Death in the Studio by Hannes Priesch and Niki Lederer

My figurative imagery is the visual terminus of a much longer method, and perhaps its extravisual meaning is to be found in the archeology of its making: Driven by a desire to first experience as manifest reality the symbolic content of my images, my process starts with performances staged in my studio, where my models and I make pitiful attempts at acrobatic exercises: We walk the tight rope (poorly), strenuously climb wires suspended from the ceiling, balance on balls and twist our bodies into a myriad of uncomfortable positions. It is important that this initial physical experience —ripe with the potential for injuries and skin-against-skin contact—lives on in the final pieces, as I strive to convey a bodily awareness of the paradox of strength and vulnerability that is the human condition.   In addition to works on paper ranging from a few inches to more than 13 foot in height, I use a variety of other media:    ● Large-scale wall drawings executed on-site, which again can be read as an act of    ● Performance/endurance art (during the process, I live on site 24/7, barely eating and sleeping) ● Larger-than-life scale works on canvas (experimental mixed media technique residing    in the borderland between drawing and painting) ● Installations: clusters of line drawings on contoured glass suspended from braids of human hair ● Animations of line drawings projected large directly onto the walls of the exhibition venue ● Interactive components: climbing ropes and swings that invite viewers to engage physically    with the artworks.    Common to all of the above imagery is that meaning is conveyed through line. And so, above and beyond their narrative content, these works can be seen as formal explorations of the medium of drawing.