100 Black Squares – Performatives Herstellen
Astrid Edlinger
2011 - ongoing
Artist Statement
The basic idea of »100 Black Squares« is to examine in detail the relationship between idea and execution – or more grandiose if you will: mind and matter – as it has been underpinning Western philosophy and Western art for centuries. To do so I bring the labour-intensive traditional craft of Urushi lacquering in a productive dialogue with Western Minimalism to - afresh - raise some fundamental questions about what »making things« or »making art« is all about. For this online exhibition I have asked myself: How can an artwork that is essentially about the physical qualities of the object and the embodied sensuality of »making things« be translated into the digital world? Can it be translated at all? The answer I have come up with is a video that can be seen as a separate work or an extension of »100 Black Squares«.
There is a quote by Oscar Wilde that goes like this: »From the late nineteenth century to the present day, this desire to define a Japanese essence has been a near constant concern, at times an obsession, of Japanese cultural and intellectual life.« This desire to define a Japanese essence and to set it apart from other cultures is creating a »mythical Japan« that becomes a place of yearning for many – it definitely became one for me. Living in Tokyo for three years however, did two things: it destroyed the myth and it brought me back to making art.
Artist Bio
Born in Lower Austria in 1968. 2002 Graduation from the University of Applied Arts/ Vienna (Prof. Herbert Tasquil/ Prof.Isabelle Graw / 'Freie Klasse') 2003 — 2006 Research on concepts of space at the University of Tokyo, Department of Architecture, (Prof. Hiroyuki Suzuki) Continuous artistic practice since 2011 (studio) /2015 (first exhibition). Lives and works in Vienna.