Liddy Scheffknecht
points in time
Time is a strange concept. It becomes within subjective perception unpredictable. Sometimes it slips through your fingers like fine sand. And sometimes it seems as if time got stuck, it stands still. The idea of an “absolute, true and mathematical time,” which Isaac Newton formulated at the end of the 17th century, a time, “which in it’s own nature, passes equably without relation to anything external” becomes a mockery, when seconds, minutes, hours, days don’t seem to pass – nothing happening is worth remembering.
To measure time, to notice it passing at all, needs something that changes, something that moves, ideally continuously, constantly like the hands of a clock; or, like the sun changing position in the sky as the Earth orbits it.
Liddy Scheffknecht (b. 1980 in Dornbirn) made the sun her accomplice. With its help she investigates ways to visualize the course of things, and temporality as such. In her current exhibition at Georg Kargl Box, Scheffknecht presents new works on paper and a group of earlier sculptures in glass. They all share ur-photographic moments, points in time, like the title of the exhibition expresses. Scheffknecht tries to capture moments and transform fugitive situations into static images.
now, 2018, as well as 9 to 5, 2018, are drawings-on-paper in wax crayon for which the artist developed an ingenious production method: She mounted sheets of paper onto a window, out of which she cut out phrases such as “now”, “9 am” and “5 pm”. Depending on the location of the sun the light falls through the paper cutouts onto the drawing ground – a paper covered with black wax crayon – at different angles. Regarding the work now, the artist scratched the outlines of this light projection into the wax crayon surface at intervals of ten minutes during each day, resulting in a line drawing of overlapping letters. 9 to 5 reveals a similarly rigorous approach, in which Scheffknecht captures, on every morning during a period in summer, the time stated “9 am” and in the late afternoon the specific outlines of the specifically articulated “5 pm” on the paper. At a glance, the white scratching on the black surface recalls star signs of celestial bodies from eons ago. In so doing, the work seems to merge concepts of transience and infinity.
At a closer look, the letters can be identified and their meaning comes into focus: now as the embodiment of a moment which has already passed as soon as you become aware of it; 9 to 5 as model of the traditional working day, which in the current working environment, in which flexibility counts as a key competence, has past-its-used-by-date: in September 2018 Austrian legislation was passed amending the official 8-hour working day to a 12-hour working day. In this work, Scheffknecht reminds us in the market dominated and efficiency orientated world – nothing is in as short supply as available time. Scheffknecht’s glass sculptures – Bubblegums, 2010 – can be viewed as playful counterpoints: the bubbles are reconstructed in glass to expand something momentary into something permanent in a different way. Scheffknecht maintains the point of time at which the bubble is at maximum capacity just before bursting, it is a moment of pure childlike carefreeness, comprising an utterly meaningless pleasure that derives its beautify because it's already over.
text: Beate Scheder
translation: Vanessa Schmidt
Biography
born 1980 in Dornbirn/AT; lives and works in Vienna
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023
Broken Flowers, korridor, Vienna
2021
nine to five, Kunstraum Weikendorf, Weikendorf
2020
Dimensions, Sehsaal, Vienna
pictorial space, Schauraum Quartier21, Vienna
2018
points in time, Georg Kargl BOX, Vienna
mirage, Galerie Lisi Hämmerle, Bregenz
2016
dream argument, Kunsthalle Nexus, Saalfelden
Solar days, Remise Bludenz, Bludenz
sciography, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
2015
shift, Galerie der Stadt Wels, Wels
2013
spot, Sotheby’s Artist Quarterly, Vienna
2012
eleven minutes twenty seconds, Kunsthaus Graz, 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
whiteout, Galerie Jeune Création, Paris
2006
scaffoldings, The Outside Gallery Window, Milan
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022
The Fest, MAK, Vienna
2021
Heimspiel, Kunstraum Dornbirn, Dornbirn
25 Jahre Kunstforum Montafon, Kunstforum Montafon, Vorarlberg
Sammlung König-Lebschik,KUB Sammlungsschaufenster, Bregenz
Auf eigene Gefahr, Vorarlberg Museum, Bregenz
Solar Habitat, Lindabrunn
Unerkannnt, Bekannt, Kunstmuseum Appenzell, Appenzell
2021
Heimspiel, Kunstraum Dornbirn, Dornbirn
25 Jahre Kunstforum Montafon, Kunstforum Montafon, Vorarlberg
Auf eigene Gefahr, Vorarlberg Museum, Bregenz
Unerkannnt, Bekannt, Kunstmuseum Appenzell, Appenzell
2020
Would You Be Available…, Georg Kargl Permanent, Vienna
Borderland, Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna
Attempt at Rapprochement, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
fake & fragment, Sehsaal, Vienna
Now. Collected #9/#10, Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna
minus 20 degrees, Festival for Art and Architecture, Flachau
2018
Plinque Projéction II, Cité Internationale des Arts Paris, Paris
Heimspiel 2018, Kunstmuseum Appenzell, Appenzell
A Recollection of Resonances, bb15’s 10-Year Anniversary Exhibition, bb15 - Raum für Gegenwartskunst, Linz
CONCENTRATION - a tribute, Gesellschaft für projektive Ästhetik, Georg Kargl, Vienna
Reduction, Gesellschaft für Projektive Ästhetik, Georg Kargl, Vienna
2017
Plex Noir, Atelier Van Lieshout, Atisuffix, Manfred Erjautz, Werner Reiterer, Liddy Scheffknecht, Johannes Vogl, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum, Graz
2016
dream argument, Kunsthalle Nexus, curated by Petra Noll
Hybrid (...) Scapes, Nida Art Colony, Nida (Lithuania)
FILTER, Kunstforum Montafon, Schruns, curated by Verena Kaspar-Eisert
2015
Transparency, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna, curated by Fiona Liewehr
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
(O)budowa, Liddy Scheffknecht, Jan Mioduszewski, Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw, Warsaw, curated by Jacek Malinowski
2014
Blow-Up, Albertina, Vienna, curated by Walter Moser
côte intérieur, 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, Galerie 22,48m², Paris, curated by Yvonne Rüscher
ELASTIC VIDEO, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna, curated by PLINQUE
2012
/TILT/, Liddy Scheffknecht, Armin B. Wagner, Zentralkunstgarage, Lustenau
Parcours, Claudia Larcher/ Liddy Scheffknecht, Galerie Stephanie Hollenstein Lustenau, curated by Winfried Nussbaummüller
4. Internationale Sinop Biennale, curated by Isin Önol, Sinop, Turkey, curated by Isin Önol
Genius loci, Kulturpolis, Klaipéda, Lithuania, curated by Yulia Startseva and Vytautas Michelkevicius
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
Meet everyone at once, start an artist-run-space, Ogms, Sofia
Kaleidoskop, In der Kubatur des Kabinetts - der kunstsalon im fluc, Fluc, Vienna
Elastic Video, Tokyo 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, Artplay Design Center, Moscow
Mathias Garnitschnig, Claudia Larcher, Liddy Scheffknecht, c.art, Dornbirn, curated by Gerold Tagwerker
Austria la vista, baby, The Art Foundation, Athens
Petit Plinque, Transforming Freedom, Museumquartier, Vienna
Fine Line, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna, curated by Fiona Liewehr
Bernd Oppl, Liddy Scheffknecht, bb 15 / Linz
WIR WOHNEN, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna
2009
Plinque Projéction, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, curated by PLINQUE
Biennale of Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean, Nacionalna Galerija - Mala Stanica, Skopje
Plinque Meringue, Contemporary, Vienna
UnOrtnung V, Ankerbrotfabrik, Vienna
2008
Jeune Création 2008, Parc de la Villette, Espace Charlie Parker, Paris
GAMES. Kunst und Politik der Spiele, Kunsthalle Vienna project space, Vienna
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