2ND ORDER QUESTION

If you want to know you have to question.
If you ask good questions its reasoning.
If you question everything you are lost.

Assuming that the development of humankind started with a question, what would a second order of questioning look like? Höller’s work makes sense of things by crafting information in conceptual ways. A certain amount of humour is particularly helpful besides the rather exhausting operation mode of cutting up books. A certain amount of humour is particularly helpful for the rather exhausting act of cutting up books. In doing so, the artist transforms sense-ful arrangements of extensive text into promising re-arrangements of matter, creating the basis for future questions. Calling attention to unconventional ways of questioning is key to Höller’s modus operandi.

Upon looking at this two-sided form of adapting the linear transmission of information – the traditional way of doing things – into uncommon patterns of recognition, it becomes clear that knowledge is circumstantial. Things change, they constantly morph into figures, numbers, media and material far beyond a context-ready observatory. This occurs in the high-frequency-traded cognitive part of your perception and has nothing to do with the newest smart tec. invention. Talking to the artist is like questioning yourself, getting rid of the conditioning – let the talking heads talk. We know artists always find something new, different and unique. The works you are looking at are executed and machined. They are also distributed narratives from compulsive fostered habits of a beautiful mind. Puzzled by the intermediation of things and people, a lean-forward approach of unknown pleasures is prospered.

Based on Höller’s pieces, including “Oracle”, “Knowledge:Faith”, “Universe”, “Book Loop”, „What do we know?“ and “Knowledge Cloud”, the first step in questioning world literature, religion and the role of the artist in one disposition is to create a unique selection and composition. The magic is neither the theoretical tendency of Höller’s works, nor the intelligence or craftsmanship; it is the idea of an inalienable scheme, a programme made of flesh and blood, working day and night to create art.

Text for the Solo-Presentation at Art Brussells
Author: Georg Russegger