Spectacular Interferometry

Spectacular Interferometry, 1982–2018
a series of 4 large scale digital prints on tarpaulin
446 x 906 cm, 420 x 920 cm, 420 x 832 cm, 968 x 1144 cm

shown in:
“Each Line Is A Crime”, Archive Kabinett, Berlin, Germany

see also:
Dreamcars, 2016

Bibliography:
TOWARDS (IM)MEASURABILITY OF LIFE AND ART, Miya Yoshida (Ed.), Archive Books, Berlin, ISBN: 978-3-94-3620-64-1

Excerpt from the press release by Miya Yoshida of the exhibition “Each Line Is A Crime”, Archive Kabinett, Berlin, 29 July – 24 August 2018

‘Spectacular Interferometry’ (2017) is a series of very large digital prints by Robert Estermann. Each print consists of two different sets of drawings; one is his recent abstract drawings of beaches, the other is the pseudo technical drawings of automobiles that he drew at the age of twelve when he was obsessed with the design and measurement of cars. In Spectacular Interferometry, the artist juxtaposes them into a single pictorial plane and plays with the idea of measurement in the “(non) scale of a modernist dream” to interfere with his pragmatic approach as child car designer.

The actual measurements of each of these four prints are HUGE and they have not been printed/exhibited yet. They’re such that all the cars (or essays-fragments of cars) – which I drew as a boy – will be in scale 1:1 on the prints. I imagined these „80s“ cars just before I turned 12. The other elements of these digital collages are drawings from the 2007 series Modern Beach Design. Two mimetic interpretations of “the modern” within very different frameworks, made 25 years apart by the same person. Interferometry because more precise measurements can be obtained by studying the interference patterns of two or more less precise measurements.

Die tatsächlichen Masse jedes dieser vier Prints sind derart festgelegt, dass jedes der von mir als 11-jähriger gezeichneten Autos (oder deren Fragmente) im Massstab 1:1 abgebildet sind. Das andere Element dieser digitalen Collagen sind Zeichnungen aus der Serie Modern Beach Design von 2007. Zwei unterschiedliche Bezugssysteme der «Moderne« durch dieselbe Person, 25 Jahre voneinander getrennt, durch die Collage in «Interferenz« zueinander gestellt. Die physikalische Messmethode der Interferometrie entliehen zur spekulativen Kulturanalyse.

Robert Estermann, 2017

above: examples of my car drawings as a preteen
transcription from drawing 1:
Ms. [=misslungen (failed)] 15,7,[19]82
AB. [=Arbeitszeit (working time)] ca.30min[uten]
Ms [=Massstab (scale)]: 1:20