REGGIE VOIGTLÄNDER

This installation combines earlier works from the 40 Titles project with newly created pieces.

The new works build on the previous ones, forming a next generation that gradually distances itself from the original.

Print Screen Compositions

The Print Screen Compositions emerged from the ongoing research initiated in Made in China, later expanded into the 40 Titles project. A simple Google search for “red clothes” revealed a global stream of advertising images: women in red dresses, posed and circulated across platforms and markets. These screenshots, isolated yet connected, expose how commerce and cultural codes shape one another through digital marketing.

The images were first materialised as A4 cotton prints, each stitched with red thread to mark the lines of connection: visual, economic and symbolic. Mounted on rolls of red fabric, the works reference the tradition of the Chinese handscroll, where images unfold as a continuous narrative. In the installation, the rolls were present but not openly accessible: lying closed on the floor, while only one cloth hung on the wall. Their full content appeared instead within a digitally constructed landscape, returning the work to an immaterial, unseen state.

This shifting between materialisation and withdrawal reflects a broader movement away from origins: the way realities mutate through industrialisation, digitalisation and global capitalism. The work traces how images, bodies and cultural symbols circulate, detach and reform, echoing the long histories of trade routes while pointing to the increasing distance from the physical world that once grounded them.

40 Titles - art project

The ’40 Titles’ art project addresses human aspects of nation states, focusing on identity, power structures and geopolitical realities in relation to the (city) landscape. The project unfolded with an initial video under the working title ‘Made in China’ (2012). It evolved into its current form during a later work period at the Chinese European Art Center (CEAC) in Xiamen in 2014.

The black‑and‑white background in this work originates from one of the stills of the initial video.

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Next Generation Works

This next phase extended the research further. It led to ‘The Next Generation’ works, in which layers of screen images were placed on top of each other and mixed into painterly, surreal versions of the commercial originals that appear after searching for red clothing online. Although cultural differences assign different meanings to certain elements, these degenerated images predominantly reveal the shared visual agreements that circulate globally.

From this development, new works emerged that later became part of the installation in printed form. The image shown here is one of these pieces: a convergence of multiple screenshots within a single frame, forming a miniature collage that functions as an autonomous detail within the larger panels.

The two large printed works shown here bring these elements together at full scale. The virtual movement associated with scrolling is condensed into a single still image, creating a sense of shift or transition. The suggested layering introduces a material presence within digital content, pointing to the physical realities behind these images.

‘Redscape’ is a digitally painted animation constructed from one of the files developed during The Next Generation phase. Built with digital image‑editing tools, the video traces a transition from traditional Chinese landscape painting to urban development shaped by industrialisation. The endpoint returns to the initial file, creating a continuous development loop.

The work was created during the working period in Xiamen and formed part of the total installation '40 Titles' at CEAC.

Redscape

Side view of installation 'Made in China | The next Generation' with video'Redscape'

Background: sculptural video installation 'The Columbarium'.

view The Columbarium →