Blowing in the wind

I meet the artist →Carl Bajandas at a party in the Vogelhaus. He tells me that in between his undergraduate studies in Texas and his graduate studies in Pittsburgh he managed an animatronic dinosaur company. Once he made a reproduction of a military drone with pillow material, a work he titled →soft power.

After the Hurricane Kathrina Carl Bajandas volunteered in New Orleans for 2 weeks. He cleaned out three houses and cooked food for around 900 people. „After a 8 hours drive from Dallas where everything was perfectly normal I was in a place that was totally destroyed. The rules that normally apply to reality just don't apply anymore. So this disconnection between the watcher and the actuality is something that has really interested me.“

In Salzburg Carl Bajandas attends the public art course by Robert Kuśmirowski.

What is the public for you?

„You are the public. I am the public. We all are the public. We are part of a larger thing, the humans, that is the public. Often in art the public is thought about very specificly like 'other people', the sort of mindless thing. But I disagree with that. I think that the public is everyone and the public should be respected in a way that it is expected to be thoughtful. I expect the public to want to engange with the world around them."

How did you develop the idea for your artistic project in Salzburg?

„I was reading the current news and I was looking at the wall of the castle and thought about the economy of this place."

Carl Bajandas and Professor Cäcilia Brown visit the administrator of the Salzburg castle to inquire about the possibilities of Carl's idea to be realized:

After a few minutes it is clear: Carl's idea can be realized.

The artist wants to paint Abraham Lincoln's eyes from the 5 Dollar bill on a huge canvas and hang the canvas from the Salzburg castle, so that Abraham Lincoln's eyes will look east. The title of the work: "The Watcher"

Carl Bajandas paints Lincoln's eyes:

With the help of some colleagues it is finished:

Professor Johannes Knall, Carl Bajandas and Professor Cäcilia Brown hang the piece from the castle.

Thursday the team tries for 3 hours to hang the 14 meter canvas in vain. Friday the team tries for 7 hours to hang it. As the piece finally hangs a sudden blast of strong wind from the east rises and takes grasp of the canvas. The wind lifts Abraham Lincoln's eyes from the castle wall up in the air and turns the canvas into a wobbling sailcloth. Blowing into Lincoln's eyes the wind flips the canvas higher in the air and Lincoln's eyes overturn landing on top of the castle's observation deck where the gigantic eyes wrap around some blank-faced tourists.

Carl Bajandas gives in to the wind and hangs Lincoln's eyes from the bridge in Mirabellgarten. Lincoln still looks east, slightly more towards Moscow now.

07/08/14 19:54 Summer Academy 2014