Mahony

Mahony
Selceted Works
Yucatán Foldings
The following works came out of the Yucatán project Find Find No Walk in 2011. Yucatán tourist
guides from the 50s to the 80s have been acquired and worked on. The middle part of all pages have
been excised leaving just a frame and the spine. Spine and side residues where then glued together.
The cover sheet has been turned over, folded and inserted into the space created. These modified
guides can be seen as topographically - cultural objects with a few text fragments left.
Guides and Guias
The so called Guide series and Guia series consists of sketches or variations on the sculptures of
“Yucatán Folding” left in the country side in Yucatán. Whereas in the Guide series there is more the
concentration on a cross section on those objects, in the Guia series the drawings go more into three
dimensional variations.
Yucatán Folding #6, 2012
20 x 14 x 1,5 cm
travelguide
Yucatán Folding #1, 2012
17 x 12 x 3 cm
travelguide
Guide Chapter III, 2011
86 x 104 cm, framed
graphite and silver ink on travelguide
Guide Playa Azul, 2011
86 x 104 cm, framed
graphite and silver ink on travelguide
Guia Folklore, 2012
95 x 95 cm, framed
graphite and silver ink on travelguide
Guia Cordemex, 2012
95 x 95 cm, framed
graphite and silver ink on travelguide
Feather Hat Variations - Jimmie Durham & Mahony
Performance, Artists´s Institute, NY, January 12th, 2012
Curator Anthony Huberman
Tenochtitlan was the capital of the Aztec Empire. In 1519, the ruler Moctezuma greeted the Spanish colonizer
Hernán Cortés as a guest and gave him many gifts. A few days later, Cortés took him hostage. Tenochtitlan
is now known as Mexico City.
The stories that make up history are always in conflict. Misinterpretation is sometimes deliberate and sometimes not, and it’s usually impossible to distinguish one from the other.
Take, for example, the case of El penacho de Moctezuma. It might have been one of the gifts Cortés received
from Moctezuma his feather crown. Somehow, it ended up in Vienna, in the collection of the Museum of
Ethnology. Today, it is the source of much debate and conflict between Mexican and Austrian politicians and
historians.
Aztec headdresses were made with the feathers of Quetzal, Cotinga, Cuckoo, Spoonbills and Gold spangles.
The feathers were tied together, stiffened with rods, and the golden head of a bird was often placed at its
center. After the Spanish conquest, these exotic objects made their way into the curiosity cabinets of European
princes and collectors. The crown in Vienna’s museum, for example, was part of Count Ulrich von Montfort’s
kunstkammer, in Tettnang (Upper Swabia). It was then purchased in 1590 by the Archduke Ferdinand of
Tyrol and then given in 1880 to the Natural History Museum by the Habsburg family. Mexico wants it back
and Austria doesn’t want to give it back - go figure. What’s not clear, however, is whether Moctezuma ever
wore a feather crown.
Mahony is a collective of artists based in Vienna: Stephan Kobatsch, Jenny Wolka, and Clemens Leuschner.
They have brought a hat and a feather to New York, a place that is impartial to the Austrian-Mexican dispute.
On January 12th, 2012, they present Feather Hat Variations: a sculpture, a video, and a story about Moctezuma’s feather crown.
Anthony Huberman
weiß.
rote Wand.
rote Wand spot.
schwarze Wand.
schwarze Wand spot.
weiß, spot.
weiß.
spot gelb.
Vitrine hellgrau.
Vitrine grau.
Vitrine schwarz.
Vitrine grau spot.
Vitrine schwarz spot.
Vitrine schwarz Wand rot.
Vitrine grau Wand rot.
Vitrine grau Wand rot spot.
Vitrine grau Wand schwarz spot.
Vitrine schwarz Wand rot spot.
Vitrine grau.
graue Wand spot.
weiß.
Vitrine grau spot Nische grau.
Vitrine grau spot Nische grau Wand rot.
Vitrine schwarz spot Nische grau Wand rot.
Vitrine hellgrau spot Nische grau.
Vitrine hellgrau.
spot.
weiß.
Vitrine schwarz spot, Triptychon hellgrau.
Vitrine grau Nische schwarz, Triptychon rot.
Vitrine hellgrau spot Nische grau, Triptychon grau.
Vitrine weiß, Triptychon hellgrau.
Vitrine schwarz, Triptychon schwarz.
spot, Triptychon schwarz.
Vitrine hellgrau.
weiß.
Vitrine grau Säulen versetzt hellgrau
Vitrine hellgrau Säulen versetzt hellgrau Wand rot.
Vitrine schwarz spot grau Säulen versetzt hellgrau Wand rot.
Vitrine hellgrau spot Säulen versetzt hellgrau.
Säulen versetzt grau spot.
weiß.
Vitrine grau spot Wände rot Säulen versetzt hellgrau.
Vitrine grau Wände hellgrau Säulen versetzt hellgrau Wand rot.
Wand rot.
weiß.
Vitrine grau Wände grau Pyramide Position eins.
Vitrine schwarz Wände grau Pyramide Position zwei.
Vitrine grau spot Pyramide drei Wand rot.
Vitrine schwarz Pyramide drei Wand weiß.
weiß.
Find, find, no walk
Installation, digital video, travel guides, paper, cardboard,
collage, ink, photographs, slides, string
Find Find No Walk is an installation conceived by Mahony, an artists collective formed in 2002. It involves several different mediums and techniques from sculpture to video, photography and collage. Several distinct stages were necessary to its
realisation. In June 2010 in Yucatan, Mexico, Mahony created three triangle-shaped sculptures in metal and mirror glass,
whose minimalist aesthetic was in stark contrast with their surroundings. These sculptures, though destined to be ephemeral, were photographed; the reproductions are displayed at the CRAC.
Alongside this, a screen relays the video of a traditional music group, comprising Los Radiantes - four musicians living in
Yucatan. They sing a song with lyrics written by a local author who followed text guidelines provided by Mahony. They
mention three mysterious guests - Los tres invitados - who arouse the curiosity of local inhabitants. Each of these figures
reflects a distorted image of their environment.
The point Mahony are making is the way in which elements that are alien to an environment or a particular society, though
they seem at first to be insignificant, can disturb the equilibrium, fire the imagination and be a source of discussion.
CRAC Alsace for the groupshow “partenaires particuliers” in 2011
exhibition view, CRAC Alsace, groupshow partenaire particulier, 2011
Find, find, no walk
Installation, digital video, travel guides, paper, cardboard,
collage, ink, photographs, slides, string
2012
Los tres invitados
digital video, 3 min., loop
Find, find, no walk (guide, string and slide)
Installationview
Guide 15.17
Travel Guide pages, silver ink, framed
Yucatán folding M1, M2, M3
Photographs, each 34 x 45 cm
Find, find no walk (Yucatán Folding)
Installation view
Yucatán folding M1
Photograph, framed, 34 x 45 cm
Yucatán Folding
Object out of the series, 20 x 25 x 8 cm
Map 96
Maps
Watercolour, gesso, canvas on aluminium
each 66 x 90 x 6 cm
2012
Map 117
Map 228
Map 312
Map 237
Map 246
Gum Paste Incident
Video-Projection, Audio, Object (MDF, Cardboard), 2011
The project starts with a story that was considered striking news in the media at the beginning of the year. A story about the incident, connected with the sale of a collection of pre-Columbian art in Paris. A famous Parisian auction house sold a stone statue of
Maya deity for an incredible sum of 2,9 million dollars at an auction. A sculpture in polychrome stucco stone of 156 cm of height,
presenting a figure sitting on a throne, was supposedly the biggest foot statue from the classic Maya period. This event wouldn’t be
anything special if the Mexican institutions wouldn’t have gotten involved. They established on the basis of the statue photographs
that it is only an imitation that doesn’t fit any of the Maya art styles and is actually a combination of various styles, which was
supposed to be the proof of its inauthenticity. The French institutions on the other side stood behind their claims and insisted that
the Mexican attempts to discredit the statue served to protect their own interests and to prevent the sales of Mexican antiquities in
public and legal auctions, which would lead to a black market with no regulation. The facts that the statue belonged to a renowned
collector of art, that it was exhibited several times and published in catalogues and nobody ever questioned its authenticity before,
were strong enough arguments for a French gallerist to believe that the item was authentic. The discussions continued for a long
time without reaching any conclusion. Both sides only agreed on the fact that this is a unique item, but one claimed it to be a great
piece of art and the other claimed it to be a well-made forgery.
The statue of Maya deity travels in time inside the constructed stories of French gallerists and Mexican authorities, on the timeline
from year 500 to 2010 AD. Every time when the date changes on the basis of new scientific proof from one of both sides, the object
moves in time. The object itself somehow exists only as a mental perception and is therefore constantly changing and evading. It is
determined by the intensity of the stories supported by different information, and its final interpretation remains indeterminable.
In the context of these asymmetrical interpretations, the statue pedestal is the only tangible item and as such the only object that
is set up at the exhibition.
(Text Sonja Zavrtanik, Curator)
Show Gum Paste Incident, Ex-garage, Maribor, Slovenia, 2011
set for Krisenchor (crisischoir)
Wunder & Krise
Performance, Ausstellungshalle Münster, July 21th, 2011
Curators Julia Wirxel & Gail Kirkpatrick
Mahony was invited by the Ausstellungshalle Münster (AZKM) within the Festival Flurstücke to develop a performance with a geographical reference. The location was chosen on the docks around the AZKM as well as the
building of AZKM, SpeicherII, itself. Involved in a vocal performance was a complex interaction of space, movement and sound. Visitors were invited to the staircase and two balconies of the building or to listen directly on
the quay samples from two choirs. One choir was on a ship, the other choir on the opposite barrens. Each of them
practiced one songs, the sound of both was transferred to the fourth floor of SpeicherII. While the choir on the
ship intoned the buoyant economic miracle song Es geht besser, besser, besser (It Goes better, better, better) by Peter
Alexander, Caterina Valente and Silvio Francesco from 1956, the choir on the barrens was singing Keine Macht
für Niemand (No Power for Nobody) from 1972 by the rock band Ton, Steine, Scherben.
Krisenchor (crisichoir)
view to Ausstellungshalle from the harbour with ship
inside of Ausstellungshalle, stairway, fourth floor
inside of Ausstellungshalle, stairway, fourth floor
Wunderchor (wonder choir)
Krisenchor (crisischoir)
Operación Pavo
tirolean hat, magazine (22 x 15 cm, edition 50)
2011
Operación Pavo talks about the ongoing controversy between the Mexican Museo Nacional de Antropología and the Austrian Museum für Völkerkunde regarding the „Penacho de Moctezuma“ (feather
headdress of Moctezuma), a precious mexican feather headdress that is part of the Museum für Völkerkunde collection and of which a 1950 produced copy is shown at the National Museum in Mexico
City. Over the years the discussion about the legitimate exhibition place for the object has become a
political issue in both countries.
Magazin (Seite 3), 22 x 15 cm
Magazin (Seite 4), 22 x 15 cm
Seeing wrong and not seeing
water colour on canvas on aluminium, wood lacquered, metal and aluminium,
objects out of clay and concrete,
various collages, silkscreen on paper, 2010
In the show “seeing wrong and not seeing”, the artist group Mahony combines its own experiences with current and historical geopolitical
questions. In contrast to projects predating the current trip, the map material, its historical development and its use up to today become
the starting point for the show. Maps do not depict reality, rather they reveal the way it is constructed. The show by the artist group Mahony - consisting of Clemens Leuschner, Stephan Kobatsch and Jenny Wolka - is inspired by this process.
This place that cannot be located but that is present according to the image, is based on the multi-part series “Nearest Neighbour” (2010).
Found visual motifs of various landscapes are collaged together and visually unified using a white silkscreen layer. Despite the location
sources being used in different ways, the details of the geographical landmarks - such as the course of the mountain range - are chosen
in such a way that the corresponding images complement each other and form a whole. If maps do not represent reality, but rather its
construction, this work could correspond to the production sequence of a coast-line calculated using mathematical vectors, which becomes evident not through image points but through connection points. The individual images, however, reveal another problem: that of
political exploitation. In the following, the artists make the connections, but the individual images show areas whose political affiliation
has not been agreed upon by the negotiating parties.
Whether it makes sense to reproduce a map that does not correspond to the image is the main theme of the artist group Mahony’s piece
“seeing wrong and not seeing”, from which the show takes its title. Two folding maps - both made of canvas on folded aluminium - face
each other. A circle that was actually not meant to be there, but which the viewer recognises as a coffee stain, provides the most distinctive
geometrical hint on the map that is there for purposes of orientation. Its magnified reproduction served as model for the map lying on
the table. Through corrections, overpainting and subtractions it clearly shows the painter’s intervention, that is, to expose the map to a
subjective shift in the process of copying.
The piece “Vollkommen und absolut Weiß” (2010) logically follows by dealing with the irrelevance of representing the world. Lewis
Carroll developed a completely white and empty nautical chart, whose marginal markings still contains the usual direction settings and
subdivisions, but no markings that could be interpreted as flow directions, islands or coasts. According to Michael Glasmeier, Carroll’s
monochromatic surface does not signify a lack of orientation, but rather underlines the placelessness which “more than any maritime
painting expresses the feelings seafarers have always had on the ocean. Despite all oceanographic survey and ship-related safety the traveller is still surrounded by an impressive solitude in the face of such boundlessness.(...)This is why Carroll’s illustration, precisely because it
does not show anything, is closer to the actual experience on the sea than any cartography, as precise as it may be.”
The group submitted to that experience in the previous show project “Kimm Sun Sinn”, when it undertook a 21-day passage on a container ship to the “New World” and examined the experience of historical travel compared to the current routes of global commerce.
Despite the clear ocean streams and the clear flow of commodities, here too there is a basic feeling of solitude, based on the monotony
of a horizon that remained almost unchanged over days. Arthur C. Danto completes the quote above: “You can say of a map that is a
duplicate, with the help of which we can find our way in a certain kind of reality, but as Lewis Carroll has shown, the map cannot be
the duplicate of the country, or we would lose our way in one and in the other.” And still we think that as soon as the itinerary has been
calculated by nautical instruments, nothing is left to chance and we can find our way without peril. In a world measured by and encountered through sonar, GPS and satellite navigation, the myths of seafaring cannot be fuelled by maps anymore, no matter whether these
myths are based on reality or not. “The imaginary plays no part in the world’s text, in the way monsters still did in the illustrations on the
margins of Gothic manuscripts and early maps”. In the context of the show the artist group complements the illustrations in the margins
described above with a shelf fixed on the floor, on which sea-monsters sit in a row, as if waiting to be deployed all over the world, in the
piece “Shelf Dummies” (2010).
If one continues Glasmeier’s train of thought from the year 1997, the pixelled Google Earth entries on the digitally retrievable maps on
the internet take the place of the medieval descriptions of sea-monsters. The pieces cast in concrete “diskreter Stapel” (2010) and “diskrete
Fläche” (2010) are derived through these graphic images from Google Earth. The horizontal and stacked showcase building blocks correspond to the pixels taken from the internet, which render areas unrecognisable in advance based on their security or secrecy status.
So, on a next level, the principle of subjectively created maps with their objective standard of wanting to reproduce the world is lead ad
absurdum. In the show these concrete casts of the quintessentially most secret and the most unspectacular places become new markers,
which discreetly open the show to the visitor. The two-dimensional pixelled landscape is translated in the show into a three-dimensional
sculpture that can be set up in different ways, but again mirrors the space of the map drawn into the surface in the next possible dimension.
Historical cartography was always influenced and characterised by the artist’s subjective mark and the monarchs who initiated the projects. Due to the reproduction of maps by machines, we have lost the perception for the fact that maps are still designed according to
subjective and political criteria. To extend its sphere of influence, the Japanese government has invested millions in the last 60 years, to
save a small inaccessible island from sinking, due to natural causes. Even the island’s representation on the map is not on the same scale
as the neighbouring islands, because such a small dot cannot be displayed in a readable fashion. Using cartography as an example, the
exhibition deals with artistic and political criteria to authentically represent the world and it shows the conflicting limits between fiction
and reality to be shifting and absurd.
Karin Pernegger, Krems January 2011
English translation by Douglas Montjoye
Triptychon
cast concrete, 28 x 25 x 2,5 cm
Nearest Neighbour
Inkjet and silkscreen on paper, collage, 64 x 131cm, 64 x 173 cm
diskreter Stapel, diskreter Haufen
cast concrete 30 x 30 x 72 cm, 125 x 58 x 4 cm
Nordischer Geheimdienst
silkscreen on inkjet print, 30 x 22 cm
liquid border
silkscreen on inkjet print, 22 x 30 cm
vollkommen und absolut weiss
wood,metal, clay, canvas on aluminium, 187 x 85 x 36 cm
shelf dummies
clay, wood, 80 x 17 x 18 cm
Observed Fall
Installation: Lone Wanderer, Sculpture (wood, canvas, sparkler, wire); Fallbeispiele, Audioloop, 3 Min.
Ohne Titel, Videoloop, 2 Min.; Observed Fall, 22 x Inkjet and silkscreen on paper, framed, 2010
In the work observed fall the main subject is the fall of a meteorite, an incident that in the moment of its occurrence was
partly observed by someone who was able to listen to the sound of the falling meteorite. No one actually saw the falling
object, but the impact coincidentally took place in the garage and also in the car of a residence in the countryside of Illinois.
Therefore it was later possible to reconstruct the details of the event.
The different parts of the installation observed fall all refer to the text The Benld Meteorite from 1938 by Ben Hur Wilson.
The 22 images on the wall show two versions of this text, which in large parts was blackened out, so that only a few passages
are left to read. The first version presents numbers, dates and concrete information about size, form, material and position
of the found meteorite. In the second version one could read all statements of subjective perception of the incident, as well
as of the piece of rock and the described reconstruction of the fall and impact.
The lone wanderer
The object in the middle of the room refers to the reconstruction of the impact, as described in the original text. The levels of the
space in which the meteorite crashed in are represented in abstract white panels which correspond in angle and distance to each
other with the original scenery of the garage. Through the positions of the holes that mark these panels, a tiny line of burned sparklers depict the trajectory of the fallen object. The sparklers were burned in the dark exhibition space a night before the opening,
now an accelerated video of the burning is presented on a monitor and shows a small light dashing from the ceiling of the room
down through the object.
Fallbeispiele
Another part of the installation are headphones on which one could hear different examples of airplane dives.They refer to the only
in the text found testimony about the moment of impact. The neighbor Mrs. Crum „was suddenly startled by a great roar, which
she described as being like an airplane going into a power dive. This lasted only an instant(...)“.
Weite Welt Regal
Installation. Wood, light bulbs, carpet, tiles, radio, various objects, collages, 2010
Since a few years already the artistic cosmos of Mahony circles on different
spheres around the cultural practice of travelling. Within their multimedia work (installation, sculpture, images, collages, graphics, photographs
and video) manifests itself an approach to historic and current phenomena,
techniques, myths and real problems, which arise out of the human impulse
of discovery of something new and the encounter with the unknown. The
shift of limits of perception and knowledge, as well as the dissolution of
prerogatives of significance are elemental concerns of the group.
Welt Welt Regal,
various objects, lights, 420 x 130 x 300 cm
untitled
collages on paper, 36 x 26 cm
Caruso inverso
object (wood, paint), gramophone (wood, wire, plastic, Coca-Cola box, amazone green (videoloop, sound)
It was in 2007 when Mahony set out on a continuing “expedition” under the title Odyssey 500, which makes
travelling in various forms the point of departure and material of their work as artists. During their stay in
South America, Mahony also followed in the tracks of Fitzcarraldo, the protagonist of Werner Herzog’s 1982
film of the same name. An impressive scene of Herzog’s film shows Fitzcarraldo on the roof of his steamer with
the big horn of a phonograph in front of him. An aria sung by Caruso is the answer to ominous drumbeats from
the impenetrable jungle. One’s own is deployed against the unknown in an equally helpless and magic act.
At this point, Mahony went the opposite way. They rented a boat and shot their own film in Brazil. The phonograph has become a recording device listening into the forest. As invisible signs of a completely conquered
world, radio waves instead of drumbeats merge with the natural background noises. The installation Caruso
Inverso assembles evidence of an appropriation that – like Herzog’s film – can only be realized on site, even if
the pictures explored and subjected to a revision are ultimately inner ones. Fitzcarraldo’s boat in the exhibition
is an eerie wreck projecting into the hall. On it we see the horn built from bamboo rods. The noise recorded on
site rings out into the jungle, which of course is a different one here.
text by Rolf Wienkötter
Installation views
Kimm Sun Sinn
o.T., wood, paint, 2 video-projections, we are the world, metall, paint, ink, water, electromotor, speaker,
Bilderwand, 19 images (various techniques), o.T., acrylic on canvas
[…] As a preparation for the exhibition in Factory Krems, Mahony crossed the Atlantic Ocean by cargoship from Germany to Brasil in autumn 2009. The title of the show Kimm Sun Sinn refers to the idea of location: Kimm (german nautic
term for horizon) and the sun are the required elements for an analogue location determination at sea.
The wooden sculpture close to the entrance of the exhibition space could be described as a sketch of a ships bow. The two
screens at the back of the sculpture show the daily monotony at sea. The larger projection on the left shows the frontal
view from the ship at the sea, a constant and fast movement with the horizon as constant point of orientation. Next to
it on a smaller screen, we see the group eating without communicating and pictures of the empty functional interior
architecture of the ship. The Container is one of the important elements in the sequence of 18 images. It was invented
in 1956 and constituted a fundamental change in the global transportation of goods. The standardised metal cover serves
as a black box that converts global trade to an anonymous transfer. In the work “We are the world” a stylized container is
turning slowly in the middle of a round basin filled with black water. Out of the container one can hear a karaoke version
of the song “we are the world”, sung by Mahony and the crew of the Cargoship. […]
excerpts from the exhibition text by Karin Pernegger, Factory, Kunsthalle Krems, 2010 (translated)
we are the world, metal, water, ink, motor, speaker, 250 x 250 x 20 cm
o.T.
acrylic on canvas, 80 x 65 cm
o.T.
wood, paint, 2 projection screens, video, audio, 300 x 550 x 200 cm
18 images, various techniques,
Debris, collage, paper, print, tempera, 45 x 62 cm
event of loss I, chalk on cardboard, 45 x 62 cm
SeaLand, silkscreen, 40 x 59 cm
das älteste Stück Ding der Welt
clay, shoe polish, wooden shelf, 60 x 25 x 25 cm
C-Print, framed, 80 x 40 cm
das älteste Stück Ding der Welt
the oldest piece on earth
Digital photography of the oldest piece on earth taken in Royal Maritime Museum, Greenwich
and its reconstruction out of clay and shoe polish
Mahony is an artist collective. such a collaboration could only function as a crew, company or a scientific travelgroup.
The last one would for example undertake expeditions and bring curiosities back home. Exactly such a thing one
could see here: it is around 80 million years old and therefore the supposed oldest material on earth. Situated in
the british „National Maritime Museum“ in Greenwich it could be touched, but not photographed. Nevertheless
Mahony took a photo of it and reconstructed the piece at home out of clay and shoe polish. this new object could
be photographed, but whoever touches it gets dirty fingers.
text: Vitus Weh
Libertad para el Chucrut, paint, canvas, wood
100 x 250 cm
Dear James...
oil on cancas, various drawings, collages,
cartboard, banner, glass, ashes
Dear James... deals with the situation of a lost barrel of sourcrout that Mahony sent over the Atlantik Ocean to Ushuaia, Argentina in order to use the sourcrout for a potato dinner at the Biennial of the End of the World. The intent
to ship the crout, which on former sea voyages has been considered live saving, has been stopped at the customs in the
port of Buenos Aires. Since then the barrel is waiting in some warehouse for its destruction. The work describes on
one side the planned route of the barrel from Vienna until the end of the world and, just filled with a piece of stone
from the end of the world, back to Vienna. On the other hand it shows the kafkaesque struggle for the liberation of
the barrel out of clutches of bureaucracy. The ceiling of the exhibition space is covered with a sheet of 7 diameters,
which in the square space seems to be squeezed in. In a second room leans a banner with the writing „libertad para el
chucrut“ (liberty for the sourcrout) on the wall, bears witness of the effort of the failed attempt of liberation action.
der Urnenkasten, wood, glass, photograph, ash, 38 x 48 x 16 cm
3 studies for Journey of the Kraut, drawing on paper, 49 x 103 cm
Monte Olivia, Monte Olivia, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 60 cm
Kartoffelessen / Cena de Papa
Performance, 2. Bienal del Fin del Mundo, Ushuaia, Argentina
The performance Kartoffelessen (potato dinner) was presented on the opening night of the Bienal del
fin del mundo. The entrance of the audience was accompanied by audio recordings of spoken diary excerpts of Ernest Shackleton, which originated between 19th and 31st of december 1902 on a Journey
to the Southpole with Captain Scott and Billy Wilson. Due to the lack of food on the Expedition, his
writings are almost exclusively about the Imagination of food, its preparation and consumption. After
that, a black wooden sheet of 7diameters was pulled up the stage by the members of the group, using a
wooden construction. Once onstage the sheet turned into a big table for more than 40 Persons. When
it nearly reached its final position, on the other end of the room argentinian performance artist Ezequiel
Monteros started reading a letter to the Curator of the Bienal. The letter tells the story of „the Importer“
who fails in his attempt to bring a barrel of sourcrout for the potato dinner, because he foundered on
mechanisms of bureaucracy. Finally the spectators could take their plates with prepared potato meals
and carry them to eat, either on the big table or on smaller ones in the audience of the theater.
potato dish for potato dinner
potato dinner
Performance, videostill
most western point, version II(Land´s End),
photograph, 60 x 50 cm
most western point, version I(Cape Cornwall),
photograph, 169 x 123 cm
Land´s End
wood, photographs, 2 rocks, 2 videos
The installation is composed of correlated objects, images and videos and deals with topics as imagination of the
world, stategies of appropriation, questioning of representation of geograpical beginning and end of the world and
its repeatability. A primary sculptural work is presented as multimedia installation. the historic conception of world,
its actual relevance, the mythologization and charge of banal objects is questioned in a repeated gesture.; a piece of
rock is being chipped off. once it’s the extreme part of Land´s End, then the extreme part of Cape Cornwall. the
presentation thematizes this chipping off by videos and photographs. Produced charts of the two capes present a
enhanced view on the piece of stone, which amongst a mythical charge also experiences a placing. “Land´s End” in
many ways is typical for the artistic practice of Mahony. Proceeding from obsolete facts , through an ironic distance
and a fine net of associations. Due to a measurement error in Cornwall it came to the situation that two places in
different times claimed to be the most western part of the country.
Cape Cornwall is hardly turistic developed and embedded in a rural environment. Land´s End, due to improved
measurement established such as, meanwhile has turned into a wellknown tourist attracion with its own themepark,
restaurants and souvenirshops, which all use the term Land´s End in an inflationary way. The difference within these
two neighbouring ends of the world and the sublation of theirrespective meaning due to the existence of the other
caused Mahony to deal with its particularities.
Most western piece, version I (Cape Cornwall), paint on paper, 60 x 127 cm
Most western piece, version II (Land‘s End), paint on paper, 60 x 127 cm
Most western piece, version I (Cape Cornwall),
piece of rock, black pedestal, 120 x 30 x 30 cm
Most western piece, version II (Land´s End),
piece of rock, white pedestal, 100 x 34 x 35 cm
Installation view, Land´s End, version I (Cape Cornwall), version II (Land´s End)
Installation view induction globe
Horror Vacui
curated show, invited artists: Marius Engh, Simon Faithfull, Constantin Luser,
Michael Müller, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Misha de Ridder
Horror Vacui, an exhibition by the artist group Mahony, is the first presentation within the longterm project Odyssee
500. Seven international artistic positions revolving around the topic of horror vacui have been selected for this exhibition. A thematic bridge is built from political conflicts through subjective notions to the Voyage into Nothingness. At
the beginning of the exhibition there is an induction globe, a model of the Earth abstracted to its spherical geometric
form. For Mahony, who have the twin roles of artists and curators of this exhibition, the incorporation of additional
artistic ideas signifies a necessary extension of the perspectives on this topic. The work In A Land Far Far Away by
Rhina Banerjee was another piece they wanted to show. For it was impossible to lend it, they decided to rebuild the
work. The thus developed object mirrors the original in its basic form and size.
The last room of the gallery, the garage, refers to the general process of creation and production. The induction globe
of the first room is here translated into the two-dimensional representation of the sphere. The white chalk circle on
the floor as well as the segment image on the wall are both reduced images of the black globe. For the segment images,
potato peel is the basic working material, providing the segments (as well as the letters for the printing of the exhibition
poster.)
in a land far away (after Rina Banerjee), paper, glue, 400 x 100 x 100 cm
installation view segmentbild, dividers, Ei des Kolumbus
Segmentbilder
potato peel, wood, colour, paint, size variable
The potatoe as „cultural transmitter“ made in times of the great discoveries a reverse movement to the ships
from europe, today it is stable food in wide parts of the world and in its cultivation so modest that in times of
crisis it could be one of the few foods that are still available. In the Segmentbilder Mahony applies the image
of the potato peeling shipmate; for the production of one image, great amounts of potatoes need to be peeled
and dried.
kleines Schwarzes (series)
wood, bitumen, metal, 25x 29,5 cm, height variable
the „kleines Schwarzes“ is an object which in its form refers to shipwrecks and landmarks. The first ones are witnesses of
movements which include -if not decay- at least stranding. The second ones are created for the exact opposite, by their
form and location they give ships information about their position. Spilled with bitumen the „kleines Schwarzes“ become
s an objects which freezes the process of sinking in a certain moment.
Winke, Winke
Nitrofrottage-prints, 70 x 50 cm
The origin of this work is a photograph taken by Frank Hurley as part of the documentation of the
Endurance Expedition to the Antarctica. The picture shows the crew left behind on Elephant Island after
the loss of their ship, waving goodbye to their captain who is leaving on a jollyboat in order to find help.
After the successful rescue of the whole crew, Hurley entitled the image „all save, all well“, using it to
show this glorious moment of which he couldn´t take any more photographs. Different sources describe
the image as the moment of departure as well as the arrival of the rescue boat.
left behind on Elephant Island men wave farewell to the boat they hope will end their ordeal
Shackleton returns to Elephant Island an finds all 22 men left behind had survived
Die Ente / Hurleys Chamber
the canard / Hurleys Chamber
page of New YorkTimes, oilpainting, S/W-Prints
This work consists of two parts. The first part die Ente is a painting of a parrot in an old wooden frame. As an accomplice of the seaman, the parrot provoces associations with stereotypical ideas of adventurous travel. The second
picture is a framed page from the New York Times of the 22.09.07. It shows the weather reports for places all over
the world and a call that Ernest Shackleton placed it in the London Times in 1912 to recruit a crew for his coming
expedition to the Antarctica.
Hurley´s Chamber is a collection of illustrations from books, film-stills and posters. A reservoir of occidental legends,
adventure novels and films which all use the motif of sea travel for exploration and destiny (The Odyssey, Moby Dick,
Treasure Island, 20,000 Miles under the Sea, Curse of the Caribbean etc.). Black/white photographs of these images are
hung on a washing line in a bathroom, as if to dry after being blown up. The only source of light is a red lamp, referring
to the work in a darkroom.
Moby Dick
Installation view Hurleys Chamber
Fitzcarraldo
the Sea Wolf
o.T. (Gruppenportrait), 4 photographs, framed
Schäbiger Mond, leuchte
The exhibition schäbiger Mond, leuchte is a combination of a documentation and artistic commentary on a trip that Mahony took
in the summer of 2006 through the Elbsandstein mountains in Saxon Switzerland. The point of departure was calling into question
depictions of landscapes that have been incorporated in the body of collective imagination. As a sort of self-investigation, the artist
group proceeded to experience the landscape on site and to oppose “classical“ representations by creating their own pictures of it.
Caspar David Friedrich – synonymous for our repertory of highly allusive landscape images - is thus literally relegated to the background in a number of large-format paintings. Colorful fragments of the journey undertaken are placed in front of his scenarios. At
the same time, this move also means taking a stance against the romanticist image of landscapes. The depiction of nature is no longer
a place of contemplation, it now becomes transformed into a space of action or a formal playground. (...)
The space that mahony provides the viewer is one of the reflection of artistic construction of sense and meaning. That they never give
the viewer a chance to decide for one side of perception has to do with the multi-layered system of references that never let him come
to rest.The moon is thus immediately relegated to the periphery. Even there, in splendid isolation, contemplation is only seemingly
given deference to and this accompanied by a smirk. For just a short time the moon can serve as an image of solitary retreat but on
closer scrutiny it is just as an illusion and a rather flimsy one at that. A paper-like construction whose radiance only exists symbolically, by virtue of its visual axis in relation to the sun, for in actual fact we are the ones that make the old guy shine even if he is hiding
in a wardrobe.
text by Juliane Feldhoffer
Schäbiger Mond, leuchte, wardrobe, photo on foil, light, 180 x 120 x 45 cm
Italien ist Weltmeister
Collage on Nitrofrottage, 170 x 270 cm
Gruppenbild mit Hünengrab, Collage on Nitrofrottage, 90 x 122 cm
Pilgerwasser (I), Object of 3 walking sticks, parasol, gents fine rib underpants,
steel plate, PET bottle, 50 x 50 x 100 cm
Pilgerwasser (II), glassbottle with transparent liquid, frame
Mahony
Clemens Leuschner
born 1976, Göttingen, Germany. Studied Communication Design / Diploma in Media Art, University for Applied Arts, Vienna
Stephan Kobatsch
born 1975, Vienna, Austria. Diploma in Film- and Stagedesign, University for Applied Arts, Vienna
Jenny Wolka
born 1978, Cologne, Germany. Studied Media Art / Sculpture and New Media, University for Applied Arts, Vienna
Group shows (selection)
Solo shows (selection)
2012
DLF 1874 - Die Biografie der Bilder, Spinnerei, Leipzig *
DLF 1874 - Die Biografie der Bilder, Camera Austria, Graz *
STRATA, Collection Lenikus, Vienna
Uncanny, Corridor/Gangurinn, Reykjavi­k
Cliffhanger, Minken & Palme, Berlin
Untergangart, Parallelactions, Vienna
Utopie Gesamtkunstwerk, 21er Haus, Belvedere, Vienna *
2011
Whats the measure? Glockengasse 9, Vienna
Partenaires Particuliers, CRAC Alsace, Altkirch
What Happened To The Other Dollar?
Proyectos Monclova, México D.F.
San Jerónimo 31, San Jerónimo 31,Colonia Centro,
México D.F
2010
Crossing Limits. Art in Urban Transitions,
Galerie Lust and Sammlung Lenikus, Vienna
Paradas em movimento, Centro Cultural, Sao Paulo
Originalfunktional, Ex-Bawag Contemporary Space, Vienna
Triennale 1.0, OK Centrum, Linz *
Lebt und arbeitet in Wien III, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna*
Solace, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York
In Between. Austria Contemporary, Bmukk touring exhibition
2009
In Between. Austria Contemporary, Galerija Umjetnina, Split
Every version belongs to the myth, Project Arts Centre, Dublin
Glanz und Verderben, das blaue Licht, Medienturm, Graz*
Subvision, Festival, Hamburg*
Curated by, Galerie Layr Wuestenhagen, Vienna
Intempérie, 2nd Bienal del Fin del Mundo, Ushuaia*
2008
Am Sprung, OK Centrum, Linz
La petite histoire, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna
Hotel Meridian, spaceman spiff, Cadogan Pier, London
Horror Vacui, Galerie Layr Wuestenhagen, Vienna
Glanz und Verderben, Materialwert, Fernwärme, Vienna
UTOPIA, paraflows, MAK Gegenwartskunstdepot, Vienna*
Edges of Darkness, Hamish Morrison Galerie, Berlin
2007
Science Fictions (The Lab, Part II), Czarna Gallery, Warschau
Das Labor, Intoposition, Vienna
Olmoust 39° of feber, Marco, Dispari&Dispari Gallery, Italy
intrusion, the Loft, New York
SLOW exhibition, Plymouth Arts Center, Plymouth
2012
Lone Wanderer, Natural History Museum, Vienna
Ghostship, Kapsch - Showroom, Vienna
Mahony and Jimmie Durham, The Artists Institute, New York
(11/01/2012 - 15/01/2012)
2011
Gumpaste Incident, Ex-Garage, Maribor
Wunder & Krise, Ausstellungshalle für zeitgenössische
Kunst, Münster
2010
Seeing wrong and not seeing, Layr Wuestenhagen, Vienna
Kimm Sun Sinn, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems
Kimm Sun Sinn, Stadtgalerie Schwaz, Schwaz
2009
Land´s End, Liste 09, Basel
2008
Strategy of action, Austrian Cultural Forum, London.
2007
Mit Robben leben, Galerie Hübner, Frankfurt
Strategy of action, Austrian Cultural Forum, London
Schäbiger Mond, leuchte, Galerie Layr Wuestenhagen, Vienna
2006
Leitermayerklasse, Space Invasion, Vienna
Bin ich Gärtner, bin ich Mensch, Galerie 5020, Salzburg
* Catalogue
for more information
www.mahony.fm
www.emanuellayr.com