Katrina Daschner
The Borrowed Eye of a Needle
Katrina Daschner’s multimedia work, which encompasses film, performance, painting, sculptural objects, drawing and installation, as well as community practice, is performative at its core. It addresses and performs modes of being and non-being that arise from questions of queer (in)visibility, the liberation of the body from heteronormative codes, and the joyfulness found in acts of solidarity and resistance. While rooted in the self and the autobiographical, resistance for Daschner is always collective. The longing for perceptibility, the desire to deeply feel all aspects of our lives is visually manifested in the use of different (textile) materials through embroidery, sewing, crochet and knitting techniques, in bright, bold colours, shining and tactile surfaces and in a close dialogue with the space. Whether in her films or when working with exhibition formats, Daschner approaches the space as a stage, creating environments, inhabited with her lively, mutable characters. For this exhibition at Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Daschner decided to forego cinematic works in favour of sculptural and textile bodies of work (all works 2023–2024) in an environment of colourful, watery coloured wall-paintings, corresponding with her watercolour drawings. Walking through the spaces, one can notice the rainbow colours of the LGBTIQ+ community.
Textile, a material often more reminiscent of women’s craft than an artistic medium – associated with virtuous industriousness and historically used to constrain women’s imaginations and ambitions – has gained recognition from the art world over the past decade. In “A Survey on the Significance of Textiles in Contemporary Thought and Praxis,” published in 2014, Rike Frank and Sabeth Buchmann note that textiles have been the focus of many research projects and major exhibitions in the years leading up to the publication of their article.[1] Ten years later, exhibitions dedicated to the use of textiles as an artistic medium in (contemporary) art, offering insights into regional forms of expression, experience and social practice, mainly by women artists, are still increasingly present. “I start somewhere and it expands instinctively from there,” says Daschner of a certain sense of freedom she finds in embroidery, which has been a constant presence in her work since the very beginning of her artistic career in the mid 90s, also as an additional, abstract way of imagining her filmic works (the so-called “embroidered storyboards”).[2] The needle is her tool, the “handiest pen to write down my inner thoughts” – with it, through the rhythmic, intimate acts of stitching, she reclaims space and her own narrative, which expands and grows. Hanging on the walls, on view are filigrane embroidery works on blue and green screen fabric, reminiscing her filmic practice, which combine coloured threads with tiny, shiny beads (Water Beings (blue series), 2024); embroideries joint with golden brass needle objects, 100 x 100 cm in size (Heavy Needles, 2024); and golden brass needle objects, 70 cm in size, with crochets (Silver/Golden Eggs on Golden Needle, 2014/2024). Very personal to Daschner in the exhibition is the embroidered series, My Body, 2024. Here, her embroidered handwriting reads: “My body on the tree / My body fragmenting / My body breathing / My body untangling / My body unfolds.”
In her new sculptural works, Daschner’s needle is no longer a hidden tool of the textile practices – it becomes a body in itself, a hundred, a thousand times its life-size, larger than life, a Needle with a capital letter. This small, slender instrument with a pointed end, typically with an eye at one end for threading, used for sewing by hand, now weights[3]– made of brass, shining in a silver or golden tone, it tries to fight against the laws of gravity, suspended in the air in the first and the last rooms of the gallery, sometimes adorned with a colourful knitted yarn. In defining what is the “subject” as opposed to its counterpart, the “object”, Hegel refers to Aristotle, for whom a subject is that which moves by itself. For Hegel, to move by itself is a work of self-reflection; the object is characterised above all by its immobility. Reflecting its own otherness and difference, the subject moves through time, while the object occupies space; a subject can therefore only exist in the process of subjectivation, of constant becoming. In the context of all the varied subjects that have inhabited Daschner’s diverse work – from her early collages and self-stagings to performances and films – the Amazon Needles (2023/24) become swords and weapons, the self-sufficient selves that can, so the artist, “borrow their eyes” to the audience. They are comrades, sisters. Transformation and metamorphosis are key components of storytelling the histories of the oppressed. Through storytelling, the marginalised – women, LGBTIQ+ communities – have historically conveyed the ways in which they have transformed their circumstances, challenged injustice and asserted their agency through individual acts and collective organization and mobilization. The symbolic and metaphorical dimensions of narration are crucial in contexts where marginalised voices are often silenced or overlooked; storytelling becomes an act of preservation and resistance.
Storytelling is a vital part of Katrina Daschner's artistic practice. She creates narratives that redefine notions of gender categories, (physical) strength and social agency. The series of watercolours (all 2024) exhibited in the last room of the gallery, presents portraits of women as imaginary animal beings (as jellyfish, sometimes insects), as animalistic women, wild and wise women, tender and vulnerable, doubtful, hesitant and ambivalent in their choices, saints and sinners, holding needles as swords to protect themselves and their community, to form a resistant collective body and to carry on. A needle can hurt and heal; with a needle you can hurt and you can heal; it carries within itself the possibility of retelling, of rewriting histories.
Hana Ostan Ožbolt
[1] The survey was first published in Texte Zur Kunst (Issue No. 94, May 2014, available also online at https://www.textezurkunst.de/en/94/survey-significance-of-textiles/) and resulted in a book Texile Theorien der Moderne. Alois Riegl in der Kunstkritik (b-books, 2015).
[2] All quotations from the artist in this text are based on a personal conversation with Katrina Daschner on February 25, 2024.
[3] “The body is weight. Laws of gravity involve bodies in space. But first and foremost, the body itself weighs: it is sunk into itself (…)” Jean Luc Nancy, Corpus, Fordham University Press, 2008, p. 7.
Biography
Born 1973 in Hamburg, lives and works in Vienna
Selected Solo Exhibitions / Filmfestivals
2024
The Borrowed Eyes of a Needle, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
2023
„Wir wollen kein Theater. Wir wollen ein anderes Theater“ (stage design), WerkX, Vienna
Hiding In The Lights, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
2022
Burn & Gloom! Glow & Moon! Thousand Years of Troubled Gender, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna
2021
GLOWING ACTS, Georg Kargl BOX, Vienna
Hiding in the Lights, New Horizons Festival, Wrozlaw
Hiding in the Lights, Stadtkino, Vienna
Hiding in the Lights, Diagonale, Festival des Österreichischen Films, Graz
POMP, Short Waves Festival, Poznan
Plum Circus, XPOSED International Queer Film Festival, Berlin
2020
Schüttblenden, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Vienna
Hiding in the Lights, Diagonale, Festival des Österreichischen Films, Graz
Hiding in the Lights, New Horizons Festival, Wroclaw
Special Mention/ Queer Art Competition, Queerlisboa Lesbian & Gay Festival, Lisbon
Eine achtteilige „Traumnovelle“ von Katrina Daschner, Kurzfimtage Oberhausen, Oberhausen/Germany
66. Int. Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (int. competition Oberhausen / Germany with „Pomp“)
Pomp, Antimatter Underground Film Festival, Victoria
Pomp, Viennale - Vienna International Film Festival, Vienna
Pomp, Diagonale, Festival des Österreichischen Films, Graz
2019
Peacock Hole, Transilvania Film Festival, Cluj
2018
Daschner, Studio / Neue Galerie, Graz
Film festival Trailer für die Diagonale 2018 - Festival des Österreichischen Films, Graz
Pferdebusen, BIEFF Int Experimental Film Festival, Bucharest
Pferdebusen, Filmfest, Dresden
Pferdebusen, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor
Pferdebusen, Mix Brasil, Sao Paolo
2017
Filmfestival Trailer für die 63. Int. Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen
63. Int. Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (int. competition) Oberhausen
2016
Hiding in the Lights – Films by Katrina Daschner, brut Theater, Vienna
62. Int. Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (int. competition), Oberhausen
2015
DASCHNER, Tiroler Kunstpavillon, Innsbruck
61. Int. Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (int. competition), Oberhausen
Daschner, Kunst im Schaufenster, Vienna
Frameout Filmfestival, Vienna (Personale)
2014
60. Int. Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (int. competition), Oberhausen
Nouvelle Burleque Brutal, 7th Beijing Queer Film Festival, Beijing
2013
Katrina Daschner – „Was guckst du, bin ich Kino?“, MUMOK Kino, Vienna
Katrina Daschner - Mixtape, 13. Int. Film Festival, Wroclaw
59. Int. Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (int. competition), Oberhausen
2012
Portraiture Series #1: Daschner, Blickle Kino 21er Haus-The Museum of Contemporary Art, Vienna
DASCHNER, Krobath Wien │ Berlin, Berlin
2011
Flamingo Massacre, Krobath Wien │ Berlin, Vienna
BERTLMANN / DASCHNER (together with Renate Bertlmann), Kunstbunker, Nuremberg
2010
Daschner – ein Dialog, Jesuitenforum, Vienna
BERTLMANN / DASCHNER (together with Renate Bertlmann), VE.SCH, Vienna
Against the act – 3 essays about violence, Centre d’art passerelle, Brest
2009
ARIA DE MUSTANG, upstream gallery, Amsterdam
2008
HAFENPERLEN, k/haus passage, Vienna
2007
Fear eat soul up, thrust projects, New York City
TäterIn, Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna
2006
Nature, nature I´m your bride; take me as I am, upstream gallery, Amsterdam
Nature, nature I´m your bride; take me as I am, Galerie Kunstbuero, Vienna
1+1+1 presents „Salon Lady Chutney“, Sinaloa 199#12, México D.F.
2005
Dolores, factory Kunsthalle Krems, Krems
2004
Killing the systems softly, video-and book presentation, galerie kunstbuero, Vienna
Katrina Daschner, upstream gallery, Amsterdam
Murderess, Galerie Kunstbuero, Vienna
2003
Carmilla: Sie, Dracula tritt auf, die Prinzessin tritt ab, und der Held weint, Antonio Ferrara, Emilia Reggio
No fear is seen, unless upon the green, buro empty, Amsterdam
2002
>photocopied mrs. d<, Auto, Vienna
Vincent, Galerie Fotohof, Salzburg
2001
Dreaming Still, Salon Lady Cutney, Vienna
Wanting sweet, Antonio Ferrara, Emilia Reggio
1999
Ojos bien cerrados, La Panaderia, México D.F.
1998
Mutter mit Marmelade, Galerie 5020/Studio, Salzburg
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
You You, curated by Kate Sutton, Lombardi—Kargl, Wien
2023
... and they lived..., Kunsthalle Bratislava, Bratislava
Precious, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
2022
Body and Territory, Art and Borders in Today´s Austria, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Zagreb
Little Precious Things, Georg Kargl BOX, Vienna
2021
Of things baroque (Stretchy-Feely) with POMP, Kunstverein Leipzig, Leipzig
2020
attempt at rapprochement, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
The body and the territory: art and borders in today's Austria, Museum of contemporary art, Zagreb
The body and the territory: art and borders in today's Austria, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz
2019
Up and including Limits: Carolee Schneemann, Muzeum Susch, Susch
Zeig mir Deine Wunden, Dom Museum, Vienna
2017
Material Traces, Galerie Charim, Vienna
BONE- Performance Festival, Bern
lightness and matter/matter and lightness, Kunstraum NÖ, Vienna
Bilder der Sprache und Sprache der Bilder, Dom Museum Wien, Vienna
2016
art & function, Kunsthaus Muerz, Mürzzuschlag
femtrails – I gave my cock a woman`s name, The Sorority, Spektakel, Wien
Chapeau!, Wien Museum, Vienna
Gomenes, Athen Biennal 5-6, Athen
Zeta Galery, Tirana, Albania
2015
Travestie für Fortgeschrittene, Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig
Self-timer Stories, MUSAC, León
In der Kubatur des Kabinetts, Fluc, Vienna
2014
Selbstportraits, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Salzburg
Self-timer Stories, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York
STAGE SET STAGE, SBC Gallery, Montreal
Call me on sunday, Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna
2013
S/he is the one, Kunstraum NÖ, Vienna
re.act.feminism # 3, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
HEISSE STEINE, NASSE ZONEN, SCHNELLE MELONEN, VBKÖ, Vienna
The Great Stage, Blackbridge Off, Beijing
2012
re.act.feminism # 3, Fundació Antoni Tàpies
, Barcelona
Rosa Arbeit auf goldener Strasse – Queere Abstraktion, Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna
Vollmilch – Der Bart als Zeichen, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Linz (catalogue) re.act.feminism # 2, Museet for Samtidskunst, Roskilde
Night, Ostlicht, Vienna (catalogue)
L'éducation de Rosette, Schloss Harmannsdorf, Harmannsdorf (catalogue)
Bleibender Wert? Kooperation >springerin<, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz
2011
living on the edge of a silver future, Galerie 5020, Salzburg
Wiener Innen Aussen, Wonderloch Kellerland, Berlin
2010
Architektur und Körper, Krobath Wien │ Berlin, Berlin
Crossing Limits. Art in urban transition, (curated by U.M.Probst), ViennaArtWeek, Vienna
raum_körpereinsatz, MUSA, Vienna (catalogue)
2009
A Ladies Almanach, (with Ines Doujak and Dorit Margreiter), tranzitdisplay, Prague
Performance und Gender, Politik und Intercultural Studies, Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna (catalogue)
The Seen and the Hidden, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York City
Smell it!, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna
Kunstpreis der Böttchergasse, Weserburg - Museum für Moderner Kunst, Bremen
The Porn Identity, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (catalogue)
2008
just different, Cobra Museum, Amstelveen (magazine)
MATRIX – geschlechter/Verhältnisse/Revisionen, MUSA, Vienna (catalogue)
Seems to be. Differente identitäten zwischen ich/wir/queer, Kunstpavillion der Künstlerschaft, Innsbruck
I QUEERELANTI, Galleria Neon, Bologna
Dear Anus, Vbkö, Vienna
Diskonta 3 - Fotografie, IG Bildenden Kunst Galerie, Vienna
2007
<auto in riga>, Showroom 6, Riga
Art Rotterdam, (upstream gallery), Rotterdam
2006
Potential Dialogue, RCM The museum of modern art, Nanjing (catalogue)
Queer arts of Vienna, Universität Wien, Vienna
QueerulantInnen, auto, Vienna
Protections, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz (catalogue)
Von Crossdressing zu Dragkinging, Palaver, Graz
arabesque süperiör-Postfeministische Montagen an der Islamrezeption, Lothringer13/Laden, Munich
Missbrauch. Bilder davon, IG Bildende Kunst, Vienna
2005
ongoing. feminism & activism, galerie 5020, Salzburg
Junge Liste Basel, (upstream gallery/Amsterdam, galerie kunstbuero/Vienna), Basel
8th Festival Cultural de Mayo, Ex Convento del Carmen, Guadalajara/México
<Gosh! Where are you? ... now ... >, Auto, Vienna
viennAffair, galerie kunstbuero, Vienna
2004
bukowski-hommage, ex-teresa, México City/México
Lippenstiftbilder, Halle A/14, Berlin
Der doppelte Blick, Künstlerhaus Bregenz (folder)
Junge Liste Basel, (upstream gallery/Amsterdam), Basel
No risk no glory, loop raum, Berlin
2003
mothers of invention, mumok, Vienna (catalogue)
Blurrr, Performance Biennale, Tel Aviv (catalogue/cd)
5th International Performancefestival Navinki 2003, Minsk (catalogue)
In faccia al mondo, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Villa Croce, Genova (catalogue)
Artforum Berlin, gallery antonio ferrara, Reggio Emili
Zugluft, Zurich 4th Austrian Triennal on Photography, Graz (catalogue)
2002
Wien umgehen, Tanzquartier Wien Vienna
Let´s twist again, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna
Autum in Reggio Emilia, Antonio Ferrara
Artforum Berlin, gallery antonio ferrara, Reggio Emilia
2001
Trammelled-Untrammelled, Zacheta, Warsawa (catalogue)
Never stop the action, Steirischer Herbst, rotor, Graz (cd)
Festival Autriche, (Killing the systems softly), Batofar, Paris, (catalogue)
Chutney Mary, Info-screen, museum in progress, Vienna
Artforum Berlin, gallery antonio ferrara, Reggio Emilia
Double life, Generali Foundation, Vienna (catalogue)
Moving out, Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna (catalogue)
2000
Die neue Künstlergeneration, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems (catalogue)
Kunst im öffentlichen Raum, Etsdorf (book)
Residue, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna
Never alone again, La Panaderia, México, D.F.
Kunst im öffentlichen Raum, Etsdorf (catalogue)
Saloon Lady Chutney, Universität für angewandte Kunst, Vienna
1999
Video stage 1.0, Candid Arts Trust, London
Kurzfilmfestival, Munich
Modebus, Museumsquartier, Vienna
Gender troubles, Schikanederkino, Vienna
Weiße Spritzer, Museum Karlsruhe, KarlsruheHearing, iftaf, Vienna
1998
Junge Szene 98, Secession, Vienna (catalogue)
2 plateaux II, Ausstellungsraum mezzanin, Vienna
)limit(ed., Hochschule für angewandte Kunst, Vienna (Folder)
Auch Heinz und Susi, Künstlerhaus/Passagegalerie, Vienna (Folder)
Nach 68 VERLANGEN UND BEGEHREN, Salle de Bal, Vienna
1997
Gruppenaufnahme, Messepalast, Vienna
JAM, Semper Depot, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Vienna
1996
Das Festival, Künstlerhaus/passage, Vienna
Selected Performances
2017
CLUB GROTESQUE FATAL (Anti Valentines Ball), WUK, Vienna
2015
CLUB GROTESQUE FATAL (Queer Performance Festival Vienna), Kosmos Theater, Vienna
2014
CLUB GROTESQUE FATAL – Sylvester Gala, brut/Künstlerhaus, Vienna
2013
Club Burlesque Brutal – Best of 2013, Host/Performance Katrina Daschner (Frau Professor la Rose), brut/Konzerthaus, Vienna
Club Burlesque Brutal, performance at Bookpresentation of Denice Bourbon, Elysium, Vienna
Club Burlesque Brutal, performance at Gender Crash, brut Vienna, Vienna
2012
Club Burlesque Brutal – Gourmet Brutal, Host/Performance Katrina Daschner (Frau Professor la Rose), brut/Konzerthaus, Vienna
Club Burlesque Brutal – ANIMALÖS MONSTRÖS, Host/Performance Katrina Daschner (Frau Professor la Rose), brut/Konzerthaus, Vienna
2011
Club Burlesque Brutal, Host/Performance Katrina Daschner (Frau Professor la Rose), Staatstheater Dresden, Dresden
Club Burlesque Brutal, Host/Performance Katrina Daschner (Frau Professor la Rose), SO36, Berlin
Club Burlesque Brutal, Host/Performance Katrina Daschner (Frau Professor la Rose), Forum Stadtpark, Graz
Club Burlesque Brutal – ZUM DIKATAT BITTE!, Host/Performance Katrina Daschner (Frau Professor la Rose), brut/Konzerthaus, Vienna
Club Burlesque Brutal – BEST OF, Host/Performance Katrina Daschner (Frau Professor la Rose), brut/Konzerthaus, Vienna
Club Burlesque Brutal – MEDIKAMENTÖS, Host/Performance Katrina Daschner (Frau Professor la Rose), brut/Konzerthaus, Vienna
2010
Club Burlesque Brutal – FAIRY TALES, Host/Performance Katrina Daschner (Frau Professor la Rose), brut/Konzerthaus, Vienna
Club Burlesque Brutal – BOOBS AND BALLS, Host/Performance Katrina Daschner (Frau Professor la Rose), brut/Konzerthaus, Vienna
Club Burlesque Brutal – LA TRISTESSE, Host/Performance Katrina Daschner (Frau Professor la Rose), brut/Konzerthaus, Vienna
2009
Gala Burlesque Brutal – DER GROSSE AUSRITT, Host/Performance Katrina Daschner (Frau Professor la Rose), brut/Konzerthaus, Vienna
The gun is still loaded (as „Frau Professor la Rose“), Kosmos Frauenraum, Vienna
2008
Orlanding the Dominant – Eine queere Burlesque, Performance (with SV DAMENKRAFT,Gustav, Sissy Boyz), brut-konzerthaus, Vienna
Frau Professor la Rose, solo performance im brut/Foyer, Vienna
2005
Der Leichenschleicher, echoraum, Vienna (with Gini Müller)
Der Ohrenzeuge (Elias Canetti Festival), Kleylehof/Burgenland/Austria (with Gini Müller)
2004
No risk no glory, loop raum, Berlin, solo performance
2003
Blurrr, Performance Biennale, Tel Aviv, solo performance (catalogue/cd)
5th International Performancefestival Navinki2003, Minsk, solo performance (catalogue)
2002
>photocopied mrs. d<, Auto, Vienna, Performance with Sabine Marte
Wien umgehen, Tanzquartier Wien Vienna, solo performance
2001
Trammelled-Untrammelled, Zacheta, Warsawa, solo performance (catalogue)
Never stop the action, Steirischer Herbst, rotor, Graz, solo performance (cd)
Dreaming Still,Salon Lady Cutney, Vienna, solo performance
Wanting sweet, Antonio Ferrara, Emilia Reggio, solo performance
Killing the systems softly, Festival Autriche, Batofar, Paris, solo performance (catalogue)
2000
Residue, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, solo performance
Kunst im öffentlichen Raum, Etsdorf, solo performance (book)
1999
Ojos bien cerrados, La Panaderia, México D.F., solo performance
Universität für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, solo performance
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