Another storm is blowing from paradise

solar plexus (light object) (2023) ; part of the group show NEXUS, Verpackerei Görisried 2023 

Based on a black-box-like idea of human thought and learning processes of the 1950s, the work “A(nother) storm is blowing from paradise” explores the remnants of sci-fi fantasies of that time as present-day unsorted by-catch. The multi-part installation aims to mediate between rational limitations and irritated wishful thinking while juxtaposing arbitrary outcomes with precise predictions. Inspired by free association and self-fulfilling prophecies, Vall presents infinite cause-and-effect dilemmas that seek to pay homage to the mysticism of unexplained phenomena.

The title derives from a 1940 Walter Benjamin quote from his essay ‘On the Concept of History’ and alludes to the drawing of an angel by Paul Klee, who with the storm in his wings looks at something small and can do so only briefly because he is blown away and carries its idea or its afterimage into the metaphorical future.

Paul Klee’s angel here is seen as a time traveling alien. Since the 1940s, people have reported UFO observations and wanted to prove their authenticity through photographs; the photographs show interesting compositions of diverse hovering objects in natural settings at different times of the day and year and, above all, prove their power through narratives. The question of their ‘authenticity’ therefore only arises for me when examining the staged images of known objects as UFOs in interaction with AI image generators. These produce results similar to the UFO photographs on request for ‘black and white photography of an ufo in the woods at night’, as perfectly faked imitations of a narrative, so to speak, and prove for me that AI image generators ‘understand’ to produce diversely interpreted image material.