Alessandro Raho
in ‘We Transfer’, Vienna Secession
11 September – 1 November 2015
Mark Leckey and Alessandro Raho, ‘We Transfer’, 2015, exhibition view, Vienna Secession. Courtesy: Vienna Secession; photo: Iris Ranzinger
Alessandro Raho, Polka Dot Man, 2015. Courtesy: © Alessandro Raho
Mark Leckey and Alessandro Raho, ‘We Transfer’, 2015, exhibition view, Vienna Secession. Courtesy: Vienna Secession; photo: Iris Ranzinger
Mark Leckey and Alessandro Raho, ‘We Transfer’, 2015, exhibition view, Vienna Secession. Courtesy: Vienna Secession; photo: Iris Ranzinger
Mark Leckey and Alessandro Raho, ‘We Transfer’, 2015, exhibition view, Vienna Secession. Courtesy: Vienna Secession; photo: Iris Ranzinger
Mark Leckey and Alessandro Raho, ‘We Transfer’, 2015, exhibition view, Vienna Secession. Courtesy: Vienna Secession; photo: Iris Ranzinger
Alessandro Raho is included in Mark Leckey’s exhibition ‘We Transfer’ at Vienna Secession, on view to the public from September 11 – November 1, 2015
The exhibition’s key figure is a middle-aged man in a polka-dot dress and hat, kneeling on the pavement in supplication – a gesture that recalls icons of saints or martyrs. For Leckey, this scene from Billy Wilder’s screwball comedy 1, 2, 3 (1961) perfectly embodies the ecstatic moment of transition. In the exhibition, the image of Polka Dot Man isolated from the movie develops a life of its own.
Variations on the motif appear in formats including large prints, a psychedelic GIF animation on one of the LED screens, a moving still in a new video, and a series of oils on canvas by Alessandro Raho. At Leckey’s invitation to show his work at the Secession, Raho created an arrangement in the Grafisches Kabinett that integrates this figure and five other pictures in a sort of family portrait. A rather striking feature of the paintings is the attention the artist has devoted to the clothes of his ‘sitters’: T-shirts printed with cartoon characters as well as an extravagantly patterned pantsuit effectively function as pictures within the picture.