DRAW A DISTINCTION. Raffaela Bielesch, Terese Kasalicky, Katharina Scheucher

In 2020, the xposit series, operating under the motto Draw a Distinction, focuses on forms of notation such as those to be found in the works of Raffaela Bielesch, Terese Kasalicky, and Katharina Scheucher. The production of the three graduates from the studios “Drawing,” “Graphic Arts and Printmaking Techniques,” and “Performative Art” discloses notation as an accentuation and reinterpretation of spatial structures (Scheucher), as a sculptural syntax of the ornamental (Kasalicky), or as a performative and photographic approach to processes of appropriation and transmission (Bielesch).

Katharina Scheucher understands the interior of spaces as a surface, comparable to a sheet of paper in which the surroundings inscribe themselves and whose characteristics the artist repeats with plaster objects that often render impressions of architectural peculiarities. The space becomes a map of itself, which not only describes it, but also invites a constant change of perspective through the targeted use of mirrors.

For years, Terese Kasalicky has devoted herself to researching ornamental structures that she regards as information carriers of cultural history. Individual basic forms isolated by the artist are again and again rearranged like words in a sentence. They establish relations and, through them, a new “syntax” and—removed from their original context—reach out into space as sculptures.

The starting point for Raffaela Bielesch’s works is the language of things. Objects that tell a private story, but also show fashions and tastes that are embedded in a certain history, are transformed into abstract lines and markings of patterned fabrics that—like the web of time—function as background foils for both her photographs and performances.

The “linguistic character” of the three artists’ works is obvious; yet the language we find ourselves confronted with turns out to be primarily a language of objects or space, since it articulates itself as a graphic or ornamental notation of visible and imaginary relations and arrangements.