Nr 17 2020

This is Number 17 by Armin Andreas Pangerl, made sometime without a specific date, using what looks like ink on paper. Pangerl's mark-making feels like a stream of consciousness; an unraveling of thoughts directly onto the page. It really highlights how artmaking can be a form of immediate processing. The work is filled with text, numbers, and these little graphic elements which all compete for space. Look at the way Pangerl uses the ink, sometimes dense and dark, other times light and scratchy. The effect is a kind of layering, where words and images blur together, obscuring and revealing in equal measure. See that area with the binary code and numbers? It's like he's trying to quantify something elusive, maybe feelings or experiences. It reminds me a little of the compulsive mark-making in some outsider art. This piece brings to mind artists like Adolf Wölfli, who also used art as a way to organize his internal world. It emphasizes how art is not about answers but the ongoing exploration and questioning of ourselves and the world around us.