Grilled Chicken, 2014

Inkjet printing on backlit film and transparent paper, oil paint, black MDF board, electronics with LEDs, 122 x 203 cm

This work consists of a black and white photo series of a grilled chicken spiked on a barbecue skewer, which was rotated horizontally once around its own axis by 30° each time. The grill skewer as a connecting element makes it possible to imagine twelve different grilled chickens in three grill skewer rows in a grill device.

Photography

Both the chosen camera perspective in normal view and the number of photos and their arrangement in a grid are based on the movement studies by Eadweard Muybridge from around 1880. Originally, these motion studies were made for scientific purposes. Accordingly, they can be viewed without emotion.

Colour

The oil paint applied to the backlit film fulfills two functions: it creates stencils so that the grilled chicken is brightly lit while the background darkens and the chosen coloring underlines the proletarian characteristics of the picture subject. The color alludes to the oranges which can be found in waste management (MA48), in hardware stores (OBI, Hornbach) or as rust protection paint. In addition, the potentially nationalistic aspect of the grilled chicken (as a traditional dish at beer tent festivals) can also be noted.

Movement sequence

With the help of programmed control and built-in LEDs, each image can be illuminated one after the other with specific time intervals. In order to be able to follow

the rotation of the grilled chicken, it requires special concentration on the part of the observer, as the inertia of the human eye is not used to simulate movement. The chosen subject of a slowly turning, dead chicken (nature morte) takes the purpose of this study of movement ad absurdum in a dadaistic way.

Lighting

Due to the materiality of the light and the increased light-dark contrast, the photos of the grilled chicken appear more three-dimensional than usual. This effect is created by adding an additional black and white print on transparent paper on the back of the backlit film so that the shadows of the grilled chicken stay dark when it is lit. As the brightness increases continuously up to the twelfth lightbox, the viewer's eyes are imperceptibly overexposed, so that the abrupt shutdown of the LED’s causes a brief visual disturbance.

Sense of sight of the chicken

Chickens can perceive a larger spectrum of light (RGB + UV light and shimmering colors) and the resolution of their eyes, at up to 160 Hertz, is significantly higher than that of humans. As a result, when chickens are in an environment with a conventional AC fluorescent tube or incandescent lamp, they are exposed to continuous stroboscopic flickering. In addition, without the lighting of the UV spectrum the chickens are forced to perceive their world in complementary colors.

Many thanks to YeLa An, Helmut Habel and Thomas Steineder for their helpful advice and support.