(1888PressRelease)
April 14, 2008 - SPOOKY SENTINELS
Stephen Sokoloff
Arrayed in a semicircle, Manfred Kielnhofer’s ghostly “time guardians” seem to have abandoned themselves to infinite sadness. What do the life-sized polyester figures represent? Are they bereaved women, meditating monks or nuns or premonitory spirits sent to warn us of impending dangers? Are they supposed to inspire awe, compassion or fear? The artist refuses to tell us why he created them and if we dare to peer inside their cloaks we discover only black emptiness.
The garments with their many folds are vaguely reminiscent of those sculpted by Rodin. Although the first ones Kielnhofer molded were gray and drab, many of the newer generation display bright colors and cheerful patterns. The artist now plans to equip some of them with interior lighting. To emphasize their timelessness he photographs them in front of both ancient castles and modern high-rises, usually at night.
Manfred Kielnhofer, 41, has been operating the gallery “Art Park” in Linz, Austria, since 2005. He is an abstract painter who used a naked female body as a “canvas” for one of his best works. Under his guidance 1,500 eager youngsters produced the largest children’s painting in the world (3,300 m²), which was displayed at many different places in Austria. Another of his gigantic masterpieces (40,000 m²) was composed of sunflowers and other herbs which had been planted in the middle of a field of grain near the city of Enns. It could be best viewed from the sky, but unfortunately the pilot Kielnhofer hired decided to fly off on vacation before most of its “pixels” had blossomed and the farmer had to harvest the creation before he returned.
“Time guardians”
Cloaked in concrete-like or otherwise putrid variegated cloth, Manfred Kielnhofer’s “time guardians” seem to be plotting against time or maybe avidly watching time television- is that a medieval joke or what? Like conspiratory monks in a deathless desultory demeanor, they exude an ominous lack of life as if in a ghost parade freshly arisen from the depths of the Artpark crypt. They blatantly stand here, gnarled and unfazed, making time. Are we lost in a movie, “Lord of the ring”- wise or is it a gathering of the Adams family in new Taliban unglamourous style? So welcome to the new dark ages. Kielnhofer’s “time guardians” stand like silent monoliths of veiled knowledge in a sculpture garden, seemingly quarantined or time travelling, the only prop missing is the scythe. The grim reaper has come with his zombie posse- they’re decaying morosely in the open, guarding time in an esoteric Disneyland of sinister and unsavory folds. Their significance or arthistorical relevance lies in the eye of the beholder. Regardless, they are meant to evoke ancient times in their secretive hocus-pocus despondency, allegedly and all the more uncannily. Draped in mute and unholy light, they seem to be placidly heralding the big world conspiracy, admonishing and demolishing time concepts. Equivocally, Kielnhofer’s work is a tribute to life and death, entwined, dilated and lost in time. The “time guardians” are maybe hooded knights in disguise, hiding the light within the moldy creases of their robes, fighting without armor against time.
A review by Catherine Pandora
Figurative sculpture ...
TimeGuards /SpiritGuards / Trent Gilliss, Online Editor
Figurative sculpture installations take on new meaning within the context of location. Art of the highest human form. Manfred Kielnhofer’s sculptures accomplish this task. The transitory nature of the work remind me of Antony Gormley’s public sculptures, especially his “Another Place” series of a 200 craggy, metal figures on the ocean beach.
But, the Austrian artist’s work conjure up a more ethereal, mystical quality. They’re shrouded in mystery calling out their ancestors and their progeny. When the viewer looks from particular angles, they become diaphanous, almost soulless — like the ring-wraiths, the Nazgul, from The Lord of the Rings or even a rougher-hewn predecessor in Prague.
Even the introductory paragraph of the Austrian artist’s site reads like the opening to an ancient future, calling on the Druids of Stonehenge and the crusaders of Everquest or the worlds of Myst:
In the ages of the ancient advanced civilizations the presence of the Guardians of Time was recognized with respect, reverence and humility. Over the millennia a new mystery was formed and only a few chosen ones, like high priests, spiritual masters and shamans were granted to study it. They were the ones that got a deeper insight in the secret of THE TIME GUARDIANS. The beings were referred to as visitors from other systems, protectors or destroyers and even gods.
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