Art Project “TEXT PORTRAIT“
On August 22nd, 2006 the first and to this day only art project started which exclusively deals with the worldwide global networking, the internet and the therewith connected medial elements. Visual Display: Text portrait as visual display is inseparably assembled out of text (internet) and photos and is therewith bound to a readable portrait. The typeface white on black relates to the DOS input mode (visually). That way, in 2002 one of the first text portraits was created out of the text: Wikipedia „David Beckham“ and his portrait photo by Ralph Ueltzhoeffer.

Textportrait: MISSING, Ground Zero (2008).		Ralph Ueltzhoeffer

Public space: As the internet was in a new process of development regarding search functions at that time (2002/2003), exclusively digital presentation in the net was not imaginable. That is why the first text portraits were exhibited location-dependant on billboards (Plakatinstallation Mannheim) and so at least the public character of the art work could be met. Later, exhibitions at historical locations, as Ground Zero, New York as well as in showcases of cafés, subway stations etc., followed. “There is no location where art could not be presented”.

Current exhibitions at: Galerie Weishaupt Montreux. Actual artist: Ralph Ueltzhoeffer - “Textportraits berühmter Persönlichkeiten des öffentlichen Lebens” - Exhibition dates are 08.05. - 07.06. Get more information about Ralph Ueltzhoeffer - Museum or Gallery informations: Montreux, Galerie Weishaupt by Wikipedia.org / Portal:Arts. Buy arts from Ralph Ueltzhoeffer or find objects, articles or web-projects? Art online: Ralph Ueltzhoeffer by adaweb.com | Biography - Textportrait from Ralph Ueltzhoeffer by Ralph Ueltzhoeffer. Articles and texts:

Textportrait: Xavier Naidoo, Weishaupt Contemporary; Ralph Ueltzhoeffer.

PostSecret - an Internet Art Project (BBC)
PostSecret is an ongoing Internet-based art project which invites people to send in creative postcards of their deepest secrets, updated every Sunday with a new collection of postcards replacing the postcards from the previous week. In less than a year, PostSecret achieved notoriety on the Internet, and also via newspapers, Internet blog1 awards and even the music industry2.

History: The project originally started in November 2004; the man behind the idea, Frank Warren, gave out 3,000 blank postcards in Washington. Once they had been sent back to his home address in Germantown, Maryland, USA he selected the best of the bunch and displayed them, enlarged, as a touring art exhibition. However, the popularity of the idea and the resulting exhibition meant that Frank Warren didn’t receive 3,000 postcards - in less than 18 months he had received 30,000 cards, ten times the original amount, from many countries and in many different languages, even braille. The title of the exhibition, ‘PostSecret’, is multi-faceted: not only does it refer to the secrets being posted using the postal service, but when it is published the secret is no more, making it a post-secret in terms of lapsed time.

The Website: After the original exhibition proved so popular, Warren became inundated with secrets and so on 1 January, 2005 opened the PostSecret blogspot. Every Sunday the previous week’s postcards are taken down and new ones are posted; occasionally emails will appear throughout the week, in relation to the card above. These emails often show support or understanding in relation to the secret and sometimes delve into a story relating to a similar experience. After the postcards there are several sections relating to news stories connected with the project that change from time to time. Finally there is the address which you should post the secrets to and instructions on what to do. The Website ends with a phone number for Hopeline, a helpline along with a picture of one woman who sent in her picture and wanted her face to be recognised as being saved by Frank Warren. She claims after seeing his work and phoning the helpline, she changed her decision to attempt suicide - her message has been there since March 2006.

Informationen zur Ausstellung: Ralph Ueltzhoeffer “Textportraits” in der Galerie Weishaupt, Montreux CH.

Galerie Weishaupt.