Spaces / Eva Schlegel

Eva Schlegel

The focus of Austrian media and object artist Eva Schlegel’s work lies in the pictorial realization between photographic objectivity and painterly blurriness. With the help of lead materials or layers or varnish, she transforms photographic immateriality into a material object. She has created a range of series since the 1990s, amongst them the topics porn, clouds, models and architecture. Aside from her photographic work, Schlegel also works with glass and develops installation objects in space.

Eva Schlegel / Photo Farid

Eva Schlegel / Photo Seirer

Eva Schlegel / Photo eSeL

Eva Schlegel created a glass wall featuring blurry writing for Kunsthalle Krems’ interior in 1998. It transparently connects the central hall with Adolf Krischanitz’s exposed concrete ramp. The artist updated the piece in 2017. Eva Schlegel deals with the limits of perception in the group of pieces featuring unreadable text. She also asks the question: “Why do we immediately see text as such, even when it is free of primary informational content?”

“That the materiality of the glass be barely perceptible is essential for this piece for several reasons as my work is also always an investigation of space, both architectural and immaterial. On the one hand, the text seems to float in space, the boundary between appearance and disappearance is not defined, but on the other hand, the glass also enables the overlaying of different texts.” –Eva Schlegel

Eva Schlegel / Photo Seirer

Among other things, Eva Schlegel showcases a new series of large scale pieces at the Kunsthalle Krems, which address the architecture of interiors, whereas these are mostly art spaces. The elimination of concrete, tectonic spatial experience and the resulting lack of rational levels of observation lead to poetic visual experiences. Due to their being blurry and an emphasis on light in the photograph, the spaces become abstracted forms. Schlegel also photographed the Kunsthalle’s large columned hall for this series. The central hall also exhibits her work with film. Furthermore, she has developed an expansive installation for the Dominican Church. This exhibition will consequently give a broad and up-to-date impression into the work of this important Austrian artist.

Spaces / Eva Schlegel
Curated by Andreas Hoffer
July 1 – November 11, 2018 / Kunsthalle Krems
Through October 14, 2018 / At Dominican Church
Please visit the exhibition page >