WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

RECORDS OF MULTICULTURALISM



CHRIS FRIES

ALEXANDRA UNGERN-STERNBERG

FANGNI WANG



Einleitung: Monika Schwärzler

On the occasion of Webster Vienna´s 30th anniversary three students were selected to present their work in the T. K. Lang Gallery on campus. In their works all of them focus on the multiculturalism of the Webster community. As typical representatives of an international student body the three students come from very diverse cultural backgrounds. Chris Fries is an US citizen, Alexandra von Ungern-Sternberg comes from Brasil, and Fangni Wang is from China.

For his work Chris Fries created a standard setting and took photographs of his peers there. By placing them in a uniform construction, he provides them with a platform for the enactment of cultural differences.

Alexandra von Ungern-Sternberg´s souvenir figures from countless trips and residencies all over the world act as symbols of cultural difference. Alexandra practices a photographic shifting of these signifiers from the center of pictorial space to the margins of attention and back again. The variations happen in front of a Botticelli backdrop.

Fangni Wang addresses the issue of conformity in today´s globalized world. In her images her multicultural colleges look more or less alike because they all favor the same brands and strive for comparable consumer items. Fangni´s fragmentary views of shoes, bags, belts etc. make Webster students indistinguishable from the corresponding mannequins in the flag stores of global fashion industry. (Monika Schwärzler)