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Materials: fabric, epoxy. Dimensions: 100 x 150 x 15 cm
b. 1948 in Lunz am See, Austria 
Lender: Landessammlung Niederösterreich

Hans Kupelwieser is an internationally renowned sculptor. He creates his impressive sculptures and reliefs from materials such as paper, plastic, ceramics, or aluminum. Their colors and unusual surfaces—bright, highly polished, matt, sharp-edged, or reflective—captivate the eye as much as the rhythmic arrangement of the individual elements and their large-scale dimensions. Kupelwieser creates his works with one or two materials and colors. He employs a reduced formal language, featuring similar repeating designs and patterns. While formally rigorous, these abstract works also appear playful and poetic. The artist speaks of “controlled ‘random processes’” (1) when describing his working method. Essential for him is not simply the material itself but how he approaches working with various raw materials, semi-finished industrial products, or found objects—such as his reliefs of extruded plastic. (2)

One of his reliefs made of fabric and epoxy is on view in the exhibition Paper, Rock, Scissors. Kupelwieser’s works typically have a metallic shimmer, a deep blue glow, or a red shine, but here earth tones are what catch the eye. From a distance, the relief almost resembles a wood carving. Upon closer inspection, the impression shifts, revealing flowing lengths of fabric seemingly frozen in motion. Kupelwieser transformed synthetic fiber material produced by Glanzstoff, an industrial manufacturer based in St. Pölten, into an organic-looking form. The fabric is typically used as an inner liner for car tires. The production conditions in the factory were dangerous, especially for women. Their job—which men rejected as unacceptable—was to hoist the heavy fabric rolls onto pipes at high temperatures. The daily overexertion caused permanent damage to the woman workers’ health. (3)

Mona Jas