Hans Kupelwieser is regarded as one of the most consequent representatives of Austria`s post medial sculpture. His work is to be situated within the so-called “Expanded Field”. This term was formed by the American art historian Rosalind E. Krauss concerning the sculpture of the seventies which broke the limits of the traditional genre by integrating and forming the surroundings. Regarding Kupelwieser`s work, this expansion is not only confined to the capture of the space, but also to the experimental use of new materials. Hardly any other artist handles the keyboard of material and media-immanent variety like he.
In the tension between the classical categories sculpture and photography – in his work they do not only co-exist equally but, furthermore, interact methodically – the sculptor deals with the traditional conflict between area and object, which culminates in an interplay between two- and three dimensionality. By using the photogramme, a simple photographical method of illustration without a camera by which objects are directly arranged and exposed on sensitized paper, Kupelwieser found an ideal means to transform objects into pictures, that is to say into two dimensional negative pictures. As an indexical sign, namely the print of a real object, shade and mark are able to visualize the object in space. Kupelwieser uses the photographical effect of turning positive into negative for reprojecting objects into the third dimension. Like a picture puzzle, his photogrammatical works oscillate between the contrast positive – negative, area – space, presence – absence. Pointed out as precise analysis, Kupelwieser`s works also present the absent in a concentrated way. Dealing with the Holocaust and its victims, he articulates the irretrievable loss by making the blanc space a subject.
It is to mention that, within Kupelwieser`s multiform and strictly concepted oeuvre, some monuments reminding of national socialist atrocities have already been realized, for example the Erinnerungsstätte für die Widerstandsgruppe Kirchl-Trauttmannsdorff (Memorial for the Kirchl-Trauttmannsdorff Resistance Group) in St. Pölten in 1988, the memorial at the Jewish cemetery in Krems in 1995 and the memorial for the former synagogue in Hiezing in 2005. That is due to the fact, that Kupelwieser`s monuments and memorials are able to present substantial concerns in a rigid form, far from expressive sentimentalism or emotional gesture of bewilderment. By all means of formal discretion, Kupelwieser had repeatedly succeeded in very much setting the spectator`s thinking in motion.
Works (selection):
Ohne Titel (Without Title), 1995: So Kupelwieser names this unpretentious memorial reminding of the 129 Jews of Krems, driven away and murdered during World War II, whose names and short biographies are cut in a 48 meters long steel band. Quasi a threshold, it floats about 20 centimetres above ground, across the cemetery`s entrance, again and again being in the visitor`s way. Kupelwieser respects the Jewish prohibition on pictures and, at one blow, makes allowance for the traditional Scripture. Presented as a blanc space, the script links – by its own power of symbolism – moments of bygones.
Standpunkt Geschichte (Standpoint History), 2004: The monument reminds of the "Neue-Welt-Synagoge” (“New World Synagogue”) in Hietzing, designed by Arthur Grünberger, a remarkable building in the history of architecture, which was destroyed in 1938 by National Socialists and their accomplices in the local population. Kupelwieser`s memorial consists of a simple old photo of the completely destroyed synagogue, set up on a glass stele. The synagogue`s frieze was painted in its original size on the pavement. The spectator, posing in front of the memorial, views the past (represented by the photo) and the present (formed by a simple block of flats from the fifties or sixties) simultaneously.
Erythrozyten (Erythrocytes), 2002: In a non-hierarchical formation, Kupelwieser spreads outsize erythrocytes over the Grazer LKH West (the public clinic Graz West). Compared to their natural prototypes, Kupelwieser`s objects do not conform to static forms. The sculptures vary and adapt to the respective situations or utility. Kupelwieser uses a concrete nature-borrowed form which he alienates by digital computer morphing and transfers into the system of art. Due to extreme enlargement and serial arrangement, the concrete steps back in favour of the artistic creation.
Blase in die Ecke (Bubble into the corner!), 2004, is one of Kupelwieser`s pneumatic sculptures, the so-called “Gonflables” which he has been dealing with since the beginning of the nineties. He creates these “Gonflables” by welding together aluminium plates and fixing them on outsize balloons. Blase in die Ecke was presented within Kupelwieser`s latest big retrospective exhibition in Neue Galerie Graz. Playing with delusions regarding material or function is part of contemporary sculpture. So it does not surprise to see Kupelwieser`s aluminium bubble floating in a corner of the Neue Galerie`s courtyard, lightly above the spectator`s heads, completely in contrast to the metal`s nature.
Profile:
Born in Lunz/See (Lower Austria) in 1948. He lives and works in Vienna where he attended “Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt” from 1970 to 1973. From 1976 to 1982, Kupelwieser studied at the "Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst Wien“ with Herbert Tasquil, Bazon Brock and Peter Weibel. Since 1995, he has been professor at the Institute for Contemporary Art at the University of Technology in Graz.
Exhibitions (selection):
Solo Exhibitions: 2004 ZKM, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe / Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz / 2001 Kunsthaus Muerz, Mürzzuschlag / 1999 Cultural centre, Milan / 1995 Kulturhaus, Graz; Trabant, Vienna; Galerie Stadtpark, Krems / 1994 MAK – Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna / 1990 Secession, Vienna / 1989 Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz / 1985 Galerie Hummel, Vienna; Engelhornstiftung, Munich (with Franz West) / 1984 Galerie Winter, Düsseldorf and Vienna.
Group Exhibitions: 2005 Stretch Skulpture, Kunsthaus Meran, Meran / 2004 Wiener Linien, Wien Museum, Vienna / 2003 Österreichischer Skulpturenpark, Graz / 2002 current settings – der mediale Blick als Transfer, Kunstforum, Hallein / 2001 der ironische blick, Landesgalerie am OÖ. Landesmuseum, Linz / 2000 cultural sidewalk – Gumpendorf 2000, Vienna / 1998 Lifestyle, Kunsthaus, Bregenz / 1997 Alpenblick, Kunsthalle, Vienna / 1996 Antagonismes, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris / 1995 Fisch & Fleisch – Photographie aus Österreich 1945-1995, Kunsthalle, Krems; Künstlerhaus Palais Thurn & Taxis, Bregenz / 1994 Transfer, Medellín, Columbia / 1992 Identität: Differenz, steirischer herbst 92, Graz / 1991 Kunst, Europa, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg / 1989 Brennpunkt Wien, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe and Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (1988) / 1988 Ars Electronica, Linz / 1985 Raum annehmen, Galerie Insam, Vienna / 1984 Neue Wege Plastischen Gestaltens, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz / Reliefbilder, Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna and Galerie Krinzinger, Innsbruck; Junge Szene Wien, Secession, Vienna / 1981 Erweiterte Fotografie, Secession, Vienna.
Publications (selection):
Hans Kupelwieser: Postmediale Skulpturen, Christa Steinle (ed.), Graz and Ostfildern-Ruit 2004; Hubert Scheibl, Hans Kupelwieser, Secession, Vienna 1990.
Illustrations:
Erythrozyten, 2002, photo: Hans Kupelwieser;
Blase in die Ecke (installation, Neue Galerie Graz, courtyard), 2004, photo: Angelo Kaunat.
Courtesy Hans Kupelwieser |
