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Peter Wachtler: Far Out

  • Art, Contemporary art
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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Time Out says

4 out of 5 stars

Since it’s nigh-on impossible to explain Peter Wächtler’s show at the Chisenhale, I’d better describe it. So here goes. The Brussels-based German artist has created a four-minute, hand-painted animation in which a solitary figure in a top hat and tailcoat walks towards, but never reaches, a mountaintop castle. Playing over the top is an uptempo rock ’n’ roll song written and performed by the artist himself. Wächtler isn’t exactly Chuck Berry, but he makes up for his musical shortcomings with enthusiasm: in his thick German accent, he bellows out a stream of subtitled lyrics that veer between pathos (‘Sometimes people drop out of my life/Staying here I feel like shit’) and ponderousness (‘Choose your way, so will I/This road will never ask us why’). And that’s about it. Except for towards the end, when the moon behind the castle vanishes in a puff of smoke.

Yes, it sounds ghastly. Self-satisfied garbage that conflates nonsense with profundity. But Wächtler has built a career around pop-culture references, a hobbyist aesthetic and unashamedly introverted subject matter (he’s created everything from ceramics to poetry, about everything from failed relationships to working as a film extra), and knows how to make these jarring ingredients far more than the sum of their parts. As throwaway as it first seems, ‘Far Out’ becomes hypnotic when watched on loop. Who is the lonely wanderer – a cartoon version of Wächtler himself? What is he walking towards? Salvation? Self-destruction? And why, why does the moon vanish in a puff of smoke? There are no hard-and-fast answers – only a surreal and compelling experience.

Written by
Matt Breen

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Price:
free
Opening hours:
Wed-Sun 12noon-6pm
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