The Kunsthalle St. Gallen is showing works by the Austrian Ingeborg Strobl under the title «Nichts Neues» (engl. «Nothing New»). Indeed, the subjects of her work are by no means new or unfamiliar: animal photographs, kitsch, museums and many other elements from the domain of mediated nature. That which is estranged from nature is not only present in the patterns of kitsch. The artist also takes up the principle of alienation in her artistic practice. The exhibition space becomes a laboratory of seeing and distanced observation. Using techniques of collage and striking contrasts, Strobl heightens the sense of estrangement to the point where it becomes obvious and reveals the gap between artifice and nature.
Ingeborg Strobl (*1949, Styria/AT - 2017, Vienna/AT) was an Austrian conceptual artist.