UP Next: 100 Balloons at 8th UP-ON live art festival in Chengdu, November 2020

The artist blows up 100 Balloons that gradually fill the space around her. While referring to the current problematic issue of breathing, due to the pandemic, the performance reflects upon the things we take for granted, our aspirations and dreams, which now become impossible. The balloons that surround the artist are suspect cases, therefore they are sorted out and marked one by one in order to be bursted. As they spread in wider circles the room empties.

 

Pfirsichrasur at Performance Garten 7, Cologne, Oktober 2020

performatives Video, Dauer 11min.11sec.

Dieses Werk beschäftigt sich mit den Imperfektionen der Leiblichkeit und des Daseins.

Die Künstlerin sitzt in Isolation zuhause und rasiert Pfirsiche. Sie reflektiert in fragmentarischen Erzählungen über Haarentfernung und über die zusätzlichen Herausforderungen der jetzigen Zeit für Frauen, die durch Corona bedingt sind: die Motivationslosigkeit als alleinlebende Frau, die Unsicherheit und Überforderung im Familienverband und das Wegfallen von persönlichen Freiräumen.

 

blue skin. Oilpainting on handmade Paper, ca.70x100cm. 2020
 

preußisch blau #07 & #03

Oil on Paper, #05: 70x100cm, #03: 56x76cm, 2019 (series)
 

zapomnienie - vergessen

project in cooperation with Patryk Wilk, austria 2019

Something has been forgotten but its forgotten what was forgotten. We don't even know who forgot and when it happened. Why do we forget? How does nature remember? Is memory something we can explore in other beings, in animals and plants? Think of the rings of the wood or the layers of earth, telling us stories about ancient ages where human beings lived still in harmony with the rhythm of nature. Does Nature forget?

 

sphere

Performance ca.30min, China, Chengdu, Luxelakes A4 Museum, October 2018 (Photo by Dengzhen)

Reaching out for the sphere at the 6th UP-ON live art festival in Chengdu. The specification of the space made it impossible to reach the sphere in the end. I would have given up - if not there was somebody in the audience who just gave it to me. How very unexpected, what an surprising happy end.

 

sphere - performative process
 

I hammered the sphere while my study exchange in Japan. The process itself is performative. It is made out of copper, two circles hammered to half spheres and then connected by welding. In the long and monotone process of shaping copper, immense amounts of time and human energy are required to slowly approach a point of perfection. One must have the will to want to reach for this perfection, while still acknowledging the impossibility of such a feat. The perfect sphere can only exist in one’s mind. It is a symbol for the highest possible amount of simplicity and perfection, that of a perfect form. A real object can only get infinitely close to, but never reach, this perfection.
copper hammering
photo was taken at geidai campus of inter-media art Japan, Toride, July 2017
 

at least we are human

Single exhibition showing parts of the artworks developed in the time of my study exchange in Tokyo:

* various sculptures: “Edamame Pocket Art” (seven soy-beans casted out of bronze); edamame mini sculptures (five soy-beans casted of brass); archaeological discoveries (crab casted out of brass, cuttle casted out of bronze); an edamametree-sculpture casted out of brass
* woodblockprint as object
* painting

Japan, Tokyo Geidai University of Arts, Campus Toride, july 2017
 

may in japan

ca.30x40 cm, 2017
 

tokyo als analphabetin

Collage ca 20x40 cm, 2017
 

 wind and sea.

real life collage,naoshima, japan, 2017
 

Ueno

2017
 

language landscape

Collage, scroll, 48x173 cm, 2018

 

aurore and filipa in the sea

zhushi beach, japan, 2017

object #17/15

2017, brass casting (Photo: Florian Baumgartner)
 

edamame pocket art - public action

individual soy-beans, bronze casting (objects made by myself)
performative action at different locations - Tokyo, Kjushu, Vienna; june 2017- 2018

Speaking about art with people of the street and people I meet. For that purpose I carry my handmade artwork (small metal-casted soy-bean-objects) always in my pockets. Especially in Japan the edamame are well known as snack served with beer and consumed mostly in social environment. The metal-casted beans are soft and feel like having a lucky stone in the pocket. Are these kind of daily objects "Art"?

And what about genetic manipulation of our food? Is that the art of today? Changing and creating food to make it more pretty and tempting, easier to harvest and to apply perfect qualifications for mass production.

Such innocent and pretty beans.
 

ebi  (hanging on ninas outdoor-indoor studio wall)

bronze casting, plastic tubes. 2017
(photo made at salon gospodin September 2017 by myself)
 

one moment life

Japan, Tokyo Geidai University of Arts, Campus Toride, april 2017

Installation at the introduction exhibition in the Intermedia Art Department out of three paintings and a waste-sculpture. It could be seen as an approach to process my first experiences freshly arrived in Tokyo; Sakura (cherry-blossoms) and Hanami (Sakura viewing), which left a deep impression.
 

...blurring the line between art and 'daily life'

yawning
photo: Fagni Wang

performance at the vinnisage of the exhibition: Zhou Bin / a
365 day project at AIL
yawning for 10 min, Vienna, AIL, jan 2017

just dancing
still frame (dancing for the ocean)
just dancing at different locations - in the city and in the nature.
Japan, different locations; april & may 2017

sleeping in public

performative action at different locations,
here: ibusuki, japan, 2017
 

Handschuhfehde

performance, ca 15 min, vienna, 2015
 

Glove Vendetta is a performative work, a 'recording and rebellion against a dark pattern'. Why am I often so defenseless towards myself? This selfempowerment consumes an incredible amount of power. The project consists of individual performative gestures that deal with the combative relationship with oneself and form a complex conglomeration of sequences.


Gauntlet instruction:

* failure, throw the gloves on the floor

* frown and gesture of ambiguity

* cough and self-introduction

* pejorative glance and self-contempt

* uncertainty and wring-hands before the head

* breath fast

* silent scream and jump on stand

* tear up the eyes and run away

* run against the wall and fall

* shake frantically at the door

* run out of the room

* knock after some time
 

treasures hidden in the unknown

The big and diverse symbolic capacity of the black or the unseen is very captivating. As the resulting absence or complete absorption of light it is associated with emotional darkness. This series of pieces delves into that dark space and observes it as a rich place of hidden potential. The blind spots we can't see, mostly we don't even want to look at can hide many treasures. Standing critically against my own instinctive fear by revealing black holes that are melting with reality. Along the search for these treasures, darkness is experienced, new doors are opening that confronts myself with unexplored or unwanted territories, its quite scary. In the darkness of the night I found silence and peace. In the depths of the see I found old forgotten treasures.

accra, ghana, 2014

black hole melting with reality

installation, dieAngewandte, Vienna, 2014
 

Salon Gospodin                   
"two artists are hanging out and everybody is invited" Salon Gospodin is a format developed by Nina Gospodin.

Vienna, 18th district, October 2018 (Photo: Nina Gospodin)

In September 2018 Salon Gospodin visited my studio following her slogan "two artists are hanging out and everyone is invited". Mostly we were thinking about performative aspects of our artwork. And -of course- we had good home-cooked food and fun.

Vienna, 18th district, October 2018 (Photo: fujifilm automatic release)

Vienna, 2nd district, september 2017 (Photo: fujifilm automatic release)

One year before, in September 2017, I already had the big pleasure to be guest at “Salon Gospodin”. A one day visit  just after I coming back to Vienna- with some of the artworks I developed in Tokyo. Being inspired of an lively artist exchange and celebrating art and life.
 

zwei Verhandlungen an zwei Orten

performance in two scenes. work shown at: performance parcour angewandte, january 2016


action scene one: foor

the performer is standing with a boxing glove, raging without moving, and waits. Until everybody passes her.


action scene two: basement

the performer is nicely dressed and is standing with hockey gloves in front of a mirror, puts her make-up face on, observers can see her face only through the reflection of the mirror.


zwei Verhandlungen
an zwei Orten

da
sie sind doch erwacht
haben sich verwandelt
wo ist der Körper
der zu ihnen gehört
was haben sie heraufbeschwört
ich begreife den Rand
unklar über das Ausmaß des Unbekannten

eins
warten
erwarten
es gibt noch etwas zu verhandeln

ich bin die Hand die seine Wünsche erfüllt
ich bin das willige Werkzeug
die Handlung verblasst


zwei
Hand anlegen
egal wo

um mich endlich
in der Masse zu verlieren
wie ein Tropfen im Fluss

welche Rolle spielen wir
hier leben heißt darstellen oder
was trennt Handlung von Performance

two negotiations
at two places

look
after all they are awakened
they have transformed
where is the body that belongs to them
and got awakened by them
I sense the edge
unclear about the extend
of the unknown

one:
wait
await
still something to negotiate

I am the hand that fulfills its wishes
I am the willing instrument
 action is fading


two:
put on colours
no matter where

finally loosing myself
into the mass
like a drip in the ocean

what role are we playing
to live means to act or
what distinguishes action and performance


 
 

Me & Mr. Black

Dvelving into what conditions identity as well as to what extend it can be understood as a selective process. The performativity of Mr. Black establishes a dynamic field between him and myself as an artist. Becoming temporarily adjusted to this field, I adopt a performative identity, that serves as a prejection surface for the other. An importand aspect of this work is the confrontation of Mr. Black with his own identity and the image that represents this. In this situation Mr. Black decided where, when and how he would like to have his own identity represented.

Mr. Blacks name is the script for his identity: a black sundaydress for a Ghanaian man, a black hat to hide the blonde hair of the artist, the black shoes, the night-shooting.

Performance cooperation with Mr. Black at his house in Accra, Ghana, 2014
 

textile docking

assemblages, 2012

Splicing is a method of connecting ropes, cables, wires or tapes through a kind of interweaving. The potential of this connection inspired the contact between textile and photography, between third and second dimension, between line/material and subject matter. Splicing a flat content enlightens the subject in focus, where mysterious photographs of textile interventions are born. They seem simultaneously violent and peaceful.

In this photos the docking happens with my own inner world, with a friend and a drawing and with the space of murinsel in graz.
 

krapp trifft heliogengrün

egg tempera on paper, each 18x26cm (series), 2015

A total immersion in the materiality of the colour. By mixing egg tempera on your own, you become aware of the physicalness of colour. This series dealss with materiality and how the coincidence of two complementaries can be seen as love attachement. As dynamic stories are created in the form of single frames and series of them, their display form characteristic kind of space.
 

Interweaving.
 

textile space sculpture, shown at essence 2012, künstlerhaus vienna

How are creative processes of art interlocked and how can those be shared and developed together? This art piece tries to raise questions of interconnectivity beween mediums as a way for sharing and developing a mutual mind map. Interweaving can be seen as materialized interconnections between different ideas, creative processes and art peaces.
 

identity portaits

neither me nor you

What's identity? And what's the difference between identity, the self and the I ? This work explores these questions, as part of a group exhibition, where the artist portrays the identity of every exhibitor. Performing is used here as a medium that reflects the singularity of every individual identity. The artist offers her body as a plain medium and performs those identities in various contexts (time, space, light, etc...). A third, not existing identity is being created through phptpgraphy, as neither artist nor figure.

neither me nor you, 2010

can I wear you?

At the exhibition 'Salon körperhafter Dinge' these identity portrayals were shown in an album in order to embody the intimacy of every profile. They convey this dual representation, where every 'figure' is both the creator and director of a situation that captivates their identity. Everyone fills an identity-questionnaire that asks questions about identity-building factors. This aims in opening up a process of thinking about the identity, the self and the I. Postcards with questions out of that questionnaire were handed afterwards to people.

In 2013 I continued with performing other identities. Projecting the Portraits on multiple textile layers became the preferred mode as installation, reflecting the multiple layers of identity. Later works like 'looking at unseen spots', 'me as mr. black' or 'searching identity' are further enhancements of this topic.

massive_void

Work shown at: The Essence 2010 (annual group exhibition of university of applied arts), Künstlerhaus, Vienna, 2010

massive_void operiert an den Grenzlinien zwischen Form und Raum. Durch die Fragmentierung der raumkonstituierenden Elemente wird eine Neuinterpretation der Raumbegrenzung selbst als Raum ermöglicht. Die Massivität der Mauern von Michelangelos Grundrissplan für den Petersdom wird zum Ausgangspunkt einer Raumbeschreibung, die Massivität in ein Raumkontinuum verwandelt. Konsequent wird ein Partikel der Grundrissfigur in eine raumbildende Struktur piranesischen Ausmaßes transformiert. (Text: Anton Falkeis)

massive_void performs at the borderline between form and space. The massiveness of the walls of Michelangelo's plan for St. Peter's Basilica becomes the starting point of a spatial description that transforms massiveness into a space continuum. Consistently, a particle of the ground plan figure is transformed into a space-building structure of Piranesian proportions. The fragmentation of the space-constituting elements enables a new interpretation of the limitations of space itself as space - massive void.


 

knoten.

Assemblages 2012

A knot is a method of fastening or securing rope or other linear materials. Trough tying or interweaving, its mostly used to attach objects. In this artwork, different types of braided knots are connected with people, photographs of people. Scales are mixed with dimensions. Photograph as a medium of recollection creates a strong alternative reality. Through re-shooting its projected on a new layer and different scales and dimensions blur.
 
 

I see something you can't see

construction of concepts through the shaping of the shell, 2009

The usually hidden cutting lines are being exposed. This art-piece opens up the discourse on the construct of ideal beauty through the textile medium. The current obsession with this notion is mostly promoted through media culture and fashion, one that oppresses our fractions when they are not fulfilling this ideal. As we exclude parts of our own body from public view, the stress over this ideal is been internalized and expressed through mental diseases.

A Person is often judged by his clothing. The concept is based on that superficial aspect. The appearance of the shell (clothing) defines this generalizing concept formation of a person. However, the individual personality of of each allows a selective perception. Behind this abstract notion lies the subjective dimension. And the inner lining is a further shell. I open up the points, which are usually hidden in our culture, private parts that I often even hide from myselve because they don't mach with the ideal. As long as those parts are being excluded, our body cannot sense them. This art-piece delves into the notion of incorporating acceptance.
 

and so on...

Kunst als kommunikative Praxis

[paintings: “measuring red borders” and “inside-outside”]
Galerie Freihausgasse · Galerie der Stadt Villach
Villach, dec 2016 - jan 2017


Think global, build social

Bauen für eine bessere Welt
[apam staging group project]
Architekturzentrum Wien
Vienna, mar 2014 - jul 2014


Vienna design week

[sustainable design: urban furniture]
Austrian annual design festival at different places in Vienna
Vienna, sep 27th - oct 6th 2013


The Essence 2012

installation: “knotbraiding” at the annual group exhibition of university of applied arts
Künstlerhaus, 1010 Wien
Vienna, jun 2012 - jul 2012


Staging Apam

[apam staging group project]
Galerie Göttlicher
Krems, jan 2014 - mar 2014



The biennale for Kids

[installation, performance and workshop: the giant cloud] group activity: installation & interactive workshop for children and young persons
Giardini, Venice
Venice, mar 5th - 6th 2011


Salon körperhafter Dinge

whoisi: identity-portrayals
Vienna, Salon5 im Brick-5, Wien
Vienna, jun 2010 - jul 2010


The Essence 2010

[installation: massive void]
annual group exhibition of university of applied arts
Künstlerhaus, Wien
Vienna, jun 2010 - jul 2010

2020 © Clelia Baumgartner