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David
Hatcher's "Ludwig and Hugh",
2004, relocates a figure from the history of western philosophy
from its original environment into a world of surface appearances.
There, the Playboy logo hooks up with an example of optical ambiguity
that Ludwig Wittgenstein employed to illustrate the contingency
of perception in his book "Philosophical Investigations":
a picture that can be read as either a duck or a rabbit. Hatcher
pits the two motifs against each other in droll observation of
their formal resemblance. Despite thus seeming closely related,
the figures oppose each other as representatives of different
worlds: "Old Europe" checks out the New World; the
home of entertainment, branding and big business. The work also
contains a biographical component. It was created shortly after
Hatcher moved from Berlin to Los Angeles, a city of angels and
bunnies whose vacuous allure is reflected in the fluorescent
pink of his wall painting.
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