[DE] ~ 1950

wolfgangstaehle.info

“Midtown” ~ 2004 - 2005

Digital photographs projected and updated every 8 seconds.

Coutesy postmasters Gallery, New York

In 1996, Staehle created Empire 24/7 using a webcam in front of the Empire State Building. In actual fact this was not direct streaming from the public area to the gallery, but like the works that followed it, deployed a more complex system which responded to both practical and creative needs. The webcam transmitted the live stream to a server, which saved an image every x seconds depending on the available technology (in the case of Midtown, for example, this is every 5 seconds). The images were given a time code to identify them then sent to a projector which beamed them onto the white gallery wall. Staehle’s work thus became a highly detailed exploration of real time, the relationship between reality and media imagery, images as a space-time continuum, the banality of daily life, and history.

Since 1987, Wolfgang Staehle has exhibited in many solo and group shows in museums and galleries, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2007, the Santa Monica Museum of Art, 2006, the Tate Modern, London 2004, and the Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna 2001.