How Alive Are You

Rosa Rendl’s first Solo exhibition HOW ALIVE ARE YOU at BAR DU BOIS, Vienna deals with notions of loneliness and the creeping feeling of emptyness disguised by online hyper-socialism and consumerism.

Paired with addiction to self-imagery control and the vulnerable thought of being alive by creating, sharing and always being connected a desire for real experiences appears. The exhibition shows big blown up images of for example a girl lying in bed eating a crisp seductively, reminiscent of a „Selfie“ image, made to share with others, to create a certain image of one-self – but probably taken in a situation of complete solitude. A photo of an Iphone, staged like an sculptural object surrounded by a wide empty space with a detailed attention to colours angles and shadows, estranging, questioning and distracting from the actual meaning of the object. Another image provides the show title HOW ALIVE ARE YOU – the official advertising slogan of Jaguar. It shows an open catalogue box of brand, which reminds of a Laptop in sleeping mode formally, and again leaves a feeling of sobriety and emptiness in its secluded appearance.