When you remove the very thin display layer from the front of a TV, you are left with just the hollow case and the back light panel of the TV. Usually we never see these back lights inside the TV which are needed to illuminate the transparent pixels in the front. Mostly it is just a grid of LEDs or rows of thin fluorescent light tubes in the older models. The media layer removed these obsolete TVs are reduced to only broadcasting plain light. There are no more images or sound, just a blueish flickering LED grids, like a shadow of bygone media.

For my solo show at #kunsthalleosnabrueck the team built three of these chandeliers, each made of 12 old recycle TVs which we got from the local recycle yard. Each chandelier is 3,50 meter in diameter and weights over 180 kg. In the end the biggest problem was to make sure the TVs don’t switch off into standby mode automatically. Kind off funny side-effect when you plan to have them as lights. To prevent that we regularly cut the power. Next time I will add an HDMI source, would very well fit the work ;)

“Witnesses Of Surveillance Capitalism“ recycle TVs, steel, wires, cables, electronics, 3,5 x 3,5 x 1,8 meter, 180 kg

Credits: Thx to the excellent team Andreas Zelle and Timo Katz for making these! 🙏🏻 🙏🏻

#arambartholl #recycletv #chandelier #wittnessof #sureveillancecapitalism #kunsthalleosnabrueck #ihrpaketistabholbereit #2023