BALANCED TO GROUND
Four Scenarios for an Object
Essay by Cornelia Lein
Sometimes multiple levels of meaning seem to be crossing at the margins of an object, surrounding its body like layers of shadows on each side. […] If I close my left eye, I can picture an avocado in a stack at the supermarket; if I close my right eye here it is again – lying in the middle of the gallery space. The prop is a travelling passenger.*
* Cornelia Lein, Balanced to Ground - Four Scenarios for an Object, in: Michaela Schweighofer, FROM THE PROP TO THE INSIDE
FROM THE PROP TO THE INSIDE gathers texts on the concept of the prop–as object, requisite and support–on stage and in the exhibition space. The prop is thought of as a concept that spans contexts and genres […] The contributions within take in multiple forms; letters, essays and interviews–they are intended to create a theoretical-subjective anthology that makes visible the phenomena of the private as symptoms of the structural, as well as to provide a direct insight into contemporary artistic creation.*
The publication by artist Michaela Schweighofer was honored as one of the ten most beautiful books in Austria 2020 („Die schönsten Bücher Österreichs“).
Graphic Design & Typesetting: Marie Artaker, Verlag Forum Stadtpark, Print: Holzhausen
* Michaela Schweighofer, FROM THE PROP TO THE INSIDE - A Foreword
©Michaela Schweighofer & Marie Artaker, Photography: Konrad Strutz
Book launch and reading at Forum Stadtpark Graz, July 2021
© Michaela Schwweighofer / Forum Stadtpark
“Later that evening I was sitting in the underground station, waiting for the train to arrive. I was tempted to take out the egg again and hold it for a while. Using my black leather rucksack as a backdrop, I gave it a closer inspection. About four times the size of an average chicken egg, it laid comfortably heavy in my left hand’s palm. I let my thumb cover up the hole. For a while I had been thinking about introducing a new approach to living with artworks in my apartment. Works would mingle with objects of the quotidian like the fridge. Blind passengers; witnesses to the coming and going of fresh fruit and vegetables; subtle spectators to my daily routines.“
Cornelia Lein, BALANCED TO GROUND - Four Scenarios for an Object
