As the times are getting more and more chaotic we are all wondering: How the hell will it be in the coming months, in the new year 2022? 

At such a time it is particularly important to surround ourselves with things that lift us out of fear, inspire us to develop new ideas and visions for the future of ourselves and humanity in general. Because one thing is clear: We are at a turning point inour evolution and the question is: What do we do with it? Do we turn it into the Golden AGE or the Golden CAGE? 

As an artist my contributionto this question are my art works:  I have put together this artistic calendar for 2022, as an affordable opportunity to acquire my art and to give my works the opportunity to have an impact, to accompany people in their everyday lives, to inspire them, and to stimulate (self) reflection. 

This artistic calendar is released on the occasion of the online exhibition of the same title at the ANEMONA CRISAN SHOWROOM, where you can also find available art works from this calendar. You can visit the exhibition here:

www.anemonacrisanshowroom.com/goldencage

GOLDEN (C)AGE

A look at today‘s world throws us more than ever before a sharp picture of polarization, a split into absolute, irreconcilable standpoints.

In the longing for the ONE “right” side, the ONE “right” solution, by controlling it, we hope to finally organize the unmanageable (external) chaos for the better. In doing so, we exhaust ourselves in this ongoing struggle for „the right“ thing, with no prospect of victory or success.

As a result, we become more radical, more fundamentalist. There seems to be no way out of this endless state of push and pull between two poles: security versus freedom, external guidelines versus inner will, assimilation versus resistance, left versus right.

This unsuccessful dynamic ultimately leads us to where the real answers lie: to ourselves, our soul, psyche and our body. The primal places from where we experience and create the world.

We eventually realize that there is a third way that we can only discover within ourselves: our OWN authentic self, which has nothing to do with the outside condition.

The title of this calendar raises the question, which state of being we choose: The Golden Cage and/or Golden Age?

The choice is ours to make: we can lock ourselves up in a golden cage or we can set ourselves free and create the proverbial Golden Age by overcoming the split within.

Most of the works in this calendar were created in the years 2008-2013, for the most part during my art studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. The works address my intimate engagement, my inner conflict between my personal search for my own, free, authentic artistic expression and the Academy as an institution that literally represents the academicism of the current era by means of (unspoken) rules and norms. My situation as an individual being exposed to this larger system has triggered an identity crisis that made me question and explore my authentic artistic self and my positioning towards an opposing outside system. It is the body, soul and psyche where I chose to show this dynamic in my works.

This formation process is shown in all of the 12 works that I have put toge- ther within this calendar, supplemented with some diary-like quotes, which is intended as a monthly artistic companion to inspire and accompany you through the year.

This is a hybrid calendar consisting of the printed form and extended with augmented reality elements. All of the 12 art works are part of my early work period (2008-2013). I now expanded them with augmented reality elements using computer animation, relocating them in the present day and giving them a new dimension.

To experience these expanded works, please first download the free ARTIVIVE app on your smartphone/tabled using the following platforms:

ARTIVIVE: https://artivive.com

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