Vernissage Parcours I

Folded paper, butterflies and smashed wood

Last night, the rain tried in vain to keep people indoors and away from the gallery KG_Freiräume in Hallein where the first of two exhibit cycles of works from the assistants of the international summer academy was opened to the public. After an initial round of welcoming everybody and thanking various people, the artists themselves were given the opportunity to introduce us directly to their works.

Ioana Stoian began with explaining how her hexagon made up of layers and layers had started out as 2 meters of paper that, starting in the middle, she had folded over and over and over until after a time too long to say she had created this origami taken to the extreme. Next, Siegfried Zaworka talked about the symmetry in his paintings and how they stemmed from a series where he had tried to magnify parts of faces. He says he wanted to "paint something that looks back at you, and in one case, doesn't just make the viewer think "ouch", but screams so itself." Looking at the painting, he definitely succeeded in doing that. The work of Nievis Salzbmann brings us back into more peaceful waters. Her paintings tell of the search of a bridge between painting and stage design, one of her other passions. Her paintings are like a space within the space, like an installation. Moving on to Karin Peyker, who collects her materials, interested in the way they are used. Puzzles and old flowerpot ornaments from the flea market are turned into an artifical nature. Even the birdsong comes from a CD. The only thing real are the dead buttlerflies trapped under glass.

Stephen Mathewson, asked at the last minute to contribute, has a split relationship with his work. " I like it, and i don't like it." An empty room, leftover wood and the wish to practise his hockey shotled to constructing a goal and two keepers, one of them to be brutally destryed by shooting it to pieces with a puck. This is exactly why Stephen is unsure of liking his work, as shooting his creation to pieces made him feel sick to his stomach in the end. After last night he might feel better though, being assured the greatness of his work by many.

The exhibition can be seen at the gallery KG Freiraum in Hallein until the 6th of august. Opening hours are every wednesday from 17 to 21 o'clock and every saturday from 10 to 13 o'clock. It's definitely worth the trip.