“I don’t want to exclude, I want to include and be open. ‘Passivity’ includes things because you are like an empty space open to all kind of possibilities.” - Ugo Rondinone
ZWEITERAUGUSTZWEITAUSENDUNDELF (20 August, 2011), 2011, dazzles the viewer with its magnificent star studded celestial tableau. Sprays of white pigment dance across the cosmic sphere in beautiful and rhythmic formations. The size of the work coupled with its ethereal eternality immediately impresses upon the viewer the vastness of the cosmos and the relatively diminutive nature of human existence. As a physical object itself, however, it also serves to highlight the viewer’s world and its reality within the experience of this creative reinterpretation of the universe. The work is part of the larger series, La Vie Silencieuse (The Silent Life), and in many ways stands in direct contrast to Rondinone’s earlier works, most notably those comprised of neon pigments in concentric circles. While equally absorbing in their visual splendor, the relationship between these sublime works and their psychedelic counterparts may not be easily identifiable. It is, however, their titles which allow us entry into their serial nature; each work is named for the date it was rendered, forcing the two bodies of work to collide in thematic unity.
Despite their stylistic dissimilarities, there are profound underlying thematic convergences in Rondinone’s series. Through playful interaction between title and visual realization, Rondinone successfully draws attention to the disparity between content and form, exterior appearance and interior essence. Each canvas’s individuality lies in the variations of each starry night on which they were conceived. The series’ varied celestial patterns lend each canvas its own individual rhythm and intensity within the nearly spiritual context of eternal continuity. ZWEITERAUGUSTZWEITAUSENDUNDELF (20 August, 2011), embraces both an objective environment and an inner mental landscape, suspending and locating the viewer, the painting and the artist in time and space.