Ashley Hans Scheirl
Ashley Hans Scheirl (*1956 in Salzburg, lives in Vienna) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (diploma 1980). Between 1978 and 1986 Scheirl was involved in the performative music experiments of the groups '8 oder 9' and 'Ungünstige Vorzeichen'. Between 1979 and 1996 Scheirl made over 50 Super-8 short films. From 1981-82, Scheirl lived in New York and worked for Arleen Schloss' weekly art and performance night Wednesdays @ A's. Scheirl became known for the two experimental feature films 'Flaming Ears' (1992) and 'Dandy Dust' (1998). Scheirl lived in London for 16 years, where she/he became part of a scene of queer and transgender artists. In 2003 Scheirl completed a postgraduate degree in Fine Arts (M.A.) at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design. After Scheirl's return to Vienna in 2005, he_she was awarded the Austrian State Scholarship for Visual Arts in 2006, the Art Prize of the City of Vienna in 2012 and the Austrian Prize for Visual Arts of the Federal Chancellery in 2019. 2006-2022 Scheirl was head of the department 'Contextual Painting' at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. 2018-19 Artist-in-Residence of the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) in Berlin. In 2022, Scheirl represented Austria at the Venice Biennale together with Jakob Lena Knebl. In preparation: Palais de Tokyo, Paris, opening: oct.18, 2023; Deichtorhallen Hamburg, opening april 2024.
Klammer auf, Klammer zu 3 [Open Brackets, Close Brackets 3] / Klammer auf, Klammer zu 4 [Open Brackets, Close Brackets 4]
2020,
acrylic on canvas
Ashley Hans Scheirl is a filmmaker and painter: After early Super 8 experiments, aspects of queer lesbian life and transsexual transformation became the central focus in films such as ½ Frösche Ficken Flink [1/2 Frogs Fuck Fast] (1992–96) and Dandy Dust (1998). Inspired by Donna Haraway’s cyborg theories, the protagonist of the horror/sci-fi satire Dandy Dust has a fluid gender; the characters change their aggregate states, and the cinematic references as well as the visual and film material used are equally diverse. Scheirl’s painting is also characterized by aesthetic transformations. Comic-like elements such as speech bubblesmeet thick golden eggs; stuff splashes out of tubes; coins rain down; brown curls are visible, along with many body fragments, be it legs, penises or the hair of Jakob Lena Knebl, with whom Scheirl repeatedly realizes joint exhibitions (inter alia in the Austrian Pavilion at the 2022 Venice Biennale). In the context of the Kyiv Biennial, the artist will show two oil paintings that counter the suppression of queer life models in Russia and other post-Soviet countries with a lusty, self-confident formal language. Scheirl once asked the question: «But what is perverse? Dealing playfully with sex and gender, or international financial policy?» Or, it seems fair to add: war atrocities and imperialist politics? (Christa Benzer)
Augarten Contemporary, hoast, IG Architektur, Laurenz, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Never At Home, Waffen Franz Kapfer, New Jörg, Ve.Sch
October 17–December 17
Main Exhibition
Curators: Serge Klymko, Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Schöllhammer