Phenomena of Materialisation
Anita Gratzer
2019
Artist Statement
Books stand as escape agents from an increasingly totalitarian society with its rising media consumption. In my work, antique books, which were often discarded for throwing away, become pieces of clothing for dissidents, shelters and portable sanctuaries of the intellect. In the interest of the cultural layers of gender identity and how memories are discursively constructed through bodily tropes I like to draw attention to the materiality of memories expressed in clothing structures. By covering and extending the body with discursive and material entities of memories, crossed with historical patterns of traditional cuts, costumes and uniforms, I create settings for my analogue photo projects.
I work mostly with antique Japanese materials as writings and photographs, which I transfer to wearable sculptures. They modulate with actual issues about gender identity and behavior of cultural remembrance. In 2021 I would like to produce garments that shall be a combination of traditional clothing-cuts inspired by Murayama Tomoyoshi's Mavo Textile Design Album and the patterns of Oskar Schlemmer's triadic ballets. The work reflects the cross-cultural reference of Constructivism and Bauhaus style in a modern setting of a wearable shelter for the occupant. This conjunction of art and design was established in the 1930s by Murayama Tomoyoshi, Yoshida Kenkichi and Maki Hisao. With young textile designers in Kyoto, their Union of Textile Art Shokusen Geijutsu Renmei created textile designs based on Constructivism, realizing their aim of integrating modern aesthetics with the practical elements of everyday life through the combination of industry and art. The Mavo Textile Design Album Mavo Senshoku Zuansh was published the next year with an introduction, “A Constructivist View of Clothing” Kôseishugi Fukushokukan by Maki.
Artist Bio
2015 Lens Culture Story Telling awarded • awarded Artwalk Leipzig | Germany • Poetry in Visual - City Museum of Aveiro | Portugal • Solo show Egon Schiele Art Center Cesky Krumlov | Czech • Kanna Fall Art Festival, Group and Solo Show Onishi | Japan • A.Art Fair Leipzig & Antwerpen • Aalborg Surreal | Denmark 2016 Solo show Botanical Garden Linz | Austria • Group show Kanna Art Festival - Onishi | Japan • HereArt Center New York | United States • Solo exhibition Tehran | Iran • Cartasia - Paper Biennale Lucca | Italy 2017 Thoughts Left Visible - Solo Exhibition Swatch Peace Art Hotel Shanghai | China • Orifices - Solo Exhibition Daegu | Korea • Comfort Prosthesis - Gallery Jo - Busan | Korea 2018 Persona - Solo-show Solothurn | Switzerland • Lamentation of Oedipus - Mark Rothko Center - Daugavpils | Latvia 2019 Zeitgeist - Copper Leg Tallinn | Estonia • Phenomena of Materialisation - Solo Show Onishi | Japan 2020 Solo Exhibition Brig-Glis – Switzerland | Group Exhibition Tsukuba Art Center, Japan