Massenpsychose (Mass Psychosis)

Photoplastics.

This Dada-inspired collage consists of figures cut from magazines clustered in three tubular shapes that seem to resemble test tubes. To the lower left of the image, appearing closest to the viewer, a group of tribal African men form a ring, their arms linked as they squat upon the ground. A woman crouches on the upper rim of the circle, aiming a rifle towards an anatomical diagram of a man, a trilby perched absurdly on his head. Above him, a second man aims a billiard cue at a group of women in negligees, while in the background a German army officer stands erect in an empty circle. The overall effect is disconcerting, suggesting a series of absurd, arbitrary and potentially violent interactions between a disparate range of individuals, all of whom seem simultaneously isolated, and at the merges of forces beyond their control.

The legacy of Hungarian artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy is among the most cherished in the lineage of photographic art, and he can be defined as a visionary whose radical experiments with photography entirely re-imagined the possibilities for the medium. Working in the early 20th century when photography was not considered a form of high art, Moholy-Nagy actively sought to break down boundaries and find new languages of photographic discourse. In doing so, he left behind an oeuvre of visual ideas that have provided artistic license to a century’s worth of photographers to experiment boldly beyond the conventional definitions of what photography is expected to be.

Edition: 1 of 1