Altitude sickness was conceived in response to the idea of Hitler’s mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden and its subsequent conversion to a tourist restaurant after World War Two. The project developed out of Alpine review, an understated portrait of an Albino Darth Vader posing on the steps of Kehlsteinhaus. I wanted to unearth a pool of reference which took oxygen shortage as a metaphorical catalyst within this context of a misplaced (alpine) serenity. Born of absurdist logic the project offers us a pathetic humour in the pursuit of (hijacked) meaning.

Meltdown became the link between earlier projects and Alpine review, as a Stormtrooper gazes into the Fuhrer’s fireplace at Kehlsteinhaus echoing his Nazi namesakes. At this point the restaurant idea became predominant as I searched for suitable material of the Eagle's nest, it invariably led me to album snaps of tourists snacking on the patio terrace of this one time Nazi tea-house. Taking the cliche of the‘meal-deal’ the Magic combo project series thus presents the Eagle’s Nest as a fun-time burger bar. Confronting its past through its airbrushed absence the backdrops are peppered with balloons of hotdogs and beer. Eventually these became the 'Meal deal archive' - a series of doctored stills sourced from sepia-toned footage of Hitler himself at this mountain retreat, surrealised into hamburger-headed tableaux.. Like all the work in the project such contextual ironies present us with questions of how we address the position and function of history within contemporary patterns of convenience and consumption.

Simon Willems