Searching for the Impossible: The Flying Project

Searching for the Impossible is the title of a series of works by the American conceptual artist Joel Tauber. His self-experiments - some life threatening, such as his attempts to fly without technical aids in The Flying Project ? deal with the transgression of physical limits, whereby Tauber engages in a search for the sublime. There's certainly a comic element to all this, but the experiments remain nonetheless seriously bound to the notion that the truly impossible reveals truths about the nature of being. For Tauber, beside overcoming fear and pain, idealism and naivit? are the basis for the experience of enlightenment. In The Flying Project, Tauber follows in the path of historical idealists like Elmer the monk, who thought he was able to fly by way of his spiritual purity alone. Tauber would like to link flying with a mystical experience, and in so doing develops an almost absurd obsession about being able to fly solely using spiritual means. Even if he is not entirely successful in this, Tauber is convincing in his journey in search of poetry and wholeness.

Joel Tauber explores intensivly topics about religion, belief and spirituality in his performative and conceptual video works.

Courtesy of Adamski Gallery for Contemporary Art, Aachen.
www.joeltauber.com