- Liddy Scheffknecht

LIDDY SCHEFFKNECHT
Using black masking tape a distorted
chair has been „painted“ on a window.
The shadow of the drawing is casted into
the room and moves over the floor within
a time periode of several hours. At a
certain point in time the shadow connects
with a chair inside the room, as if they
belong together.
Lapse, 2011, installation, outside view
Lapse, 2011, sunlight, shadow, tape, chair, dimensions variable
2:15 pm
2:39 pm
3:05 pm
3:30 pm
3:53 pm
4:19 pm
4:45 pm
5:10 pm
5:35 pm
A window has been covered with white
paper. A precisely constucted hole in form
of an ellipse has been cut out. When the
sun shines, an oval light spot appears on
the floor of the room. At 5.01 pm the light
spot becomes circular and reaches the
position directly under the lamp, creating
the illusion of a swichted on lamp. Just for
a very short moment during the day the installation is „correct“. Every other moment
it seems that the lamp has lost control over
its flare.
Oculus, installation view, 2011
3:12 pm
4:25 pm
5:01 pm
5:25 pm
5:54 pm
6:25 pm
Oculus, 2011, sunlight, paper, lamp, dimensions variable
Untitled (aim), Untitled (throw), Untitled (slide), wax crayon on paper, à 70 x 50 cm
spot, 2013, light box, 65 x 100 cm
exhibition view spot, Sotheby‘s Artist Quarterly, Vienna, 2013
oculus (Czerningasse), 2012, light box, 100 x 65 cm
crop, 2013, installation, sunlight, shadow, paper, plant, dimensions variable
crop, 2013, installation, sunlight, shadow, paper, plant, dimensions variable
exhibition view, Georg Kargl Box, Vienna 2011
Walter Moser: A Moving Standstill - Liddy Scheffknecht’s
Media Hybrids
When it comes to photography, movement and standstill are two characteristics that are usually treated as
a contradiction. As a cut through space and time, the
photographic medium not only arrests a moment, it also
stages that moment in an image, statically and enduringly. Photography “embalms time”: with this –still today
one of the most famous descriptions of the phenomenon
– André Bazin sought to understand its distinction from
a different medium: film. Film goes beyond photography,
for it adds the very element that defines the limits of
photography: the definition of a temporal sequence by
way of movement.
On first glance, Liddy Scheffknecht’s work 7 Minutes 13
Seconds clearly corresponds to the characteristics of
photography: static, immobile, and staged in an enduring fashion, a photographer operates before the outside
wall of a building on the shutter release button of a stereo camera placed on a tripod. The photograph was not
taken by the artist herself, but is a visual product made
by an anonymous photographer that Scheffknecht appropriated, enlarged, and recontextualized. The discursive strategy of media appropriation serves to visualize
the aforementioned differences between photography
and film. This is made concretely visible in an elementary motif: the video of a shadow is precisely projected
onto the photograph, and the referent of this shadow
seems to be the photographer depicted. In so doing, the
shadow reveals an important characteristic that goes
beyond the photographic medium: movement. It slowly
moves across the image and by way of its changing
shape not only visualizes a temporal sequence, but also
mixes photography and film. In this superimposition of
two visual levels, Scheffknecht generates a media hybrid, whereby the limits separating the two media are
both violated and visualized as transparent. Accordingly,
the semantics of the image need to be sought in the
difference between the two media.
(...)
The dialectic between static and movement is underscored in the video projection onto the photograph
by divorcing the shadow from its referent and/or the
photographer. On first glance, its continuously changing
shape seems not to be an “imprint” or the result of the
photographer, but rather suggests an invisible light source. On closer examination, this proves to be an illusion:
the shape of the shadow can thus not be explained as a
logical visual transformation, but due to its autonomous
form the shadow separates itself from the causality
of its reference, and thus emerges as an independent
“double”. As the only mobile element, it dominates the
statistic elements and divorces itself from the narrative
context.
The photograph’s proximity to reality as well as the
course of the shadow, which initially appears to be
logical, yet ultimately cannot be traced back to the
photographer, makes Scheffknecht’s work slip into the
uncanny-surreal.
By way of conclusion, if a silhouette appears in
Scheffknecht’s picture that no longer possesses any
referent in the photograph itself, it includes an additional
authority addressed by the camera of the photographer:
the viewer. As a perceiving authority, he or she is thus
inscribed as the midpoint between model and depiction,
reproduction and construction, just as between photographic “reality” and its restaging in film.
33´´
1´ 16´´
2´ 13´´
2´ 59´´
4´ 02´´
4´ 35´´
5´ 27´´
6´ 08´´
7 minutes 13 seconds, 2011, video projection on photography, video 7‘13‘‚ pigment print 100 x 133 cm, videoprojector, mediaplayer
1/250, 2006/2011, video projection on photography
video 11´20´´, c-print 148,5 x 198 cm, video projector, computer
This work shows two computer-animated shadows projected onto the photograph of two people. The animation and the photography are so precisely synchronized
that they can barely be perceived as seperate entities,
and are therefore seen as a single unity of shadow and
person. The work probes the borders between photography and video and contrasts the brief exposure time
(1/250) against the long duration of the video.
exhibition view 1/250, Kunsthaus Graz, 2012
6 minutes 38 seconds, video projection on photography, 2009
computer, c-print 90 x 120 cm, video 6‘ 38‘‘
19´´
1´ 22´´
3´ 08´´
4´ 19´´
5´ 11´´
5´ 40´´
exhibition view Ohne Titel (Mica), das weisse haus, Vienna, 2013
4´ 56´´
4´ 32´´
3´ 48´´
3´ 19´´
Untitled (Mica), video projection on pigment print, 2011
computer, pigment print 100 x 133 cm, video 6‘ 25‘‘
Untitled (Sinop Kale Cezaevi), video projection (40 min 2 sec) on pigment print (100 x 133 cm), 2012, Photo: Yusuf Emre Yalçin
Untitled (Sinop Kale Cezaevi), 2012
The installation consists of a photography and a video.
The photography shows a wall with an open door, taken
in the outside area of the former prison of Sinop. Onto
this photography a video is projected. On the first glance
it seems to be a still picture, a single moment, frozen in
time. Only after a little while the spectator discovers movements in the picture. Over a time period of approximately 40 minutes figurative shadows are growing slowly
into the image. One shadow appears behind the wall,
visible through the open door. Other shadows are rising
in front of the wall. As the people who are casting these
shadows seem to stand behind the wall or outside the
field of view, a fragmented narrative, which can be read
in different ways, builds up. It doesn’t become clear if
the people to whom these shadows belong are related
to each other or to this specific place – the prison. It
remains open if the shadows belong to different people
or to the same person, coming to this place from time to
time, probably years in between.
Untitled, 2012, carbon frottage, dimensions variable
I was invited to participate in the Sinopale 2012 – the
Sinop Biennial. The main exhibition area was the Sinop
Kale Cezaevi, the former State Prison of Sinop.
The prison was closed in 1997 and, after being inaccessible for some years, reopened for visitors. Today
it is one of the main sightseeing attractions in Sinop.
Most recently its popularity rose because of a television series called Parmaklıklar Ardında (Behind Bars),
a Turkish adaption of the German RTL-series Hinter
Gittern – Der Frauenknast (Behind Bars – The Women’s
Prison). For the TV production a former prison cell was
altered and refurnished. Tourists pour into the historical
prison to see the setting of the fictional story. As a result
the prison‘s history is overshadowed, changed and trivialized. The conditions in the active prison were terrible.
Torture, malnutrition, coldness and constant humidity of
the cells cost more than a few prisoners - many of them
jailed for “thought crimes” - their life.
The historical buildings are littered with countless
graffitis. In every wing of the prison, names, hearts and
drawings are scratched into the walls. Most inscriptions
date from the time after the prison was closed and left
empty. Even today visitors add their names. The overlapping signs and characters have grown into meaningless patterns, not unlike wallpaper.
A close look reveals dates next to the names, some of
them go back to the time when the prison was still in
operation. After localizing these inscriptions I covered
them with thin paper. Gently wiping them with carbon I
transferred the names and dates onto the paper. The resulting drawings were hung on the exact same position
they were made. Using this technique, the names of the
prisoners were highlighted, drawn out from a growing
mass of names and dates.
outshine, 2001, video, 1´49´´
A game of soccer is reduced to the shadows of the
players on the field. All that remains of the game is
the cameras pan, the field with its defining lines and
the moving shadows of the players.
outshine, exhibition view, ENSBA Paris, 2006
outshine, exhibition view Galerie Stephanie Hollenstein 2012, screen, black paper masking tape
A paper sheet in form of a basketball has
been stuck into a window. The shadow of
the paper moves over the wall within a time
periode of several hours. A drawing of a
basketball basket is attached to the wall.
The flight of a basketball – normally a very
quick movement – has been put into slow
motion by using sunlight and the earth
rotation. Finally the ball doesn’t make the
basket. The next day, if the sun shines, the
play starts anew, the ball fails again.
16:05 Uhr
16:47 Uhr
17:11 Uhr
whiteout, 2008, video, 1´18´´
Whiteout is the product name of an opaque correction
fluid, used to erase errors in a text written or typed with
a permanent ink. In the video work whiteout depicts a
ski race from which the ski racer has been removed.
Whiteout can also designate a weather condition in
which snow and diffuse lighting can lead to a situation
where sky and earth melt together and the horizon
disappears. This causes the space to appear completely
empty and infinite and can lead to the loss of orientation. In the video whiteout the camera looses its point
of reference and seems to be following a void. What
remains in the video is the speed, the mountain, the
bending gates which bend without visible cause and the
audience of this event.
exhibition view, Biennale of Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean / Skopje, 2009
28. August, engraved granite boulder, 2014
In this intervention in an alpine area I engraved the shadow
of a hiker into a granite boulder. Not only does this capture
a magnificient moment of nature scenery, it also recalls an
ancient myth. According to Pliny the Elder, the first portrait
ever was the silhouette of a man, retraced before he set off
to a faraway place.
28. August, engraved granite boulder, 2014
Close Up, adjustment of the Silvretta - Webcam, 2014
The permanently installed webcam on the Bielerhöhe broadcasts a segment of the Alpine landscape. Visitors to the connected website can follow
the activities on the mountain pass as they happen: the lively comings and
goings of day-trippers, numerous buses and cars, the lake and its massive
reservoir, surrounded by impressive mountain ranges. In the intervention
„Close Up“ I adjusted this webcam so that, instead of the usual panorama,
it only shows a close-up of the lake. With this shift in the medial communication and experience of nature, the view of the lake was condensed
into an abstract, but still naturalistic image. While the image runs through
a full spectrum of colors, all actual activity happens outside the frame. As
the only place on Bielerhöhe that still resists crossing, the chosen frame
reflects the silence and contemplation associated with the still current,
romantic ideas about hiking.
camera frame before the adjustment
Close Up, adjustment of the Silvretta - Webcam, 9. to 17. September 2014. Camera views at various points in time.
Close Up, exhibition view, Galerie der Stadt Wels, 2015
450 nm or Ein Stück vom Himmel, permanent installation, 2014/2015
wood, paint, LEDs, sur veillance camera, computer, electronics
61,2 x 128,7 x 19 cm
The light object 450 nm or Ein Stück vom Himmel (A piece of heaven/sky)
seems ver y abstract at the first glance, but has a concrete picture source:
A sur veillance camera is installed on the outer facade of the company building
of ELIN. This camera is directed straight up at the sky and sends live images
to a computer.
The color and brightness of the recorded images are interpreted by a specially developed software that conver ts these signals and transmitts the
information on many RGB - LEDs which are installed in a wooden, framelike
object in the inner space of the building. The color values of the sky are thus
reproduced by the LEDs.
The work deals with the idea, to reproduce nature with the using technique.
With the help of the fledgling RGB - LED -technique, outside space was brought
into interior space, a little piece of heaven (Himmel is german for heaven and
sky) on ear th.
450 nm or Ein Stück vom Himmel at two dif ferent points in time
untitled (rue de 4 septembre / rue de hanovre), 2006, décollage, lambda print on aluminium, 60 x 90 cm
untitled (Laaer Straße), 2007, décollage, lambda print on aluminium, 60 x 90 cm
untitled (Pont Neuf), 2006, décollage, lambda print on aluminium, 60 x 90 cm
untitled (Santa Maria della Grazie), 2007, décollage, lambda print on aluminium, 60 x 90 cm
All architectural elements except the scaffolding
were removed from the photograph of a building
under renovation. The result is an autonomous
“drawing“, which suggests the form of the erased
building. The scaffolding, normally a temporary
urban structure, was retained whereas the building,
a permanent urban structure, was eliminated.
Pop Up (office), 2009, cardboard, tape, 94 x 275 x 400 cm
in collaboration with Armin B. Wagner
The sculpture, entirely made out of cardboard and tape, can be
opened and closed like a book. Using the technique of pop ups a
mobile working station consisting of a desk, a chair and a laptop
appears and disappears. The market demands flexible, mobile
employees, ready to work at any time and any place. Pop Up
looks like a perfect working station for them. However, the
working station is neither flexible nor solid nor practical. What
seemed great and magical at first, turns out to be fragile and not
functional at all. Pop Up is not advertising a new type of office
furniture, Pop Up criticises working conditions.
Pop Up (Eckbank), 2012, cardboard, tape, 95 x 291 x 396 cm
in collaboration with Armin B. Wagner
Bubblegum, 2010, acrylic on glass, dimensions variable
The instant of blowing a Gum Bubble has
been captured in glass and thus became
an enduring, infinite moment.
Bubblegum, intervention, supermarket Maxima Nida / Lithuania, 2011
LIDDY SCHEFFKNECHT
born in December 1980 in Austria
lives in Vienna
2007
2006
Diploma / University of Applied Arts Vienna; Bernhard Leitner / Ernst Strouhal / Erwin Wurm
Diplôme national supérieur d’arts plastiques / ENSBA Paris; Jean-Luc Vilmouth
Solo Exhibitions
2015
shift, Galerie der Stadt Wels
2013
spot, Sotheby’s Artist Quarterly, Vienna
2012
eleven minutes twenty seconds, Kunsthaus Graz
sence, Ex-garage / Maribor
2011
Liddy Scheffknecht, Georg Kargl Box / Vienna
Bubblegums, The Outside Gallery Window / Milan
2008
Take Aways, Galerie Wilma Lock, St. Gallen / Switzerland
whiteout, Galerie Jeune Création / Paris
2006
scaffoldings, The Outside Gallery Window / Milan
Duo Exhibitions
(O)budowa, Liddy Scheffknecht, Jan Mioduszewski, Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw, curated by Jacek Malinowski
2015
/TILT/, Liddy Scheffknecht, Armin B. Wagner, Zentralkunstgarage, Lustenau
2012
Parcours, Claudia Larcher/ Liddy Scheffknecht, Galerie Stephanie Hollenstein Lustenau, curated by Winfried Nussbaummüller
Bernd Oppl, Liddy Scheffknecht, bb 15 / Linz
2010
Group Exhibitions (selection)
Transparency, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna, curated by Fiona Liewehr
2015
Landscape: Transformations of an Idea – Art of the 1800 to the Present day from the Collection of the Neue Galerie Graz, Neue Galerie Graz, curated by Gudrun Danzer and Günther Holler-Schuster
Random thoughts of a daily light, das weisse haus, Vienna, curated by Alexandra Grausam und Markus Taxacher
Schneesalon, Georg Kargl Box / Vienna
2014
Blow-Up, Albertina Vienna, curated by Walter Moser *
côté interieur, Kunstpavillon Innsbruck, curated by Ingeborg Erhart und Bernd Oppl
Inattentional Blindness, Galerie Zilberman, Istanbul, curated by Isin Önol *
2013
Phantoms & Ghosts, das weisse haus / Wien, curated by Karin Fisslthaler und Bernd Oppl
The Intransigent Ticket – The Artist as a filter, CSULA Fine Arts Gallery / Los Angeles, curated by Karin Mayr & Martin Sturm
Pli selon Pli, 22,48 m² / Paris, curated by Yvonne Rüscher *
Elastic Video, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Wien, curated by PLINQUE *
2012
4. International Sinop Biennale, Sinop / Turkey, curated by Isin Önol
Genius loci, Kulturpolis, Klaipéda / Lithuania, curated by Yulia Startseva and Vytautas Michelkevičius
The Digital Uncanny, Edith – Ruß – Haus for Media Art, Oldenburg, curated by Brigitte Felderer *
2011
This is Happening II, Georg Kargl Fine Arts / Vienna, curated by Fiona Liewehr
Donetsk goes Contemporary, Art Point Donetsk / Ukraine, curated by Andrei Loginov and Steve Schepens
Space Odyssey, März / Linz, curated by Bernd Oppl
2011
Meet everyone at once, start an artist-run-space, 0gms / Sofia
Elastic Video, Tokio Wonder Site Hongo / Tokyo, curated by PLINQUE *
2010
HAPPY HOUR, In der Kubatur des Kabinetts - der kunstsalon im fluc, Fluc / Vienna
Qui vive, 2nd Moscow International Biennale for Young Art / Moscow *
Mathias Garnitschnig, Claudia Larcher, Liddy Scheffknecht, c.art / Dornbirn, curated by Gerold Tagwerker
Austria la vista, baby, The Art Foundation / Athen, curated by Christian Rupp *
Petit Plinque, Museumquartier / Vienna, curated by PLINQUE *
Fine Line, Georg Kargl Fine Arts / Vienna, curated by Fiona Liewehr
WIR WOHNEN, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna, curated by Ingeborg Strobl *
2009
Plinque Projéction, Cité des Arts, Paris, curated by PLINQUE
Biennale of Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean / Skopje *
Jeune Création 2008, Parc de la Villette, Espace Charlie Parker / Paris *
2008
GAMES. Kunst und Politik der Spiele, Kunsthalle Vienna project space, curated by Ernst Strouhal, Mathias Fuchs and Florian Bettel *
* catalogue
Grants | Residencies
2014
2013
2011
2010
2003 AIR Silvretta Atelier, Bielerhöhe, Vorarlberg
BMUKK - Studio Westbahnstraße / Vienna
Vorarlberg Grant for Visual Arts
AIR, Art Colony Nida
Startstipendium BMUKK
Adlmüllerstipendium