Perception and Reality
Johannes Holzmann, art historian, curator.
Udo Fon’s work is particularly relevant and unique in its way of reflecting reality: Reality not only as a ‘given fact’ with all its complex macro and micro layers, but rather as a constantly changing representation in human consciousness. Knowing that therefore no neutral and objective standpoint can be taken, Fon uses the components of reality itself (signs of representation and modes of meaning constitution) as tools to elaborate its underlying structures by lifting them out of their usual contexts.
This strategy of utilising all possible excerpts of everyday reality corresponds to Udo Fon’s broad technical and stylistic repertoire. A subtle kind of humour plays an essential role here – as is often investigated in philosophy and psychoanalysis – as the punchlines interrupt the unconscious flow of the interpretation and constitution of reality.
In the general context of signs and symbols, Fon also emphasises the special status of the image itself, from cosmic constellations of stars and galaxies to social constellations represented on banknotes or by logos. Finally, Udo Fon shows that art is not only a reflective process, but rather a creating and constituting instance in relation to perception and consciousness, i.e. an essentially human condition.