Titania Seidl Portfolio

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Tyrone Boone
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1 Titania Seidl Portfolio

2 I squinted but couldn t decide whether they were smudges or figures, 2017, oil on board, 24 x 18 cm a touch that left you feeling like an empty cocoon, 2017, oil on board, 30 x 24 cm 2 3

rectangle (It will be good for you, they said, you will learn

3 4 The painter & the rectangle (He gestures towards a form but doesn t dare embody it), 2016, 160 x 110 cm The painter & the rectangle (It will be good for you, they said, you will learn what the surface is and what it isn t), 2016, 160 x 110 cm 5

painter & the rectangle (I m enjoying what s going on, the

4 6 The painter & the rectangle (wide awake at 4:19, tattoos of Chinese wave patterns on the inside of her eyelids), 2016, 160 x 110 cm The painter & the rectangle (I m enjoying what s going on, the autobiographical narrative, but the edges are a little too hard for me), 2016, 160 x 110 cm 7

5 8 MAUVE, Club Pro Los Angeles, 2016, installation view (pictured: Titania Seidl, Eugen Wist, Maria Cozma, Rita Virtorelli) 9

All that you see, think and feel is framed in italics As I look out, out two windows, down three streets plus a cross road, from the fifth floor of a city centre building (a concrete aerie), I m also

6 All that you see, think and feel is framed in italics As I look out, out two windows, down three streets plus a cross road, from the fifth floor of a city centre building (a concrete aerie), I m also figuring out how to write about the work of Titania Seidl. Seidl is a Viennese artist who works with painting, objects and most recently text. As I circle two descriptors, similar but at odds: the other side of underneath vs. out -of-jointness, the hazy imprecision, not an equivocation, seems to approach the sparsely inhabited territory Seidl explores. By sparsely inhabited, I mean few painters work within this register, the insistence of the end game, the tight, coherent, essentially closed body of work that allows no quarter for detraction and by extension conversation, is neatly side stepped. Inveigled instead into a discussion where paintings conventions are upended, we are persuaded to envisage how things might be. Here is a variety of options and frictions, a new order, slight and persistent and inexplicably forceful. Un-authored? Perhaps, or rather holding back from the singular, authoritative, voice. In Referring to notes made in response to X. marks the spot (a trifle) both a recent exhibition and a publication, where to start and by extension where to end seems a redundant concern. In Seidl s work objects, both made and found, paintings of varying scales, which drift between the tangible, discernable, oblique and unreadable along with found images, hold the interior space they have been cast into. A constellation of varying parts, with no discernable limits: reflection, assimilation, adjustment and appropriation, a back and forth between thought, observation, action and invention. Where does one thing end and another begin? The insubstantial or over looked, heightened through painterly quotation, actual and metaphorical dead-ends meeting the edge of concrete things: corners, frames, screens, remembered or observed? Repeated and re-rehearsed details, architecturally coherent come together and fall apart. To ask where this is, is to miss the point. Where is this? And then the realisation that misunderstanding is vital in understanding the reach of these conflations. Paintings, text, object. The work characterised by an insouciance that can step away from a singular resolve, at ease with its provisional, contingent qualities. The notes read: -violent moment/unexpected (obviously unexpected) -how is the story written? narrative? no narrative, narrative abandoned -NO ASSERTIONS/no hierarchy -an invisible woman protagonists (note not the artist) -NO HIERACHY (this time louder) collage/digital image/text/painting, actually it s all about painting -transparent/solid surface qualities, where the eye stops and where the eye passes quickly - repeated and unexpected edges, architectural details out of sync -harmonious and inharmonious colours (BAD COLOURS) - the wrong side of things, looking through things to other things to spaces that don t work -does the revolver revolve? (Sarcastic, there is no dumb-ass word play or its equivalent visual one liner) -repeated over-painting, sometimes clearly visible -graduated, chromatic rises, often blocks and more recently a digital, synthetic palette, replacing the Powell and Pressburger colour of before -careless/careful objects where the artist s hand is present, fingerprints in marbled paper clay -many things too close to the front of the picture plane, contrived awkwardness which at first glance appears easy/correct -things: silhouettes that become transparent objects, cutouts in airy surfaces that cast improbable shadows, gliding planes of flat and patterned colour that take us back into the painting and cut away the floor. Where am I looking out from with this hovering perspective? X marks the spot (a trifle), a text and an install, are separate works with concomitant qualities that unfold gradually through prolonged scrutiny. To read one as a description or key to the other is to diminish the horizons of both. Each form allows for a different kind of maneuver, their breadth and particularities clearly enjoyed by the artist. Within the visual work we are encouraged to let formal assumptions and conventions fall away. No surface whether it be painted or found remains stable. In the text, Scene Two, The River, the protagonist observes the hyper-real qualities of a reflection, more crystalline and perfect than the reality it is reflected from. Where is the real moment? The actual thing, the real reality? The work appears to be asking these question without a driving anxiety, at ease with its jostling ways and means. Significantly aren t we being offered, both text and install that considers paintings ability to approximate our present experience, our reality s complicated texture? Seidl s text seems to imply this, a detective story, an unresolved mystery, where no final conclusion is revealed, the subject of the fractured narrative being the investigation itself, a stand in for the activity of painting, albeit framed in italics. Nadia Hebson, unsure what there even is to retell, 2016, oil on panel, 30 x 24 cm 11

7 12 your hands dissolving from my collar down, 2016, oil on panel, 30 x 24 cm glow effect pants, 2016, oil on panel, 30 x 20 cm 13

casts a glance over the manifold potted plants in the greenhouse, arranged in a raster; they are set up in the space and sorted by type, size and function. M.

8 Titania Seidl - composition w. potted plants, vases, drapery, marble,... (exhibition text) M. pauses in midstep and looks up at the glass roof. The light changes quickly, like flicking a light switch off and on and off. There s a strong wind today chasing the clouds from one end of the sky to the other. M. casts a glance over the manifold potted plants in the greenhouse, arranged in a raster; they are set up in the space and sorted by type, size and function. M. is now standing in what is almost the exact center of this plant-grid, amid rows and rows of the most popular houseplants: ficus benjamina (with decorative trunks), spider plant (on NASA s list of best air-filtering plants!), snake plant (ditto), dracaena (added cheerfulness), aloe vera (frugal, no need for direct sunlight), parlor palm (perfect for creating an exotic atmosphere), monstera ( Swiss cheese Plant ). (...) In the dream I m floating, gaze skywards. I am nothing but pure gaze in an upward direction, moving forward, not like an eye but like the lens of a camera, thin and transparent, close to immaterial, or the sensor of a scanner, moving slowly, formed from light, actually immaterial. I, the eye, am floating through an empty cityscape, the light a dim, brownish twilight. I am floating past empty shop windows, very close to the ground, looking up at ceilings, hardly any reflection in the windowglass, just the texture of the clouds above. Curious to notice from time to time that I have no reflection myself. In a few spaces I drift past, the light is switched on and I can study the patterns of the glowing bulbs and fluorescent tubes in passing. How good to know that one s surroundings are undisturbed by one s own material presence, how nice to be bodyless, weightless, nothing, only a gaze. (...) M. walks through an elaborate entrance hall, arm wrapped around the pot of a miniature banana tree, dragging behind with the other hand a cart filled with a couple of different specimens, all contained in discreet off-white ceramic pots. The client had asked to rent out approximately 500 house plants for their new inner-city office - employees had complained about the new office building, the dry air, the general lack of atmosphere. The addition of a few indoor plants to the offices seemed like an ideal solution, every position of every single plant had been specified exactly, and the types of plants were to be selected today. The entrance hall really is monumental, M. marvels, walking slowly as to not tip over the plants in the cart. The walls are mantled in decorative slabs of green marble with unlikely veinings. Bubbles containing colour gradients (mint green fading into emerald fading into turquoise) are penetrated by chaotic anthracite lines that perpetually entwine to form repeating patterns. (...) X. took a stroll along the riverside. The sun was shining. The river seemed calm. It was not very wide, but judging by the gap the city planners had left between it and the streets running along both its sides on a slightly higher level, there was no doubt that it swelled up from time to time to burst its banks. It was in this saftey zone that X. moved upstream. Hardly anyone else was around, a few old ladies on their bicycles, transporting their shopping on small paths that snaked through the grass. X. walked on, her gaze moving towards the water. On the river s surface, she could see the blue sky and a few white clouds. Even the houses built higher up along the banks were reflected as were the mountains in the distance. The mirror image seemed more clear, much more in focus, somehow more defined than what X. saw when she looked up. Where the land- and cityscape was obscured by haze and distance, losing colour and detail, its reflection retained an uncanny vivdness. X. didn t try to see her own mirror image, she suspected that there wouldn t be much to see. (...) She takes out a folder bound in black leather, and I can see from where I m sitting it s an expensive object, the colour slightly blacker, the leather, softer, more delicate to the touch than any ordinary leather-bound folder. She carefully lifts the cover, touching it only with her fingertips, her hands moving as if she was wearing the finest gloves, as if there was a layer between her skin and the skin the folder is bound in. Inside, there is only one sheet of paper, my contract. The page is so thin it is almost translucent, but not quite, and it is marbled in the most disturbing pattern. I recognise the marbling technique, Turkish, handmade, a decorative design, but somehow twisted at if the perspective within the paper plane is warped. Pistachio-coloured lines interweave with streaks of brilliant mauve, interrupted by large dabs of a deep prussian blue. In the centre of these blotches, brilliantly coloured particles, ranging from a cool lemon yellow to a red like a fresh cut steak. I delve into the multicoloured tumult, physically pulled in by the overwhelming multitude of specks. They form the pattern of the night sky, all the constellations are there, I try hard to locate my own star sign within the chaos, Leo, but I get so dizzy I have to look away, my eyes refocus and find the white office wall. 14 Titania Seidl, 2015 composition w. potted plants, vases, drapery, marble,... MUSA, Vienna, 2015, installation views 15

9 16 those who shall master the micro shall master the macro, 2015, oil on wood, 30 x 20 cm composition w. potted plants, vases, drapery, marble,.. MUSA, Vienna, 2015, installation views 17

Titania Seidl / Melanie Ebenhoch - For Aliens When Humankind is Gone - 2015 You Fresco, Me Palimpsest I envy your process.

Melanie, I imagine whitewashed floors for you and a childhood sunstrip falling through slatted doors across a page of 1980s Italian interior décor.

floors and back before a childhood sunstrip falling across a page of 1980s Italian interior décor ~ hanging here and there about you in the air now and before Add plaster and pigment Add plaster and

10 Titania Seidl / Melanie Ebenhoch - For Aliens When Humankind is Gone You Fresco, Me Palimpsest I envy your process. Titania, you moved flats recently and I imagine you unpacking your cardboard boxes of old manga comics and the pales and pinks of them spilling across your new wooden floors. Melanie, I imagine whitewashed floors for you and a childhood sunstrip falling through slatted doors across a page of 1980s Italian interior décor. All these things, and more, All hanging there and about you in the air at once through days - the pales and pinks of the manga strips spilling out of the box on your new wooden floors and whitewashed floors and back before a childhood sunstrip falling across a page of 1980s Italian interior décor ~ hanging here and there about you in the air now and before Add plaster and pigment Add plaster and pigment, add more, All hanging about you in the air now and before Add plaster and pigment, add more, follow it through or the same as before Add plaster and pigment Air now and before And more Cross out ^^ I envy your whole. It survives through time; my words reduce it. For Aliens When Humankind is Gone (Collaborative work by Titania Seidl & Melanie Ebenhoch) Installation views at mo.e Vienna,

x. marks the spot Solo-Exhibition, Gallery AIRY, Kofu City (JP) 2014 Installation views X.

had spent the largest part of her life believing that she was someone. In X.

had finally gotten to the bottom of things, when she had realised that she was indeed noone, that she was no more or less special than anyone else,

Had she not been promised, in a way, that even if she wasn t someone now, that the possibility existed that she could be someone if she worked at it

11 x. marks the spot Solo-Exhibition, Gallery AIRY, Kofu City (JP) 2014 Installation views X. marks the spot, Gallery AIRY, Kofu City, 2014 paintings, modified furniture, short story, cardboars- and paperclay objects " X. had spent the largest part of her life believing that she was someone. In X. defense it has to be said that she wasn t the only one who had been possessed by the thought of being someone. When X. had finally gotten to the bottom of things, when she had realised that she was indeed noone, that she was no more or less special than anyone else, she had felt betrayed. Had she not been promised, in a way, that even if she wasn t someone now, that the possibility existed that she could be someone if she worked at it hard enough? Had she not been told for years, maybe all her life, that there were goals to be reached, success to be achieved, that somewhere fortune was waiting just for her? At first X. felt betrayed, then aggrieved, then surprised. At last she stopped trying to find her purpose in life, stopped trying to improve herself, stopped wanting to be someone. She started to be noone and felt imperturbable. " (Titania Seidl, x. marks the spot, 2014) 20 21

12 Titania Seidl Arndtstrasse 2 / 33-34, A-1120 Wien // Tel.Nr.: // // titania.seidl@gmail.com Selected Shows (Solo): 2016 why the long face, black sphinx, Drop City, Newcastle, UK (mit Daniel Ferstl, Lukas Thaler) 2015 composition w. potted plants, vases, drapery, marble,..., MUSA, Wien For Aliens When Humankind is Gone, mo.ë, Wien (with Melanie Ebenhoch) born 1988 in Vienna (AT) studied painting with Prof. Attersee/Prof. Eisler at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna 2010/2011 Erasmus Scholarship at Newcastle School of Arts and Cultures, Newcastle upon Tyne 2012 Diploma with Distinction, supervised by Prof. Judith Eisler founded MAUVE art space, Vienna, since Winter 2012 (with Daniel Ferstl, Lukas Thaler) ( to present assistant in the painting department, University of Applied Arts, Vienna 2014 X. marks the spot, AIRY, Kofu City (JP) a walk, a wall, some mountains, Showroom for Young Art, Wien (Solo with Laura Pöld) 2013 Civility, the fine forms, the old paintings and so on, Galerie ART, Brno, Czech Redox, Sammlung Lenikus STUDIOS, Wien (Solo with Katharina Monka) 2012 Inversion (Diplomausstellung), Reisnerstr. 9, Wien Grants / Scholarships / Awards / Residencies: 2016 Mentoring Program for Artists, Arts and Culture Division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria 2015 Start Stipendium, Arts and Culture Division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria 2014 & 2015 shortlisted for Strabag Art Award 2014 Artist in Residence, AIRY, Kofu-Shi (JP) 2013/2014 Year-long Working Grant of the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research 2012/2013 Artist in Residence at Sammlung Lenikus, Vienna 2011 Winner of Pfann-Ohmann Recognition Award (with Baptiste Bernard, Jakob Brossmann, Hannah Öllinger, Manfred Rainer, Stefan Wirnsperger) 2010 Winner of the Fred-Adlmüller Stipend Collections: Collection of the City of Vienna, Collection of the federal state Tyrol, Lenikus Collection, Private Collections (AT, DE, UK, JP) Publications: Artist Lecture Series Vienna Transcript - Titania Seidl, 2017 painting regarding the present, 2016; MAUVE at Club Pro Vienna, 2016 (exhibition Fanzine); Melanie & Titania, 2015; sei niemals krass zu deinen brüdern (a mauve publication), 2015; FOUNDATIONS Magazine, The Vienna Issue, 2015; on fleek, issue 01 (with Daniel Ferstl), 2015; X marks the spot (exhibition publication), 2014; Redox (exhibition publication with Katharina Monka), 2013 Selected Shows (Group): 2017 A painter s doubt, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (upcoming); Arcade, London (upcoming) 2016 Tropical Punch, Galerie Nathalie Halgand, Wien (curated by Sabrina Möller); MAUVE, Club Pro, Los Angeles; Instagram Now!, Belvedere, Wien (curated by Severin Dünser & Salvatore Viviano); Summer in the City, Galerie Christine König, Wien; nonstreaming artifacts, easyupstream, Munich; Die sonderbare Gegenwart zu zweit, Tim Nolas, Vienna; XENA, we are hercules, Munich, Germany sharing space, Alte Post, Vienna (curated by Victoria Dejaco); Firsts, The Hour Blue, FormContent, Vienna; dreaming dict cc, Skulpturinstut, Vienna; Ezara Spangl & Rainer Spangl, ve.sch, Vienna (intervention with Daniel Ferstl, Lukas Thaler); Leicht gegenüber, Fuggerstrasse 40, Berlin (with Melanie Ebenhoch) 2014 Joseph Helland / Titania Seidl / Franz Zar, wellwellwell, Wien (curated by Melanie Ohnemus); one MAUVE gallery / work, Wien (with Daniel Ferstl, Lukas Thaler, Salvatore Viviano); Wellenlänge I, mo.ë, Wien (with Katharina Karner, Maria Pavlova); Goofy, studios das weiße haus, Wien; First Emerald, then Sapphire, then Black, Semperdepot, Wien; beyond mimesis - the unwritten, mo.ë, Wien 2013 In Defense of the Poor Image, hufak offspace, Wien; postoriginal, Friday Exit, Wien; Group Show, Sammlung Lenikus STUDIOS, Wien; Moda WK, Vane Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne; Jakob Breit/Daniel Ferstl/Titania Seidl, je regrette, Berlin; Flamingo, NRW Bank, Münster (with Katharina Monka); Carnation, Kunsthalle Ganglbauergasse, Wien 2012 Anthem, Ausstellungszentrum Heiligenkreuzerhof, Wien; The Essence, Künstlerhaus, Wien;»o«, ve.sch, Wien; Die / Der Würfel / Le dé (VI), COCO, Wien; Räumung, Palais Kabelwerk, Wien 2011 No Horses, Universität für Angewandte Kunst, Wien; Open Studios, Ganglbauergasse 38, Wien; Metamart, Künstlerhaus, Wien; Schwerebeschleunigung, Heyestraße 117, Düsseldorf; White Wilderness, NewBridge Studios, Newcastle upon Tyne 22 23

Born 1989, in Hall in Tirol Lives and works in Vienna, Austria

selected works lukas thaler Born 1989, in Hall in Tirol Lives and works in Vienna, Austria EDUCATION: 2008-2009 University Vienna, art history 2009 2015 University of applied arts Vienna, painting PROJECTS: