Oliver Laric: Metamorphosen

A toad, is a toad, is a toad – is a table? Oliver Laric shows a bizarre transformation in his work “Metamorphosis”. A living being becomes an object, each phase is an image in itself, of equal weight and importance. The artist, who was born in Innsbruck in 1981, continues the metamorphosis by means of technical manipulation. He transforms analogue objects by digitising them as 3D scans, making some of the files available free of charge on the Internet and allowing them to take on a spatial form again in 3D printing. In the cycle of this transformation, he plays with different variants, sizes and materials, thereby posing the question of authenticity: “What works well for me is a flexible digital file that can be physically realised, but the focus for me is on the repeatable – that I am writing a recipe or instructions rather than creating a finished product.”

Oliver Laric’s works are therefore both copies and originals. It is only logical that the toad, which in nature undergoes the astonishing transformation from a tadpole living in water to a fully-grown land creature, also appears in his work in different variations. Based on the video work “Metamorphosis”, in which a toad is digitally transformed, he first developed the sequence of a bronze toad mutating into a table in five stages, which was realised as a permanent installation on a beach in Belgium. This was followed by an edition of a “toad table” milled from wood in cooperation with the Austrian gallery Brugger. The version of “Metamorphosis” created especially for ERES Projects is the latest variation of the concept and will be on display for the first time at the Various Others Spring Edition.