The work of German artist Tobias Rehberger is tied to the conceptual field of sculpture. His works take place on the intersection between what is traditionally considered visual art, design and architecture, challenging thus art's conventional understanding, its classification, the subject of authenticity and the romantic notion of the artist. Moreover, making the subject of transformation a central theme to his practice, Rehberger's work questions traditional modes of perception and culture.

- Utagawa Kunisada Chó Chidori 1836
, brings together and intertwines seemingly remote cultural phenomena. The first being Shunga, an erotic artistic tradition that emerged from early modern Japan and features graphic images of sexual activity. The second, being Portuguese tradition of tilework, dating back as far as the 13thcentury, and finally the third, being the principles of the digital image and its power to conceal, or alternatively unveil a given reality. By making the object of the vase central to the piece, and by tying it to a broader segment of his artistic oeuvre (since the mid 90's Rehberger has been developing a sculptural series of vases, dedicated to fellow artists), Rehberger emphasizes the object's utilitarian side, while continuing to challenge art's myth and the range of clichés about an artwork's functionality. Moreover, the seemingly pixeled image, which conceals a digitally reproduced depiction from Shunga, (only decodable through the lens of a camera), and visually absorbs the foregrounded sculpture, - a vase, the shape and color pallet of which, corresponds to a segment of pixels in the sculpture's background, making it thus temporally invisible, - further challenges our understanding of an artworks uniqueness in the age of digital reproduction.

MC