Down the centre of a white fabric flanked by vertical crimson stripes, the titular phrase from Greta Schödl’s Strofinaccio (Dishcloth, 2023) is painstakingly handwritten throughout 5 columns, repeating till its that means turns into misplaced within the detailed execution of the visible type. The writing follows a format that permits for deviations, with each phrase having a barely completely different look and size. The tenderly curved ‘o’s, accentuated with a shimmering gold leaf evocative of baroque ornament, units a full of life rhythm. A part of ‘Road Poetry’, Schödl’s first solo exhibition in Austria since 1977, Strofinaccio reveals a lot in regards to the artist’s method to intertwining phrase and picture. By incorporating her handwriting onto the readymade textile, Schödl elevates an object consultant of domesticity to the realm of artwork whereas foregrounding the private, feminine expertise.
After learning textile artwork on the College of Utilized Arts in Vienna, Schödl moved to Bologna in 1959, the place she grew to become a part of the cross-disciplinary motion Poesia Visiva (Visible Poetry), which related experimental poetry with visible expression. This present exhibition at Phileas focuses on the artist’s persistent use of the written phrase in works starting from inscribed marble and granite blocks, corresponding to Granito rosso Sierra Chica (Crimson Sierra Chica Granite, 2020), exhibited finally yr’s Venice Biennale, to her public engagement tasks of the late Nineteen Seventies and early ’80s, corresponding to Manichino (Model, 1978), a feminine picket model meticulously calligraphed with its descriptor, which she positioned on the streets of Bologna. In the identical yr, Schödl carried a big cylinder into the town’s Piazza Maggiore, its monumentality demanding an energetic occupation of house as she tries to talk with passersby (Tubo, Tube, 1978). Schödl’s engagement with efficiency was transient – aligning with the experimental nature of the Nineteen Seventies political zeitgeist – and lacked the novel feminism of different efficiency work of the interval, corresponding to that of fellow Austrian VALIE EXPORT. Nonetheless, Schödl’s pressing attempt for visibility advocated for the self-empowered public presence of girls past the home sphere.
The present illustrates an astonishing continuity in Schödl’s observe. Strofinaccio is introduced subsequent to an inscribed picket ironing board (Untitled, 1978), made virtually 50 years earlier, but following the identical creative ideas. The earliest piece within the exhibition, the monotype Untitled (1955), is dominated by two traces resembling thick threads of yarn on expressive hatching, revealing each Schödl’s early curiosity within the linear and her origins in textile artwork. Certainly, the obsessive repetition current within the artist’s work attracts parallels with female-coded craft methods, corresponding to stitching, crocheting and weaving. Schödl’s quest for the easy and systematic continuously recollects the minimalist works of Agnes Martin.
Lastly, in direction of the top of the exhibition, are the 4 works on paper that comprise Vier Ebenen (4 Ranges, 2020). Within the first picture, quite a few brushstrokes are crowded collectively in a sample paying homage to a woven carpet, pulsating and pooling in varied shades of blue ink. Within the second, a cursive script with golden highlights emerges from summary strokes to spell out ‘Greta Schödl’, the writing spilling over onto the third (adjoining) piece of paper. This may very well be a deliberate allusion to the banal, however additionally it is a approach of staking her creative authority: ‘Right here I’m.’ Within the fourth drawing, solely the golden highlights stay, forming irregular vertical traces. Emblematic of Schödl’s observe as a complete, Vier Ebenen cherishes the latent meanings and psychological undertones that accompany the handwritten. ‘Road Poetry’ succeeds in bringing to the viewers’s consideration to an oeuvre that, having vacillated little in seven a long time, is marked by a concentrated seek for individuality and self-awareness.
Greta Schödl’s ‘Road Poetry’ is on view at Phileas, Vienna, till 26 April
Primary picture: Greta Schödl, Strofinaccio (Dishcloth), 2023, ink and gold leaf on dishcloth. Courtesy: the artist and Phileas, Vienna; {photograph}: Kunst-Dokumentation.com/Manuel Carreon Lopez
