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3/9/2008

Hans Schabus

Kerstin Engholm Gallery, Wien

Demanding and desire

Any attempt to interpret an exhibition is, generally speaking, a presumptuous undertaking. And yet one is expected to supply a signpost, a map, some sort of translational assistance to facilitate access. As for the rest, one has to rely on one’s own senses, one’s own sensibility.
Beyond the realm of control, craving and desire operate as an urgent force which, in its intensity, can neither be fulfilled nor satisfied. You keep in motion.
And enter the space of the gallery – a space whose limits are defined by stonework and ceilings, made accessible through doors, made transparent through window panes. Framed by the architectural setting, the works are generously arranged. They are given the chance to grow and evolve. Creaturelike, a door lies at one’s feet. An object of everyday life – in this case taken from a mobile home, the typically American moveable house – is extricated from its context and placed within the confines of the gallery space. “Up Side Down (On Knees and Nose)”, bent and folded, like a body which, through forces from outside, has crashed to the floor. Violently? Where there’s a door, a window cannot be far away. However, the outlook (or is it an in-sight?) remains „Against the Wall“. Has the attempt of a breakthrough failed, or was there a break-in? Are we on the inside or the outside of this window? The space, at any rate, separates possibilities, it confines yet at the same time makes development possible. Which brings one to a phenomenon that becomes effective only through the limitedness of space – echo. Here it hangs on the wall like a neon sign, only without the light. ‘Echo’ - a word that evokes vast expanses and emptiness, while, on the other hand, it is inextricably tied up with the notion of resistance. The reflecting sound waves make one aware of absence and presence, for how much of what has arrived somewhere is then reflected depends on how much resistance is put up against it.
The vaster the emptiness, the deeper the echo, which, as a fragmentary reaction, doubles or trebles the initial situation. Into this ether of lost sound waves there swings a stool; having lost its footing, it sways from the ceiling into its balance, making a mockery of both gravity and functionality. No, it is definitely not meant for sitting, this stool has already served its purpose. Its composition of funnelshaped basic form, patched upholstery and the fabric of its covering suggests that there is something about this object which acts as a voice in the context of the exhibition’s setting. It has a past, a history, and yet it refers to the future, because “Tomorrow will be like Today”.
At the back of the show-room one finally comes across a personage: it is he who asks the questions, he who has dreamed up the images of this performance. But he is asleep. Unable to provide the outside world with answers, he is “In Search of the Endless Column”. In front of him are the remains of his stamp collection, resisting the viewer’s gaze. “Left over (World)”, they seem self-absorbed, as if they wanted to run their head against the wall.

Walking towards the exit, one eventually emulates the echo – moving along with the “572 Kilo of Air” that circulate in the room, headed for where one came from.

“(...) where there is no echo, there can be description neither of space nor love. There, all is silence.“ (Mark Z. Danielewski, “The House of Leaves”)

Hans Schabus (1970/A), lives and works in Vienna.
Selected solo shows are the 51st Biennale di Venezia, Austrian Pavilion, Venice (2005), „Das Rendezvousproblem“, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz (2004), „Der Schacht von Babel“, Kerstin Engholm Galerie, Vienna (2003), „Astronaut (komme gleich)“, Secession, Vienna (2003), Zero Arte Contemporanea, Milan (2003) „Transport“, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2003).

For further information about the exhibition please contact Kerstin Engholm or Luise Reitstätter at +431 585 73 37 11.

Opening: 04/09/2008, 7 p.m.

Kerstin Engholm Gallery
Schleifmühlgasse 3 A-1040 Vienna
Opening Hours
Tuesday through Friday 11-18, Saturday 11-15

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