Der Audioguide zur Ausstellung „Amazons of Pop!“ im Kunsthaus Graz stellt nicht nur einzelne Künstlerinnen näher vor, sondern behandelt auch die zentralen Themen der Zeit der 1960er- und 70er-Jahre, die maßgeblich das damalige Kunstschaffen mitbestimmt haben.

Text, Konzept: Jasmin Edegger, Katrin Ebner 
Sprecherin: Katrin Ebner 
Aufnahme, Schnitt: Jasmin Edegger

100 Willkommen

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Transcript
Narrator: This installation from 1991 by Mike Kelley is titled "Riddle of the Sphinx" and composed of yarn, stainless-steel bowls, and an offset photolithograph.  

A knitted yarn blanket is placed on the floor like a huge rug. It is shaped in a rectangle roughly 26 feet long by 13 feet wide. The shorter edge of the blanket is placed a few inches from the gallery wall while the other three sides are open to the gallery. The blanket is knitted with a chevron pattern, giving the two shorter edges opposite each other a precise zigzag border while the long perpendicular edges are straight. The side farthest from the gallery wall is primarily deep blue and purple. The strands closer to the wall have sections of lighter tones, primarily yellow mixed with blues, purple, orange, and green, repeating in neat zigzag stripes. About midway down the blanket’s length, the sharp transition between the light and dark sides follows the zigzagging chevron pattern. 

Placed beneath the blanket are stainless-steel bowls. We can’t see their surface but only clearly defined humps. In the yellow section, four bowls form the corner points of a square. In the middle of the blanket, along the transition from light to dark, two bowls are placed apart from one another. In the deep-blue part of the blanket, three bowls underneath form the points of a triangle.   

Hanging on the wall, centered above the edge of the blanket, is an offset photolithograph print, a foot and a half tall by 2 feet wide. It’s an image that is visually reminiscent of the bowls beneath the colored blanket. It’s a deep blue mountain poking up through lavender clouds, sitting beneath a pink, orange, and yellow sunset sky. In fact, it’s an image of Mount Fuji—but the print’s size, a small fraction of the size of the great blanket, reduces the image of the mountain to a size similar to the dimensions of the bowls. The colors of the print mirror the hues present in the blanket beneath.  

In "Riddle of the Sphinx," Kelley refers to the question posed to Oedipus in Sophocles’s drama: What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening? The metal bowls are placed under the blanket in corresponding numbers and the passage of the metaphorical day is echoed in the hues of the afghan, ranging from pale-yellow tones of dawn to the deep tones of dusk. Oedipus conquers the Sphinx and secures his own tragic fate by solving the riddle with the answer, “Man.”

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Description of Riddle of the Sphinx, 1991

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Transcript
Narrator: Artist Gilberto Zorio lifts our gaze with his suspended sculpture "Macchia II," from 1968. As we approach, the installation feels hidden in the room, hanging in a corner from the ceiling and extending about 15 feet in diameter above us. The materials, created from terracotta-colored plasticized PVC and beige-gray rope, suspend lightly from the ceiling, despite the work’s imposing size.

The bulk of the installation is created from a sheet of plasticized PVC less than an inch thick, flattened and stretched about 3 feet in diameter into a somewhat circular, organic shape, like an ink blot. From a distance the entire installation resembles a large spider web, a reference enhanced by eight thin strands of rope extending from the PVC center, stretching outward and parallel to the ceiling. The ropes are evenly spaced and the distance between them begins to widen as they extend farther from the center. They are knotted onto hooks that anchor them to the ceiling. The end of each rope is cut and frayed, hanging directly down from the knot about a foot, like a tassel.

From beneath the installation, the work appears more like a parachute in how the rubber splat is held where the ropes meet. The ropes fan out from a central circular ring smaller than a bracelet; its form is visible beneath the center of the rubber body. Each rope is attached to this ring, visually dividing the underside of the rubber splat into eight triangular sections as they expand outward.

Is this installation imposing or protecting? Perhaps it depends on our perspective.

Description of Stain II (Macchia II), 1968

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Transcript
Narrator: This work by Mario Merz is titled "ACCELERATION = DREAM, FIBONACCI NUMBERS IN NEON AND MOTORCYCLE PHANTOM." Made in 1972 and refabricated in 1989, the work features a motorcycle installed high up on the gallery wall with neon numbers trailing behind it.

The motorcycle is a red Honda Dominator. It is installed sideways, or at a right angle to the gallery wall; the tires touch the wall as if driving full speed along it, defying gravity. Everything about the motorcycle is expected except for one thing: enormous ankole horns are placed over the motorcycle’s handlebars. The yellowish-white curving horns extend about 4 feet on both sides of the motorcycle, twisting and curving to sharp point. This swap of the handlebar machinery with the ankole horns blends the visual associations with a speeding machine and a charging animal.

Trailing behind the motorcycle, along the upper gallery wall, are light blue neon numbers. These numbers are written as if scrawled in cursive, with trailing tails in front of or behind them that create long spaces between each. The spaces lengthen between each number as they become farther from the motorcycle and increase in value: one...one...two....three.....five......eight.......thirteen........twenty-one.........thirty-four..........fifty-five...........eighty-nine............one hundred and forty-four.............two hundred and thirty-three..............three hundred and seventy-seven...............and ending with six hundred and ten.

The length of the neon numbers extends along the upper portions of four gallery walls. Their precise placement in a line behind the motorcycle’s tires gives an initial impression of tire marks, or a marked pathway, behind the bike’s path. These numbers begin the Fibonacci sequence, a series of numbers formed by adding the two previous numbers together. The sequence relates to systems of generation, found in nature’s spiraling forms. What does this work express about patterns, generation, and time? What is the modern motorcycle’s relationship to ancient patterns of nature?

Description of Acceleration=Dream, Fibonacci Numbers in Neon and Motorcycle Phantom, 1972

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Narrator: Rashid Johnson’s "Cosmic Slop “Bitter,”" from 2015, features a solid black surface just over 6 feet high by 8 feet wide, marked by deep cuts and grooves. If we were to touch this surface, our fingers would dance and skip over cracks and crevices, like peaks and valleys in a barren post-volcanic landscape, newly created after a lava flow.

We might also be surprised at its waxy feeling in contrast to the rough appearance of the surface. Johnson uses black soap and wax, which he melts and then manipulates through cutting and digging, etching deep slashes and scratches before it fully hardens. More than simply mark-making, Johnson relates his process to a performance, transforming and layering meaning to this everyday household material.

Black soap itself is said to have transformative and healing properties, particularly in West Africa. It cleanses us on the surface but tastes bitter, a contradiction noted in the artwork’s title, "Cosmic Slop “Bitter.”" The color and title also reference a 1973 song by Parliament Funkadelic and allude to the pain Black bodies have endured, scars both visible and beneath the surface.

What contradictory emotions might we encounter with this work?

Description of Cosmic Slop "Bitter", 2021

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Narrator: Shinique Smith uses reclaimed clothing, ribbon, and yarn in this installation from 2021. It stretches vertically from ceiling to floor, just over 10 feet tall, and varying in width between a few inches along most of the piece to a section in the middle about 2 feet in diameter. There is an element of storytelling in the title, "She Waited Secretly, Between Shadow and Soul," that invites us to observe closely. 

The bulk of this fabric sculpture dangles in the center about 6 feet above the gallery floor, hanging from the ceiling by a thin stretch of cord and ribbon, which seems to tenuously support its weight. Another stretch of thin ribbon hangs below the bulky center and supports a smaller mass of fabric at the bottom, resting delicately on the gallery floor. The central piece is about 2 feet in diameter while the smaller bottom piece is just over several inches wide. What appears to be a single ribbon supporting both ends of this artwork is in fact several smaller pieces tied or braided together to create a continuous line. This gives it the illusion of a thread that is actively being pulled apart and starting to fray along the edges—as if at any moment it could snap or tear.

The bulky fabric sections at the center and bottom of the installation are constructed similarly, made from clothing from personal and intimate sources. From afar, it appears to be composed of black and orange fabric, tightly compacted and bound together into a bulbous mass. Upon closer look, it’s evident that all the fabric is the same: a black color that has been bleached in places, creating drips and splotches of orange tones scattered throughout. The bulbous orange-and-black mass is contained by thin black and gold ribbons, cords, and threads unevenly wrapped several times around the mass, so what would have been a circular shape is now a series of lumps and bulges, like flesh spilling over a tightened belt.
 
The relation of these two bulky sections resembles a pendulum clock, with a larger central timepiece and a smaller pendulum that might dangle and swing like a counterweight. It leaves us wondering about the relationship between them and their reference to cross-cultural traditions, including swaddling babies, wrapping gifts, body binding, and tying into devotional objects. How might Smith’s use of worn clothing—personal and intimate—transform the material into a symbol of care for bodies and the ecological environment?

Description of she waited secretly, between shadow and soul, 2021

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Narrator: This work by Danh Vo from 2013 is titled "Lot 20. Two Kennedy Administration Cabinet Room Chairs." The sculptural work hangs vertically on the gallery wall and initially appears like a single enormous piece of leather, extending around 6 feet long and about 3 feet at its widest point. It is draped in folds like a curtain. The surface that would have covered the chair seats and backs is dark black with a glossy sheen, reflecting the light at various angles while remaining shadowed within the deep folds. On the reverse side, the leather is a light tan color with a softer texture, like unfinished suede. The majority of the visible surface is black, with just a few sections at the top revealing the tan underbelly when the leather is folded over.

From a distance the black leather surface looks smooth and unblemished. Upon closer inspection, small circular indentations are visible along the edges where metal rivets would have secured it to a chair frame. Some of the corners are aged and cracked while others are torn and ragged. Remnants of white stuffing where the leather was ripped from the chair are still visible in a small oval shape on the suede underside.

This allusion to the violence of skinning a slaughtered animal and hanging it like a trophy is also reflected in the political history of the period and Vo’s family history of fleeing violence during the Vietnam War.

How do objects bear witness to history? How does the way these former chairs are presented affect our perception of the past?

Description of Lot 20. Two Kennedy Administration Cabinet Room Chairs, 2013

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Narrator: "Untitled (Black & Black)" is a work by Pier Paolo Calzolari from 1986. The full installation measures nearly 8 feet high by 8 feet wide and extends 2 feet from the gallery wall. The dimensions of each component are varied within that frame. The piece is composed of two sections, one hanging vertically on the wall about two feet above the other, which runs horizontally along the gallery floor. A single copper pipe stretches down from the section on the wall to reach the ground section, the only connector between them.

The wall section includes a jet-black panel hanging vertically, about 8 feet high by 2 feet wide. A thin gray sheet of lead is attached to each edge of the panel where it protrudes out from the wall; they are wrinkled, demonstrating their malleability. Along the left edge of the panel, not one but many layers of lead sheets are stacked together, tightly packed like gills. They are difficult to identify because they are thickly covered with layers of brilliant white frost, sparkling and glittering as it catches the gallery light. At the base of this left side of the panel a pipe extends down to a small refrigeration unit humming on the gallery floor below the work. 

The ground section of this work is about 8 feet long by 2 feet wide made of long lead sheets laid horizontally along the floor against the gallery wall. A chalky white powder is scattered along its dark gray surface in shapes that appear to have formed organically, as if saltwater pools had collected and then evaporated. A small motor sits on the far-left edge of the lead sheet, adjacent to a black compressor with a rounded top and a cooling structure contained within a rectangular metal box. This is surrounded by copper evaporator and condenser coils, which are attached to the lower-left corner of the wall panel and cause the freezing process. The whole unit is about 2 feet square, as if a refrigerator’s inner workings were removed and repurposed for use here. Calzolari’s interest in organic materials and chemical and physical transformation is evident in this artwork and reflective of Arte Povera, an Italian art movement of which he was a member. 

The contradictory nature of salt, necessary for life and yet deadly in large doses, is mirrored in the polar opposites of black and white, and absence and presence of color throughout the artwork. Both refrigeration and salt are intended to preserve things but through very different processes. Salt is a natural preservative, while refrigeration works through a chemical process of transforming a liquid into a gas, and this evaporation cools the surrounding area. 

While made of unique materials, this work evokes a minimal vertical painting in deep black with a vibrant strip of white along its left side. Calzolari was drawn to frost as a luminous material. In his own words, “I saw how this sort of absolute, unparalleled whiteness had the capacity to constantly renew itself... and be something that was not just white, but rather a sort of pulsation.” Why might Calzolari have titled this artwork "Untitled (Black & Black)" when the color white is so essentially present in the frost and evoked through Calzolari’s use of salt before being burned black?

Description of Untitled (Black & Black), 2021

ABC 4.16.24 2nd

ABC 4.16.24 1st

The Universalmuseum Joanneum is considered the biggest of its kind in Central Europe. About 4,5 million items in the collections form the basis of a richly faceted ‘universal’ exhibition and events schedule. 

Founded as Austria’s first public museum in 1811, the Universalmuseum Joanneum presents a broad range of art, culture and the natural sciences at twelve architecturally valuable locations. 

100 Willkommen

Universalmuseum Joanneum

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