About the Exhibition
Ilse Haider studied with Arnulf Rainer in Vienna and then in London with Eduardo Paolozzi; a convergence of influences in her work which, while detectable, has been refined into interesting new forms. Born in Salzburg in 1965 she has continuously worked with photography in combination with sculptural forms, at first with ceramic and wood over-printed with photographs, and then with wicker and Q-Tips acting as the ground for the image. Her recent works divert somewhat from this principle, based upon but not actually being photographs.
In Male Nude (Mannlicher Akt) Haider places a photographic image under a sheet of glass, the artist maps the form of the figure with silicon gel onto the glass surface. She then inserts small plastic stamen into the gel in such a way that they follow the pattern of shadow in the photographic image. These stamens, which are normally used for plastic flowers, are embedded in the silicon and the tail. Resembling hair, the stamens protrude above the surface of the silicon. After the whole figure has been treated in this manner the completed work is peeled away from the glass and is hung directly on the wall.
Drawing upon the clichéd traditions of nude photography, many of Haider’s recent images are appropriated from magazines, which were produced in the sixties. Similar to her larger self-portrait, Haider takes the tradition of the nude – so long dominated by men depicting women – and reverses the role of the artist and model.
