overlooked qualities transparent.
In other words, he has designed a comic that speaks without saying anything.
By making the knife cuttings three-dimensional in his spatial drawings, the artist heightens the
impression of pure mediality, emphasizing the materiality of their contours even more. This speaks
to both the visual and intellectual eye of beholders and to their holistic perception. In this way,
Wischnewski not only transforms the knife cuttings from the two-dimensional format of the page
into three-dimensional sculptures; in many of his works, he also translates them into spatial
arrangements, thereby changing the situation for beholders decisively. Whereas a two-dimensional
picture or a three-dimensional sculpture can be viewed and judged aesthetically from a safe
distance, a spatial drawing turns the relationship of seeing on its head. In this installation, the
beholder does not stand in front of the artwork, but inside it (as is impressively demonstrated in
the exhibition by the spatial drawing in the shape of a drawer made of round black steel rods
that visitors can walk around in). In Wischnewski’s comic installation, beholders become both
narrators and protagonists – they tell stories, and they are the ones being told about.
The works the artist has integrated into the gaps, or close to them, in the different parts of the
spatial drawing could also become part of the plots of such stories. A train running on invisible
tracks on the parquet floor, with its cars made of metal elements painted red, spells out »Dok Dok«
(or »choo-choo«), the sound a moving train makes in German. Following the train with their eyes
takes beholders through an imaginary urban landscape made of Plexiglas and limestone, with
several stops for imaginary passengers to get off the train and find their way with the help of
a map. One map, obviously prepared by the artist, shows »acoustic places,« including »Kauf rauschen«
(Shopping Rush) or »Sturzbachmurmeln« [Murmuring Torrent (Map 1 fig. p. 28)].
Another abstract map consists of the traces left by the process of cutting out sound bubbles
and resembles a utopian landscape (Map 3, fig. p. 29).
Through its title and the round black steel rods, the installation 101967 mm and Five Characters
(fig. pp. 18/19) establishes a connection to the spatial drawing 126315 mm with open end. In this work,
the comic panels seem even more abstracted and create a link to various narrative elements,
such as a strange tree made of pipes, or a diabase (volcanic rock) that could be both a pedal
and a wedge at the same time. In addition to the Gartenzwerg (Garden Gnome, 1972, fig. p. 20) by
Dieter Roth, which is permanently installed in the same room, the installation also integrates
things that are subjectively and narratively charged – objects found by the artist – into its
surreal environment, which is permeated by typical comic-style elements, such as spatial compression,
stretching, fragmentation, and collage.
In his most famous book Understanding Media (1964) 1 , the Canadian media theorist Marshall
McLuhan describes the reading of comics as one of the most important preparatory practices
for the electronic age of communication. With their maximum reduction of the density of infor ­
mation, comics demand the greatest possible participation from its readers, similar to mediaeval
wood cuts. Readers must visually fill in the many gaps in the sparse information grid with their
own ideas: »Comics […] being low in definition, are a highly participational form of expression.« 2
McLuhan’s euphoric description of the effect of comics could also be countered with the argument
that only individual, isolated recipients are activated, while we today primarily think of participation
as a collective activity. By transferring the formal elements of the two-dimensional comic
surface into a three-dimensional comic installation, André Wischnewski answers McLuhan’s
invocation of the participatory power of comics in a literal way. He uses comics to create a form
of collective participation within the museum space by drawing on their quality as a communicative
space. Wischnewski’s approach of treating the world like a comic is meant to convince
beholders to let their imagination run free and to picture public life through the lens of a comic
book once in a while.
Elisabeth Kuon
1 Marshall McLuhan: Understanding Media. The Extensions of Man. London: Routledge, 1964.
2 Ibid. p. 179.
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