On the occasion of her first personal exhibition at Patricia Low Contemporary in Venezia, Xenia Hausner presents a series of recent paintings and new sculptural works in which she pursues her exploration of notions revolving around the terms of 'stranger' and 'foreigner' that, in most languages, exist as a single polysemic word. In her work, both meanings are approached in all their ambiguities and contradictions, and simultaneously in their political, societal and individual sense.
Since the beginning of her career, Xenia Hausner has focused on the human figure, and in which she almost exclusively represents women. In fact, the female characters she portrays embody all genders, and play various roles—like actors they explore a variety of relationships. As fragments of a story, comparable to film stills whose plot has gone missing, they defy clear interpretation.
In subtle connection with the general theme of this year's Venice Biennial, Foreigners Everywhere, her exhibition gathers a series of recent paintings as well as a wall sculpture and several sculptures—a new development within the artist's oeuvre. All the works in the show further explore ideas that are consistent with her entire oeuvre: Female representation, exile and rootlessness as well as ecology, and ultimately survival.
Stranger Things (2022), the painting that lends its title to the exhibition, shows three female characters in what seems to be a night club. However, many details in this picture tend to contradict our initial assumptions and, in a classic Hausner's manner, leave once more the narrative ambivalent and open to interpretations. What exactly is that place with a curious painted floor? What brings these three characters together in this picture? Are the gestures between the two younger women an expression of their sexual attraction? Are we witnessing a single staged scene or a juxtaposition of different instants? The painting ambiguities are essentially reinforced by her masterful treatment of light.
Floating (2018) and Double Dip (2024) are two large paintings directly connected to the notion of migration. The former follows on an earlier series of especially large paintings entitled Exiles (2017-) showing migrants aboard trains. The latter belongs to a series of representations of migrants on boats. The contrast between the subject matter and the intensely colorful renditions could not be more striking. The dominants of pink, bright reds and blues, evidently reinforce the contemporaneity and reality of the scenes. The unusual shaped-canvas used for Double Dip creates a salient focus on the current social disruption and points out this fragmentation – in the literal sense of the word—through the central figure which is headless. Beyond all the ambivalences, the viewer is left with their impressions of pain, agony and grief.
Her current pictures For Women only (2024) and Zone A (2024) also describe the ethical approach to human dignity. Zone A creates an even more unsettling feeling of ambiguity as two undressed women holding each other lie on a table while they are being examined by a female doctor with gentle curiosity and perhaps secret bonding. This picture clearly refers to the many current conflicts and images of war camps that appear in continuous flux on our screens. Still reality experiences a sensual shift through the painting. The scene is entirely stained (by blood? by dirt?), and the cold light that appears creates a forensic overall atmosphere. We, the viewers, are safely positioned on the other side of the wire fence, privileged and protected, though our involvement cannot possibly be denied.
Despite its luminously shimmering colors, the duality of the scene in Deep Water (2024) cannot divert from the drama it depicts through the representation of a boat used by migrants who might still be hidden under the beautiful blanket that covers part of its deck. The artist seems to be playing with the old saying 'still waters run deep'. The wall sculpture entitled Those Who Walk Away (2024) crudely illustrates one of the unbearable scenes that in the past few years have been witnessed daily on too many Mediterranean beaches: Shoes abandoned by men, women, and children, inert bodies partially buried in the sand and the vegetation...
The sculptures are the first works of this kind in the artist's oeuvre, in which for the first time she has created on a large scale a body of work combining Mixed Media and Polyurethane, as well as polished and patinated bronze, which function as a complementary dialogue with her paintings.
A central element in the sculpture entitled Spill (2024), for instance, the buoy, is seen in the painting Deep Water (2024), and directly relates to the thematic explored in the relief Those Who Walk Away (2024) as well, migration. Another common theme amongst these works is ecology. In Spill, the central character is covered in a thick layer of tar ... Atemluft (2024), which means 'A Breath of Air,' addresses air pollution. In Xenia Hausner's own words: 'Atemluft is a concrete image of desperation, a struggle for what we need the most in order to live, a cry of outrage about what we are tossing away. What remains? What are we losing? What have we put at risk?'
Xenia Hausner (b. 1951 in Vienna, Austria) studied stage design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and worked as a set designer for much of her early career. Pivoting to painting in the early 1990s, Hausner has exhibited her work globally ever since, including the Museum Franz Gertsch in Burgdorf, Switzerland, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, the Pushkin State Museum in Moscow, the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich, the Essl Museum in Klosterneuburg, Austria and the Shanghai Art Museum, among countless others. Hausner is a founding member of Vienna-based non-profit Women Without Borders.
Press release courtesy Patricia Low Contemporary.
Palazzo Contarini Michiel
Dorsoduro
Venice, 2793
Italy
Tuesday–Saturday: 10am–1pm, 2pm–6pm