Work: Pale Blue Dot. 2022, 2 editions, three-color mezzotint etching
Prize of Göttweig Abbey for works in “classical” printmaking techniques such as relief, intaglio, stencil, and planographic processes, endowed with EUR 1,500 and a two-week artist-in-residence stay at the Göttweig Guesthouse. During the residency, a curated insight into the historic printmaking collection of Göttweig Abbey is possible.
Prize Donor: Göttweig Abbey, represented by Bernhard Rameder (Curator of the Collections of Göttweig Abbey) and Father Benno Maier
Laudatory Speech: Elisabeth Dutz (Chief Curator of the Graphic Collections, ALBERTINA)
About the Work
Oswald Auer was born in South Tyrol and lives and works in Vienna. His work Pale Blue Dot fascinates through the rare technique of mezzotint etching combined with a profound conceptual approach. With meticulous craftsmanship, he reinterprets the iconic photograph of the Earth seen from afar and invites reflection on the visible and the invisible.
Jury Statement
Oswald Auer was born in South Tyrol and lives and works in Vienna. His work Pale Blue Dot captivates through its exceptional technique and conceptual depth. The mezzotint etching used is a highly labor-intensive intaglio technique developed in Germany in the 17th century. The surface of a metal plate—usually copper—is roughened to create tonal values using a rocker with small teeth that move in opposing directions, forming a grid of tiny points on the surface. The process begins with a uniformly roughened plate, which would print a deep black. White areas are created by polishing and scraping. The black is reduced in areas that gradually absorb less ink, while ink remains on the surface during wiping and is then absorbed by the damp paper in the printing process. As suggested by the Italian term mezzotinto, half-tone gradations are produced in this way. Preparing larger printing plates by hand takes several weeks, which is why the technique is now rarely used. Its distinctive light–dark effect and the tactile quality reminiscent of oil paint, however, remain unsurpassed.
In Pale Blue Dot, Oswald Auer refers to the award-winning photograph of the Earth taken on February 14, 1990, at the suggestion of astronomer Carl Sagan, by the Voyager 1 space probe from a distance of approximately 6 billion kilometers. The image is actually a composite of three photographs taken with different color filters—blue, green, and violet. In it, our planet occupies only a fraction of a single pixel, which led Carl Sagan to coin the term Pale Blue Dot. We see our world suspended as a tiny point in near darkness. Oswald Auer chose to respond to today’s cutting-edge technology behind this image with an old, handcrafted technique: mezzotint etching. He created three plates, each inked in the colors of the original lens filters.
The artist seeks to demonstrate that upon closer observation, one can perceive far more than what is immediately visible—that reality consists of both the seen and the unseen, and that every perspective is accompanied by an additional perception within a shifted, mediated space, based on the idea of viewing our world from the outside and from a distance. Ultimately, it is up to us to change our perspective and to look beyond the horizon.
[For the Jury: Elisabeth Dutz]