Menno Aden

Menno Aden is interested in the influence of architecture and design on spaces and the people who inhabit them. The artist explores both the exteriors and interiors, rearranges images of each into grids and panel mosaics, or occasionally transposes them into video works.

Through challenging camera angles Menno Aden abstracts most familiar actual living environments and public interiors into flattened two-dimensional scale models...

Menno Aden is interested in the influence of architecture and design on spaces and the people who inhabit them. The artist explores both the exteriors and interiors, rearranges images of each into grids and panel mosaics, or occasionally transposes them into video works.

Through challenging camera angles Menno Aden abstracts most familiar actual living environments and public interiors into flattened two-dimensional scale models by stitching together 10 to 1,000 images taken by remote control. The technique is akin to removing the ceiling or the floor and replacing it with a scanner. The resulting images lay out space in symmetrical compositions that look like assemblages stripped off any kind of objectivity. They reveal the way the (absent) inhabitants exist in their enclosed spaces. The views into private homes and secret retreats bring up associations of the ubiquitous observation camera. The notion of surveillance is systematically played out by the artist to hint at society’s voyeuristic urge that popular culture has made mainstream.