In Dye, Rudolf Strobl showcases the result of several years of photographic documentary work. He focuses on locations that have been deprived of their original purpose and are now used as ‘battle grounds’ by paintball players. With the artist’s gaze trained firmly on a precise topographical analysis of these battlefields, the cultural and social aspects of the (war) games have become somewhat sidelined. These are locations which, like everything depicted in the photographs, have been radically taken out of context and translocated to an artificial world. As gaming arenas these former warehouses, deserted inns, and abandoned farmsteads are now simulacra of themselves. And yet the focal point of Rudolf Strobl’s exploration of the subject matter is not just the preconditions of the game, but first and foremost its formal outcome. Indeed, the traces of these simulated battles have been deposited over these locations as layer upon layer of brightly coloured paints, adding a further quality. It is almost as if the photographer were wandering through the vast open landscapes of a monumental oil painting, a painting whose woodlands and meadows were dotted with objects as colourful as they are peculiar, creating the perception of a walk-in art space. It is an illusion that appears at the end of a delightful contemplation of an eminently artificial world.

Rudolf Strobl, *1983 in Salzburg, Austria. Lives and works in Vienna.