Gallery Run: Exhibition Picture Show
Film, most agree, is an art form, although a passive one – an audience in a dark room eager to lose itself. But art is often claimed as a call to action, or at least interaction, in which the viewer enlists and engages. Three exhibitions this month explore the medium of film, the white cube [...]
Gallery Run: Subjective Objects
We have a strange relationship to objects: we acquire them, covet them, project meaning onto them. Artists go further, questioning what our relationship is to objects, not taking it for granted, interpreting the objects in unexpected ways. Whether it’s through pop art, found objects, or exotic artifacts, it’s the artist’s job to reinvent, relocate and [...]
Sweet Seduction
I’m not much of a sweet tooth. When I call my husband to pick up a must for tonight’s dinner, it is more likely a request for lamb’s lettuce or pumpkinseed oil or pecorino than for the stuff of other people’s cravings – chocolates, Sachertorte, candies. But Vienna is changing me for the sweeter. Edible and innovative art To spread the [...]
Beyond Kebab – Vienna’s Turkish Destinations
I needed a vacation – and now! Not in six weeks when I took my spring holiday. So in search of some spice to ward off Vienna’s chill, I plunged into the city’s Turkish and Arab offerings. Though I’ve travelled to large swathes of the Arab world, I wanted to experience it in an Austrian [...]
Borderline Order
At a 2010 TED conference in Washington, D.C., American scientist Amber Case suggested that we may be already living in an age where time travel is possible. Connected with friends all over the world, our lives encompass several time zones at once – which was what our predecessors believed time travel was like. How does [...]
Haute Nostalgia: Finding Vintage in Vienna
Ingrid Raab adjusts her red-framed glasses and schools me in “vintage”. If anyone is an authority in this city, it is Raab. She has curated (there is no better word) her internationally renowned shop Vintage Flo for 35 years, bringing her into contact with Hollywood celebrities, major designers, performing arts companies, look-book creators, and even [...]
Gallery Run, Feb. 2013: Goodbye Grandeur
As we ring in 2013 and the Christmas lights that decorated Vienna’s streets are being taken down, many galleries have turned toward the intricate details of daily life. Free from the seasonal pomp – come February, it’s breathing time for art. Schleifmühlgasse 12–14: Ella, Astrid, Tabitha, Laia, Alix, Anne The intimate gallery Schleifmühlgasse 12-14 is almost [...]
Treasure Hunting on Kirchengasse: For the Eclectic Urbanite
When you turn onto Kirchengasse from the commercial droves of Mariahilferstraße, Café Mentone marks the cultural shift. Now partially closed to traffic, Kirchengasse features a transitional mix of small, traditional stores – a porcelain shop like a trip back in time, a crowded electronics place with shelves piled high, a uniform supplier – and newer [...]
Gallery Run: Triggered Photography
With the rise of general access to camera technology, what Susan Sonntag calls “a democracy of photographs,” fine art photography has had to defend its aesthetic function from becoming usurped by journalism, advertising, iPhone apps and Facebook feeds. All this came to the fore in November, the European Month of Photography: Eyes On, staking out [...]
