visual | performance art
chrysalides, 2024, skin prints in gelatine, silver wire, steel, chiffon, dental floss
Meine Hände wie vertrocknete Lilien
Staubend knacken sie,
Als ich versuche deine Bilder aufzuheben
Ineinander zu schieben
Bröseln auseinander
Stück um Stück
Kein Mensch – nur das Rauschen
Wickle mich ein in alle Haare, die ich finden kann
Vergesse langsam wie es in dir war
Wie Narkose im Schlaf.
In modern society, human beings do not live according to the rhythm of natural organisms, but by controlling that dynamic in order to be more efficient and productive.
We have somehow lost touch with nature. We no longer adapt our activities to natural light and avoid being exposed to natural forces such as wind, water and soil. At the same time, there is an intensive use of natural areas in agriculture and construction.
Feelers questions the tension between domination and adaptation through a video performance in both intact and cultivated nature. The human agent becomes an undefined being, a lost organism in natural space, trying to reconnect with its surroundings. Moving with body attachments made of flexible material alters his interaction with the actual space. Although the thin wooden strips, cut from a massive oak beam, might be reminiscent of Rebecca Horn’s body extensions, they are not only used as performative objects or body
sculptures here.
Rather than being used as a mere prop, the flexible yet stable material is used to visualise the effects of pressure and resistance, showing the quality of connection with the surrounding environment. This changes the perception of the human body itself and its relationship to natural space.
At times, the extensions appear like self-acting insect feelers which switch roles with the body by turning it into a passive agent, solely able to react. At other times they seem like extensions of the body’s sensory organs, antennas that absorb vibrations and sensitize to the conditions of the environment.
2023, diapositives, sound, baryta prints
two unclothed bodies are in a dark room. at the point where they happen to meet, one person holds a sheet film between their skin. the other person switches the light on and off again for a very short moment. they repeat and switch several times.
the developed sheet films are copied into diapositive slides which are projected in the same rythm. they show abstract, black and white images. sometimes one can recognise some hair or the edges of skin pores. when the bodies met the film, they protected it so that the light could not touch its surface. the traces of this accidental contact shows also the shape of a touch.
be fruitful and multiply, 2024, 4K Video, stereo sound, 6’42
manipulation of 1000 poplar seeds, replaced them with a tiny silver gelatin print
or: genesis of senselessness
manipulated poplar seeds, replaced by tiny silver gelatin prints, air, glass tube, MDF, aluminium, electronic control, 200x15x15
screen print on etched glass, sheet steel, various sizes
mosquitos on sheet film, enlargement on baryta paper, 54×40 cm each
duo show together with Anna Carina Roth at Art Space Spektakel, Vienna
the exhibition was funded by Stadt Wien Kultur, Bezirk Margarethen, Land Burgenland.
part of the group exibition more than one surface
curated by tsai-ju wu, site specific art / paulusplatz, vienna
stacked memories, 2023
installation, various stacks of different materials (glass, aluminium, wood, cardboard), dimensions variable
performative intervention recalling memories with Paula Kreuzer, live projection, sound
Stacks are structured forms of organization. Stacks symbolize order and system. But also preservation, storage, existing possibilities. You pile things that haven’t been used or done yet. Stacks can be reserve, providing unclaimed information or a sign of being overwhelmed. A collection of unrealized possibilities.
We tend to make pictures in order to conserve moments and keep memories. Even though there has been a lot of research on how the human brain stores memories and organizes information, we still don’t know exactly what happens in the brain when we remember something and how we organize and access stored memories. do we transform perceptions of situations, feelings, realities that we used to live, when we think about them? could one compare the brain to a library or a stocking place? what happens to these compressed memories when we reconstruct them? How fragile are they?
this installation shows a metaphoric depiction of stored memories distributed in the exhibition space. the stacks are composed by plates of several materials that are usually used for the construction of photographic images, similar in size to ancient glass diapositives. through a performative intervention, the installation will be transformed by the interaction of human bodies with the stacks.
Performance with Paula Kreuzer
november 11th 2023, 19h30, paulusplatz 5
part of the ok transit exhibition series, curated by Tsai-Ju Wu,
department of site-specific art, vienna
