Curly Wavy Flat
Paper, digital print
Exhibited at Kunst im Traklhaus, Salzburg (AT), as part of Rar & Bizarr, an exhibition initiated and organized by Salzburg Museum. 21.02.2025–03.05.2025
For this exhibition, artists took on the role of curators by selecting an object from the museum’s collection—specifically, from a set of particularly curious preselected items. Each artist was then asked to create a response to their chosen piece.
I selected an 18th-century painting showing a Dreigesicht by an unknown artist. The artwork presents an almost psychedelic and overwhelming depiction of a face, intended to illustrate the abstract concept of the Christian Trinity. The idea of a triune deity appears across various mythologies, and Dante’s Divine Comedy even describes Lucifer as having three faces. This imagery was controversial—so much so that Pope Urban VIII banned three-faced depictions in 1628, rendering this painting illegal at the time of its creation.
Perhaps the number three holds significance because it forms the simplest possible group, making it an ideal structure for societal concepts. The triangle frequently serves as a model, in such different fields as couples therapy, corporate coaching, work-life balance frameworks, and Christian representations of the Trinity. These visual structures are used to express belief systems and social constructs, raising questions about who defines these structures, how they shape society, and when they gain significance. Ultimately, such models reflect an ongoing, ideological and intentional effort to explain the world.
Participating artists:
Magdalena Berger, Gertrud Fischbacher, Manfred Grübl, Ursula Guttmann, Tina Hainschwang, Theresa Hattinger, Marianne Lang, David Moises
Special thanks to:
Martina Berger-Klingler (Kunst im Traklhaus)
Christian Flandera, curator (Salzburg Museum)
Photos © Salzburg Museum/Maurice Rigaud
Paper, digital print
Exhibited at Kunst im Traklhaus, Salzburg (AT), as part of Rar & Bizarr, an exhibition initiated and organized by Salzburg Museum. 21.02.2025–03.05.2025
For this exhibition, artists took on the role of curators by selecting an object from the museum’s collection—specifically, from a set of particularly curious preselected items. Each artist was then asked to create a response to their chosen piece.
I selected an 18th-century painting showing a Dreigesicht by an unknown artist. The artwork presents an almost psychedelic and overwhelming depiction of a face, intended to illustrate the abstract concept of the Christian Trinity. The idea of a triune deity appears across various mythologies, and Dante’s Divine Comedy even describes Lucifer as having three faces. This imagery was controversial—so much so that Pope Urban VIII banned three-faced depictions in 1628, rendering this painting illegal at the time of its creation.
Perhaps the number three holds significance because it forms the simplest possible group, making it an ideal structure for societal concepts. The triangle frequently serves as a model, in such different fields as couples therapy, corporate coaching, work-life balance frameworks, and Christian representations of the Trinity. These visual structures are used to express belief systems and social constructs, raising questions about who defines these structures, how they shape society, and when they gain significance. Ultimately, such models reflect an ongoing, ideological and intentional effort to explain the world.
Participating artists:
Magdalena Berger, Gertrud Fischbacher, Manfred Grübl, Ursula Guttmann, Tina Hainschwang, Theresa Hattinger, Marianne Lang, David Moises
Special thanks to:
Martina Berger-Klingler (Kunst im Traklhaus)
Christian Flandera, curator (Salzburg Museum)
Photos © Salzburg Museum/Maurice Rigaud
