Photo from Death in the Studio, 2004
by Hannes Priesch and Niki
Lederer
My drawings and
paintings are the visual terminus of a much longer method,
and their surplus, or extravisual, meaning may be found in
the archeology of their making: My process starts with performances
staged in my studio, where my co-swirlers and I carry out
potentially painful acrobatic exercises, such as walking the
tight rope, climbing ropes or juggling, dribbling or balancing
on balls.
This initial physical experience, driven by a desire to first
experience as manifest reality the symbolic content of my
images, is documented with a camera and subsequently mediated
by cutting out the naked figures from these source shots and
reassembling them into collages. Like lost wax, the photo
collages gradually disappear while serving as visual documentation
for drawings and finally paintings.
The optimal viewing experience for this series requires ropes suspended from the gallery ceiling. These are intended as expansions into three-dimensional space of this series’ central recurring pictorial element: The string of beads.
Their presence in the exhibition venue brings the creative
journey full circle, i.e. back to the initial physical experience
occurring in my studio. The gallery-goers willing to step
into the circus ring to swing on the rope for a minute can
see the images unfold from a participant’s perspective.
And because my pictorial epic is partially a comment on being
fully present in one’s body, I want the viewers to feel
the strain in their own limbs as they slowly glide through
the air.