Hiding in Plain Sight
Simon Scharinger gives form to that which hides in plain sight, oscillating between revelation and denial. His work explores the interior of the human body. Sources include clinical scans, anatomical archives, diagnostic images, and medical illustrations—materials that render invisible systems visible. When looking at these images, Simon encounters a visual clarity that does not lead to understanding. Instead, these materials confront him with bodies exposed yet intangible. He notices shapes that begin to function as frames rather than organs, structures that resemble bones or skull-like contours without confirming themselves as such.
What becomes visible through drawing and painting, for Simon, is not simply the body depicted, but the conditions under which bodies are made visible in the first place: the flattening, the framing, the partial exclusion or alienation of colour, and the absence of the person who once inhabited the scanned interior. The works do not restore what was removed; rather, they act as records of encounters between his body, his gaze, what he recognises and gravitates towards, and his hand, following the eye that traces the contour.
He makes his own materials, such as oil sticks, pastels, and transparent primers, which serve as the basis for each painting. Colour, texture, and layering become tools he uses to mirror the ambiguous qualities found in medical imagery. Simon creates surfaces of suspended recognition where clarity dissolves, and the image remains in a state of flux between presence and absence.
