Stylianos Schicho

Surveillance, observation and self-observation play a key role in the artist's works. He is concerned with sounding out "observation or surveillance spaces" in which people observe and monitor through the positioning of cameras. In his paintings, some of which are monumental, the graduate of the Vienna University of Applied Arts uses the classical perspective of the surveillance camera on the one hand as a stylistic device to pose the question of the relationship between the observed and the observed, and on the other hand he directs his critical gaze at the discussions about internal security, which have been in the international public eye more than ever since the attacks of 11 September 2001 in the USA.

Most of the figures in Schicho's pictures convey an insecure, frightened, pessimistic or even indifferent impression. Do they know whether they are being recorded or "just" observed? Do they know how long the images will be stored or what the people "behind the camera" will subsequently use the stored data for? Do they want to appear inconspicuous through their (feigned?) apathy in order to appear unsuspicious to the critical eye of the camera, or have they already adapted their social behaviour to being under surveillance to such an extent that their apathetic behaviour can be described as within the norm? Schicho's protagonists are not only observed in public places such as the casino, aeroplane, swimming pool or supermarket, but also in private while dancing, riding their Vespa or having a tête-à-tête in a café. Resigned and absent, the sitters look past each other into the void. Through this lack of interaction, Schicho describes situations that show people in their loneliness and emotional isolation. Memories of the novel "1984" by the English writer George Orwell come to mind, in which the life of the main character, Winston Smith, is characterised by constant surveillance, fear and lack of personal relationships. In almost all of Schicho's series of paintings, a person is depicted - often it is the artist in a self-portrait - who is in direct eye contact with the viewer. This creates a tension between looking and being looked at, between observing and being observed, which deliberately leaves open the question of "Who is observing whom? This is a popular motif in art history, and was thematised, for example, in Manet's "Olympia" or Mary Cassatt's "Woman in Black at the Opera". In Schicho's works, the artist's concentrated, suspicious, sometimes aggressive "looking into the camera" visualises a close look at social processes.