Reflections
With the video installation Reflections (feat. Reflektra, 2022/23), Mario Kiesenhofer touches on themes such as traumatization, healing, empowerment and body perception, which are illuminated in an abstract yet hyper-real way in the mirror of queer identities. Reflective materials are immanent elements in the artist's oeuvre. Through the use of reflective surfaces and glass panels, Kiesenhofer creates a space that is both tangible and intangible, physical and metaphysical.
Reflections (feat. Reflektra)
2022/23
4K video installation projected in full HD
6’32’’, loop, silent
Jagged mirror
Approx. 450 × 254 × 204 cm
Exhibition views & video documentation (1 min. 12 sec. excerpt):
Mario Kiesenhofer: Treasure, tresor – Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien, 2023/24
"... In addition to the photographs, the space is dominated above all by the video installation Reflections (feat. Reflektra, 2022/23). The work is a continuation of Mario Kiesenhofer’s video work Fragments from 2021, which he already showed in the same year at Bildraum 01 in Vienna: The camera, or rather the gaze, fixes a spinning naked body. An amorphous mirror is mounted under the screen, which allows the rotation to flow into the floor, as it were. For Reflections, the artist has taken the idea to the next level. The screen has given way to a large wall projection, a mirror placed on the floor with jagged extensions has reached monumental proportions. The camera observes the drag queen Reflektra carefully cultivating different looks and transforming her identity, which is accentuated by details such as her fingernails and hairstyle or an elaborately decorated jockstrap. Interspersed with the shots showing the drag queen are close-ups of mysterious minerals, glowing in all colours and reflecting the light, which from time immemorial have always acted as totems and healing stones to overcome trauma. Oscillating between abstract and hyper-real representation, Mario Kiesenhofer, finds here both in the person of the drag queen and in the facticity of the stones a metaphor for hybrid identity and transformation. The rotating movement of the subject arouses desire, but also suggests a slight feeling of vertigo and a flowing or permanently changing point of view. ..."
Excerpt from the exhibition text of the exhibition Mario Kiesenhofer: Treasure (tresor – Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien, 2023/24) by the curator Lisa Ortner-Kreil.