Marion Brandstetter

Marion Brandstetter 2008

The new works of Marion Brandstetter, an Austrian artist (born 1971 in Vienna, Austria) who made her bachelor of arts in 1996 at the Wiener Kunstschule, refer to the natural in relation to the artificial, man made. The materials ( bark, vine, polythene sheet, nails, coil springs,..) she uses reflect this idea, sometimes you get the feeling the "dead" material is alive and you don´t always discover what is natural and what is artificial, which makes viewing the works exciting. Plastic suddenly looks like skin, coil springs like worms, the whole assemblage seems to be a strange creature.

http://www.marionbrandstetter.com/

Wangechi Mutu

Wangechi Mutu "The Naughty Fruits of My Evil Labor", 2005, Ink, acrylic, collage, contact paper, packing tape on mylar,
80 1/2" x 42 1/2"

Wangechi Mutu, born 1972 in Nairobi, Kenya, lives and works in New York, USA. She works with cut outs of lifestyle and porno magazines, packing tape, glitter, ink, etc.. Material that she composes to collages. Wangechi Mutu unveils and magnifies the misconceptions used to define African people, particularly women, who were depicted as malformed, hyper-sexual or un-evolved. The creatures she creates sometimes look bizarre or fantastical, sometimes scary and mysterious.

Right now until December 7th 2008 you can see a great exhibition of the artists at Kunsthalle Wien, project space at Karlsplatz.

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/wangechi_mutu.htm

http://www.kunsthallewien.at/en/events/index.shtml?id=3055

http://vielmetter.com/artists/Mutu/wangechi_mutu.htm

http://www.sikkemajenkinsco.com/wangechimutu_works.html

Austria conTemporary

From 14 November 2008 to 08 February 2009 you can visit the Austria conTemporary exhibition (emerging artists exhibition series) at the Essl Museum in Klosterneuburg.
The 16 artists selected from over 1000 applications are from 25 to 53 years old, so this is one of a few competitions for young art without age limits (!). The whole concept seems exciting and fair, the choice of emerging artists is interesting, curated by Christine Humpl.

Barbara Vögel, 2 Frauen in Luang Trabang erfreuen sich an einer Postsendung, 27.7.2008,

Collage

P.P.s favourite artists are Barbara Vögel- who is an autodidact and has been devoting herself exclusively to art for some years. For her works of art she uses objets trouvés, which she composes into collages without changing them- and Barbara Musil whose art work is based on a conceptual approach. In the video installation "Shift Expectations" she addressed a key issue in the artist’s every-day life, the "rejection letter", and transformed it into a work of art. Both artists works are thouhtful and humorous at the same time.

http://www.sammlung-essl.at/

http://www.barbara-voegel.com/

http://oe1.orf.at/highlights/29661.html

Busy Vienna

photo by p.p.queen, right side: big wellness skull, left side: small joep van lieshout

Until sunday the Vienna Art Week is taking place. You can choose from a load of events- artist talks, lectures, openings, discussions- which makes decision hard sometimes.
P.P.Queen heard an interesting lecture from Robert Morris at the MUMOK and was at the opening of Joep van Lieshouts Wellness Skull, which is located in the center of the city at the Karlsplatz.
"With his ironic monument to transitoriness, van Lieshout alludes to the fitness mania of present-day society that provides a surrogate for a spiritual experience beyond all bodily and material affairs. Metaphorically, the artist regards the skull as man’s mental shell. It is the interplay between supernatural, divine powers and the secular power that Joep van Lieshout thematizes in his “Wellness Skull.” The functionalization of such a symbol, which is characteristic of the artist’s work, lends an ironical tone to it: when the sauna is turned on, white smoke rises from the skull’s openings."(kör)
After the opening there was a fine discussion about Art in public space with Joep van Lieshout, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Brigitte Franzen, Thomas Edlinger and Gerald Matt (Moderation) at the Kunsthalle Wien, project space karlsplatz.

http://www.ateliervanlieshout.com/

http://www.koer.or.at/en/

http://www.kunsthallewien.at/en/

http://www.viennaartweek.at/2008/

Dog Axe

photo by p.p.queen

Have you ever seen a dog wearing a dog-shirt? Have you ever imagined a dog hanging on the wall wearing a dog-shirt? Have you ever thought of a dog hanging on the wall wearing a dog-shirt while a man is doing some wild movement with a pickaxe besides him?

No?

So this could be a proof of the idea that reality goes far beyond the powers of imagination.

Christine Hill

Volksboutique Home Office (2003)

Shown at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NYHome Office Trunk Show

1968 Born in Binghamton, New York1991 /
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD /
1991-1999 Residence in Berlin, Germany /
Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and Berlin, Germany

“Hill’s Volksboutique can be called a second hand store. Or it can be called a participatory
artwork that takes the form of a functioning salesroom and workshop space. Simultaneously a
shop, an evolving installation, a space for performance, a slice of life, and an amorphous messy
inclusive work open to all questions, it absorbs found objects as compositional elements and
viewers as participants. Above all, Volksboutique is a place of informal human exchange that
raises the conceptual stakes.”
-Kim Levin, in The Volksboutique Guide, 1997.

http://www.eigen-art.com/Kuenstlerseiten/KuenstlerseiteCH/index_CH_DE.html

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2007/07/interview-with-20.php

Einbrenn brennt

P.P.Queen received this letter with very mysterious content:

Liebe Frau Mehl,

die petschuffiziere habern mich Gans, das kann ich mit Pflug und rechts behaupten verwirrt, denn die Einbrenn brennt mir unterhalb der Fingernager. Da das mehlen mit Staub auf das Inniglichste verbunden ist, muß man auf alle Felle zum Abstauben aufrufen, damit das Uffizienbüro offic iell zum Tag des Kuchens, der am 32. November gegangen Wirt, für die heilige Einbrenn geöffnet werden kann.

Es gilt nun klaren Kropf behalten um Post - traumatische Zustände am Hintern zu halten beziehungsweise ecetera.

Kopf hoch, es wird schon wieder, auch ein blinder Hund findet den Korn.

(text by e+k kodym)

Hyungkoo Lee

Hyungkoo Lee,2006
Anas Animatus; Anas Animatus L; Anas Animatus H; Anas Animatus D
2006
Resin, aluminum sticks, stainless steel wires, springs and oil paint
45 x 79 x 53 cm; 49.5 x 31 x 33 cm; 52 x 28 x 34.5 cm; 52 x 30.5 x 33 cm

Hyungkoo Lee
HK LAB-WR
Performance

1969 Born in Pohang, Korea / Lives and works in Seoul /
2002 M.F.A. Yale University, School of Art, New Haven, CT, USA /
1998 B.F.A. Hong-Ik University, College of Fine Art, Seoul, Korea

"Homo Animatus was an extension of a series of earlier pieces where the artist physically sought to alter – to reduce to cartoon simplicity – his own anatomy. Using plastic forms, enlarging and reducing lenses, Lee created a variety of body costumes that altered both one’s appearance and one’s vision of the real world at the same time. Homo Animatus is, for Lee, the ‘Origin of the Species;’ in a peculiar and devolutionary way, of course, and in keeping with how animated creatures serve as stand-ins for their human counterparts. Canis Latrans Animatus (Wile E. Coyote) and Geococcyx Animatus (Roadrunner) followed and are now joined by Lepus Animatus (Bugs Bunny), Felis Catus Animatus (Tom), Mus Animatus (Jerry), Anas Animatus (Donald Duck) and his three nephews, Animatus H, D and L (Huey, Dewey and Louie).

There’s a whole new bit of forensic activity at work and the viewer is drawn into an exploration of the process behind this reductio ad absurdum." (Howard Rutkowski)

P.P. saw Lee Hyungkoos art at the Biennale in Venice 2007, where he represented Korea. The Queen thinks that his work is impressive, clever, masterly and witty.

http://www.hyungkoolee.net/

Strictly forbidden

photos by karl kodym

Sometimes the Queen gets a little confused, strange signes with vague meanings have been seen. P.P. received the photos from an attentive citizen who is also puzzled.

No heterosexual relationship allowed?

No man and woman torso allowed?

No embracement while wearing swim suits?

No shooting a photo with one eye closed?

No taking a photo with an old camera allowed?

No photographers with black hair allowed?

Puzzels, puzzels, puzzels...

How scandalous!

Last week a poor town in the rural P.P.Queen Land had its first art scandal. The artist Caren Dinges made an installation in public space, the artwork had the mayors blessing, everything seemed to be fine. The topic of the work was death and to show "death" in public space, on a place where people are usually not confronted with their own finiteness. Some of the cute inhabitants of the tiny town couldn´t cope with the fact that everything has its end sometime, so they went to the mayor and wanted him to stop this scandalous happening. The real scandal is that he did what a few narrow minded asked him to. But now after 250 people gave their vote for freedom of art in G., everything is almost o.k. again and the installation will be there for a week instead of two months. Very interesting story in the 21st century and somehow really sweet.

If you want to know more about it, this is a link to an article in german

http://www.tips.at/zeitung.php?page_id=286&active=247

Feeding the artist

photographies by petra kodym

This is just a small part of the culinary delights you get when you are an artist in P.P.Queens Land. The people from your studio neighbourhood like to serve you cake, coffee and fresh fruit when they see that you are working in your studio. "I don´t look extremely thin" says the artist that sent the photos to P.P.Queen "nevertheless my neighbours always want to feed me." So artists from all over the world come to P.P.Land and gain some weight!

Christian Schwarzwald

Christian Schwarzwald, Spiel, 2008, at Galerie Krinzinger Vienna

drawing:installation, mixed media on paper and aluminium, wall-drawing

The artist (born 1971 in Salzburg) is living in Berlin, art degree at Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna and Athens.

His works are drawn installations. Mixed media on paper and aluminium and murals transform the room into a hole new world, making the viewer feel like an explorer.

I saw this one ("Spiel") a few months ago, it really was an impressive experience.

http://www.christianschwarzwald.net/

Artgarbage

photography by petra kodym 2008

P.P.Queen´s hint for every artist: If you produce trash please throw it into your garbage can from time to time. Don´t think everything you do is good just because YOU do it. You will see, it makes you feel free and easy if you get rid of this burden.

Artificial vs Natural

photography by petra kodym 2008

Chemistry, physics, technology and science make it possible to transfer raw material, natural things into so called artificial things. All this disciplines have their origin in nature, so everything that is produced by them are natural as well. That is the way P.P.Queen is thinking about it, at the same time she is quiet aware and also happy that there are many more ways to look at this problem.

Natural vs Artificial

photography by petra kodym 2005

"Are artificial or man made things and goods natural?" is P.P.Queen asking herself again and again. If you see it on a large scale point of view everything that exists on planet earth,or if you want to go further in the universe, has to be natural. How can it exist if it wasn´t natural? Through magical power from outer space, supernatural phenomenon? Man is nature, the raw materials are nature, so everything that is made by man using raw material has to be the same.
The people in P.P.Queens World always talk about themselves and nature, about this being artificial and that being natural.
"Strange world that I´m living in!" the Queen often thinks.

art cinema

From monday to friday this week the first art cinema week is taking place in the Gallery for Young Art in Gmunden, Upper Austria. You can enjoy different kinds of art films drinking Frucade and eating "Salzstangen". Detailed program and film description (german) at http://www.gaya.at/

Von Montag, 15.9. bis Freitag, 19.9.08 / jeweils 19 Uhr findet in der GAYA in Gmunden die erste ART-fiLm-Woche statt. Im gemütlichen Rahmen bei Frucade, Salzstangen oderKaffee werden KünstlerInnen-Portraits mit Video-Beamer gezeigt. Eine filmische Reise der zeitgenössischen Kunst, die einen Bogen von NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE über MAX ERNST zur KINETIK oder Musik-Clips mit EINSTÜRZENDEN NEUBAUTEN UND MARK STEWART AND THE MAFFIA spannt.Detaillierte Filmbeschreibungen auf der Homepage http://www.gaya.at/

Ute Zaunbauer

Ute Zaunbauer, Torso, 2007, Efaplast, Wood, 12x12x10 cm

Ute Zaunbauer, born in 1972, in Vienna, Austria, is an Austrian artist, living and working in Vienna and San Francisco. She made her bachelor of fine arts at the Wiener Kunstschule and her current representation is Hang, San Francisco, USA.

For detailed information about the works, text and to see more works, please visit

http://www.utezaunbauer.com/index2.html

Ethnic Food Studies Part 1

Menu in P.P.land

For a stranger the eating habits of the people in P.P.Queenland are a little peculiar in some cases. They like to eat brain, blood sausage and liver. Another traditional meal seems to be crate pork.

P.P. has the feeling that the restaurant chefs also know very well how to whet the guests appetite for the tasty dishes.

Ethnic Studies Part 3

Upper Austrian Folk Art

Birthday installation found in P.P. land. A turnable cubus made for a 40 year old Austrian standing on the roadside.

Ethnic Studies Part 2

Upper Austrian Folk Art

While the Queen took her walk through her royal territory today, she passed by a nice place close to her residence. A guy named Hansi is sitting there under a tree. The street sign tells us his age and it seems that he is ready to go to work, well armed with working gloves, a hammer and a tool box wearing his blue working overall. P.P. said:"Happy birthday Hansi, my dear subject. Nice to meet you." But Hansi was just speechless face to face with his Queen.

Another example of the strange birthday traditions in P.P.Queenland.

Andrzej Galazka

Andrzej Galazka, Simple Story 004, Photography

Andrzej Galazka, Simple Story 008, Photography

Andrzej Galazka is a photographer from Warszawa , Poland

About his Simple Story Series he says:

In "simple story" I try to express myself, to say something about my oridinary days, small pieces of my life. Every day is the most important day.

Ethnic Studies Part 1

Upper Austrian Folk Art

The people in the Queen´s country are good communicators but they are also creative. It´s the custom around here to let everybody know that there´s a birthday boy or girl. Relatives or friends make objects or dolls/puppets, sometimes installations and put them in front of the birthday person´s house. It is a surprise and present for the person, but can also be a critical humorous statement about the person, the person´s job, hobby, passion and it is used as a sign for everybody passing by.

The first association that came to P.P.´s mind was the figural fantasy coffins in Ghana, Afrika.

In the beginning of the 1950s Ata Owoo (1904 –1976) , a talented carpenter in Ghana, started with the idea and design of a coffin with the shape and colour of an eagle for a chief. The first carpenter who realized the ideas was the journeyman of Ata Owoo, Kane Kwei (1922-1992). Kane Kwei created a hole new funeral culture, funeral art. For his grandmother who died, he made a coffin that looked like an airplane, because it was the grandmother´s biggest wish to go by plane.

Talking Vegetable

The people of P.P.Queens people have a high ability to communicate, but not only the humans, even the salad trees sometimes like to have a nice little chat. P.P. is enthusiastic about their way of gesturing and it seems to her that they put their heads together. In the Queen´s foggy garden you can hear the soft whisper of the beautiful royal salad trees.

Santiago Sierra

THE ANARCHISTS, Santiago Sierra
Volume. Rome, Italy. December 25th, 2006
At 00.00, on December 25th, a group of 8 militant anarchists was convoked to listen to the Pope's Mass.
Each one wore a black jute capirote, receiving 100 € for it.

Santiago Sierra (born 1966) Sierra's work reflects his views on capitlism, labor, and exploitation. For instance, he paid a group of workers to move a heavy rock from a point A to a point B and vice versa. On another occasion he paid drug-addicted prostitutes from Brasil their drug of choice to let them have a line tattooed across their backs. He also caused controversy by covering ten Iraqi immigrants in insulating polyurethane foam and waiting for it to harden. Another of his well known projects is a room of mud in Hanover,Germany, commemorating the job-creation measure origin of the Maschsee.
In 2006, he provoked controversy with his installation "245 cubic metres", a gas chamber created inside a former synagogue in Pulheim, Germany.

http://www.santiago-sierra.com/

Schuh in Winestore

Yesterday austrian writer, critic Franz Schuh (*1947, Vienna) was reading excerpts of his new book "Memoiren - Ein Interview gegen mich selbst"("Memoirs- An interview against myself"). The reading, excellently recited, took place in a winestore in Gmunden, Upper Austria, a great surrounding for an event like this.

„Ist Denken nicht eigentlich lebens- und glücksfeindlich?“, Franz Schuh stellt sich in Memoiren – ein Interview gegen mich selbst viele Fragen und beantwortet sie auch. Manchmal ausführlich, manchmal ungenau spricht er mit sich selbst über Religion und Gewalt, Literatur und Öffentlichkeit, Erinnern und Vergessen, seine proletarisch-kleinbürgerliche Herkunft, seinen umgekehrten Narzissmus und seine Vorliebe für Trash. Franz Schuh spielt mit der Form des Interviews. Fragen nimmt er so, als ob er sie selbst stellen, Antworten so, als ob sie ein Fremder geben würde – und umgekehrt. Daraus entwickelt Schuh die Memoiren eines 1947 geborenen, in Wien aufgewachsenen österreichischen Schriftstellers und Essayists. Memoiren – Ein Interview gegen mich selbst ist eine Hommage an die vielen Gesprächsmöglichkeiten, die Schuh im Laufe seines Lebens wahrnehmen durfte.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Schuh_(Autor)

Bu Frau

Bu Frau/ Bu Woman, Busen Frau/ Boop Woman, Busen Freundin/ Bosom Friend keeps P.P.Queen company while she´s working. P.P. likes the seesaw of her boops when she´s drinking. When P. feels lonesome or needs some diversion, Boop Woman is always on her side.

Dimension Fragile

Today P.P. was at an exhibition opening in Upper Austria, Steyrermühl, at the Old Paper Factory. An international Paperartexhibition: DIMENSION FRAGILE
Participating Artists:

Tan Dun (CN/USA) Video: Papier Concerto, 2003
Chen Qingqing (CN)Hu Youben (CN)Li Lei (CN)Lu Shengzhong (CN)Qiu Deshu (CN)Wang Lei (CN)
Susanne Junker (CN/F)Rolf A. Kluenter (CN/D)
Anita Brendgens (NL)Josef Bücheler (D)Felix Droese (D)Tone Fink (A)Raffaella Formenti (I)Liz Gehrer (CH)Birgit Knoechl (A)Tamas Körösenyi (H)Miriam Londono (NL)Marie-Claire Meier (F)Robert Mittringer (A)Helene und Joachim Tschacher (A)Walter Weer (A)Susanne Zehnder (A)

http://www.kunstimweb.com/

Susanne Junker, 2008, Figure for the base of a crucifixion

Tan Dun, 2008, Paper Music, Video

Behaviourism

In the country of P.P.Queen there are many traditions, above all catholic traditions. Sometimes a strange man in a spacy suit comes to one of these traditional events and changes them, make them somehow different, modern. P.P.´s biggest wish is to get to know this radical artist one day.