I wonder what we will tell our grandchildren about “the good old days”—has the foundation of late-in-life nostalgia already passed us by, or are these overcast days spent huddling over our laptops and coffee mugs the “golden days” we will never forget? Or is - as Gertrude Stein would say - “A day is a day is a day is a day”.

At Galerie Axel Obiger, Oliver Möst and Anthony Werner seem to tread down memory lane with “FRÜHER WAR ALLES BESSER” – in English, “EVERYTHING WAS BETTER”. With every day, the world shifts further and further away from the late 60’s era where Möst and Werner attended school together and became friends. Their joint show fluxes alongside time, leaching out of the substrates that define them and into more dynamic network

Take, for example, Oliver Möst’s hazy and warm photographs. Bright but foggy, the obvious joke is that Möst forgot his glasses during his photoshoot – maybe this is true. Möst repurposes photographs from his childhood, a soft fog laid over each image generalizes the experiences from personal moments to universal reminders. Furthermore, like a memory, the images leave a landmark impression: while the cracks and details are left unseen, the overall image is comprehensible. Framed with ornamental book covers, Möst’s work bleeds outside the lines of photography, existing somewhere between impressionist watercolors and a family photo album.

Anthony Werner’s iron “drawings”and canvas painting  inhabit a similarly simultaneous space. Script-like and borderline-legible, the comparisons between Werner’s work and a stealthy nighttime tagger’s graffiti across the East Side Gallery is obvious, and the questions raised similar: how do we read these almost-fontfaces? Yet, the sculptures are detached from any person or persona – at times, they look like a collection of botched attempts at forging different signatures. Unidentifiable but nearly legible, they represent the literally nonrepresentational – a Master’s Thesis project on scribbling.

Werner and Möst’s work interacts in a satisfyingly complimentary manner. Through the hazy glow, Möst’s work still reads as comforting and familiar – relateable; Werner’s work is frustratingly illegible, taunting us as if to say you-should-know-this-by-now. Where I find myself in Möst’s personal memories, I get lost (and am told to get lost) by Werner’s strictly impersonal scrawls.  “FRÜHER WAR ALLES BESSER” is like a high-school reunion, and Möst is an old friend – reassuring and welcome. Werner, on the other hand, is the valedictorian you wanted to be: always one step ahead of you, too cunning to be relateable, but likeable nonetheless.

There will be an artist talk held on 07.12.2013 at 19h.

Oliver Möst and Anthony Werner – “FRÜHER WAR ALLES BESSER”/Galerie Axel Obiger/Brunnenstr. 29, U8 Rosenthaler Platz/through 07.12/more information