Sophie Tappeiner, Vienna
Liesl Raff
Liesl Raff’s works are characterised by a material semiotics that starts where words supposedly fail. Through continuous experimentation and a strong sensitivity to different materials, her sculptures negotiate the beauty and fragility of physical coexistence.
In her use of an anthropomorphic formal language, engagement with seriality, and a process-based approach to work, she not only engages with bodies and relationships, but subjects currents such as minimalism or process art to contemporary revision. She is interested in relationships, social connections, patterns of behaviour and roles, which are made transparent in the work through the choice and composition of materials.
At Art-o-rama, Raff creates a hallway situation: two parallel walls with the distance of 2,5 meters. All six pieces are installed at the same height on one of the two walls, while the other remains empty. The works from the loop series are made of long latex cords draped over short but thick bamboo rods, seemingly giving the objects a
purpose or possible usefulness. Each latex cord is cast in two colours and has a colourful rope at its core, their loops poking out at each end. The rough plastic rope contrasts with the skin-like texture of the latex. While these pieces aren’t exactly anthropomorphic, they point towards interconnectedness and coexistence.
Liesl Raff, born 1979 in Stuttgart, lives and works in Vienna.
Recent solo shows include: 2021 ‘Smoke and Mirrors‘, NEVVEN, Gothenburg (SE), ‘The Loop‘, Sharp Projects, Copenhagen (DNK), ‘Schwindel’, Biennale Freiburg, Freiburg (DE); 2020 ‘About Palms, Snakes, and Tongues’, SOPHIE TAPPEINER, Vienna (AT); 2019 ‘#3 Liesl Raff’, Crisis Contemporary, New York (US); 2018 ‘MAXIMAL SOFT’, SOPHIE TAPPEINER, Vienna (AT); 2017 ‘so do i’, One Work Gallery, Vienna (AT).
Selected group exhibitions and projects include: 2022 ‘Ebbing Touch‘, Galeria Madragoa hosting SOPHIE TAPPEINER, Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon (PT); 2021 ‘Avantgarde und Gegenwart‘, Belvedere 21, Vienna (AT), ‘PUT A SOCK ON IT’, curated by Lisa Long, SOPHIE TAPPEINER, Vienna (AT), ‘Enjoy – the mumok Collection in Change‘, mumok, Vienna (AT), ‘Einatmen, Ausatmen’, Kultum, Graz (AT), Sala Terrena der Angewandten, Heiligenkreuzerhof, Vienna (AT); 2020 ‘RISENTIMENTO / RESSENTIMENT’, curated by Christiane Rekade, Kunst Meran, Meran (IT); 2019 ‘Cäcilia Brown, Christoph Meier, Liesl Raff’, curated by Peter Pakesch, Nicolas Krupp Gallery, Basel (CH), ‘Peel Adhesion’, Ve.Sch Kunstverein, Vienna, ‘Special School for Sculpture‘, Ausstellungsraum der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Vienna (AT); 2018 ‘Champagnola’, Westwerk, Hamburg (DE) , ‘ Wiener Raum ‘, curated by Eva Maria Stadler, Unviersitätsgalerie der Angewandten at Heiligenkreuzerhof, Vienna (AT); 2017 ‘my moment is now yours’, Bob’s Pogo Bar, Berlin (DE).
Her work is included in the mumok collection, Vienna.
https://www.sophietappeiner.com/
