Gerhard Treml / Group XXIV, Apr 07 - Sep 07

THE MYSTERY OF LIFE

9/7/07 to 9/9/07

MAK Center for Art and Architecture L.A at the Schindler House, 835 North Kings Road, West Hollywood, CA

Gerhard Treml’s project in Los Angeles used photographic means to imitate the methods of statistical sampling. He reproduced a statistically representative population of Los Angeles as a photo prop installation, visualizing what is usually the content of databanks. To actually realize the piece, Treml traveled across the city of Los Angeles taking pictures of pedestrians in congested crossings in commercial areas. Locations were selected based on commuter logistics for various neighborhoods. The camera was equipped with an angle lens scope to enable the image production to be an anonymous operation. By this ongoing process, Treml’s studio became a data bank translating photo footage into standardized photo props that consider statistical vectors such as city origin, age, gender and ethnicity. Treml’s final presentation presented an overview of L.A.’s representative crowd that relied on the leeway between factual statistical data and their interpretation, allowing artistic strategies to enter supposedly “objective” methodologies.