020309: Young Austrian Art: the4graces

Young Austrian Art: the4graces– Salon Greed The old inwardness For one, if a group of artists calls itself “the four graces” it immediately reminds of the photography performance gang “Die Damen” (the ladies) and for two, this again is so banal, that it sparks up interest. It might be unfair to compare a 21st century group of female artists with one that was active in the 1980s. The comparison imposes itself – but it is flawed. While the relaxed self–staging of “Die Damen” pointed to sexism, the four graces withdraw into a not really new inwardness, characterized by the mood: sunny to overcast. “Salon Greed” shows paintings of women eating sushi, women with animals, women painting their toenails, women wearing fishnets and corsages, women with red sandals, women seen from the back, fun women, melancholic women, and interiors: pompous halls, hotel rooms, decorative corridors, delicately painted, some parts left white; all nice to look at and markedly harmless. And the four graces come across as equally harmless in their video in which they do gymnastics accompanied by a blondie-song wearing transparent pink clothes and fooling around. Admittedly, their clumsy gymnastics in the garden and their parody of synchronised swimming in the small pool are somewhat amusing. However, their criticism of the body form – another one of these female topics – seems rather stale, as it was state-of-the-art in the 1970s. The inflationary appearance of the female imagery obviously only serves to reflect on “being a woman”, both in general and in particular. Following the discourses of the last decades this is not rather insufficient. Nina Schedlmayer Young Austrian Art 1070 Vienna, Breitegasse 19, until 14.03.09 www.youngaustrianart.com

Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville

020309

Young Austrian Art Barbara Preyer
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