Since 1969, Peintner, an architect, has been involved with the fine arts, mainly as a graphic artist and painter. His works from the 1970s, including Take-Off, are predominantly large-format, futuristic, and imaginary panoramas portrayed in a super-realistic way. Taking as his subject the technical explosion that fueled a contemporary civilization based on machines, Peintner has developed an ecologically based critique with the destruction of the natural environment as its central theme. In this work the superimposition of unexpected elements creates a nightmarish scene, underscoring a definite unease about the future and its associated technologies and aiming to trigger a political-ecological consciousness by way of a surrealistic, dreamlike device.
Gallery label from 9 + 1 Ways of Being Political: 50 Years of Political Stances in Architecture and Urban Design, September 12, 2012–March 25, 2013.
