"Dye"

Nr. 10

C-print (analogue)

signed, dated and numbered (pencil) on verso

For seven years Rudolf Strobl photographed paintball fields at home and abroad. In this game, two teams compete against each other on a field, with coloured balls being shot at the opposing team.
The rooms are often located in buildings that are not used for their intended purpose. The playing fields of an abandoned inn in southern Styria, for example, tell of the young owner's decision to turn the inn into a paintball hall, as otherwise the inn would no longer be sustainable from an economic point of view due to migration from the village. Several farms in Upper Austria were also converted and rented to players due to their financial situation.
Paintball is often played at bachelor parties or for teambuilding purposes by companies with their employees. Basically, it is not allowed to play against each other with camouflage clothing or uniform. I often wondered why. Is the game more dangerous because of the uniform? Is it less dangerous without the uniform? Although all these thoughts accompanied me during the work on the project, I was less interested in the game itself than in the formal consequence of it. When entering the playing fields a landscape of wood and lacquer presented itself. It smelled of sports lessons, but the colours seemed to be friendlier than those at school.
The random application of paint created rooms that looked as if they had been painted. Within this landscape there were objects that were either built by the students themselves or bought already prefabricated. The more time I spent in these rooms, the more the objects began to turn into objects, a bit like sculptures. I liked the illusion of walking through a painting.
(Rudolf Strobl, 2018)