Tag: austrian cultural forum

Resident Alien

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An exhibition at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York exploring the cultural contributions of Austrian architects that emigrated to the United States. Divided in five themed sections spread from the lower all the way up to the upper mezzanine of the ACFNY’s gallery, that is itself housed in a building designed by Austrian-American architect Raimund Abraham, it felt like an immersive experience, greatly appreciated by this humble resident alien.

  • Coop Himmelb(l)au || Central Los Angeles Area High School #9 for Visual and Performing Arts, 2002-2009
  • Adolf Loos || Josephine Baker House, 1927 – 11 Avenue Bugeaud, 75116 Paris, France (Model photography)
  • Le Corbusier and Josephine Baker attending a costume gala aboard the Lutetia, December 1929. Their outfits and makeup were controversial and have lead to cultural debates challenging binary norms and delimited monist oppositional ways of thinking. Bi-isms occupy, deconstruct, and open up potential spaces of the in-between
  • Richard Neutra || Lovell Health House, 1927-1929, Los Angeles. Photograph by Julius Shulman
  • Rudolph Schindler || Charles H. Wolfe Residence, 1928-1931, Avalon, Catalina Island, CA. Pencil and ink on paper
  • Rudolph Schindler || Charles H. Wolfe Residence, 1928-1931, Avalon, Catalina Island, CA
  • Rudolph Schindler || Charles H. Wolfe Residence, 1928-1931, Avalon, Catalina Island, CA
  • Liane Zimbler (with Carl Schwarz) || Candianides Residence, 1961, Ventura, CA. Photograph by Leland Y. Lee
  • Charles Paterson || Boomerang Lodge, 1961, Aspen, CO
  • Hans Hollein || Urban Renewal in New York, 1964, Project perspective
  • Peter Trummer || Pile-City Vienna, 2015, Digital image
  • Peter Trummer || Pile-City Vienna, 2015, Digital image
  • Peter Trummer || Pile-City New York, 2016, Digital image
  • Herwig Baumgartner || Los Angeles Residence, 2018
  • Coop Himmelb(l)au || The White Suit Project, 1969
  • Haus-Rucker-Co || Palmtree Island (Oasis), 1971, New York
  • Carl Pruscha || Vision for Global Urbanisation: Global Linear City, 1963
  • Carl Pruscha || Vision for Global Urbanisation: Global Linear City, 1963
  • Victor Gruen || Welfare Island Project, 1961, Roosevelt Island, NY
  • Erwin Hauer || Design 2, Church in Liesing, 1951, Vienna, Austria
  • Victor Gruen Associates || Wilshire Terrace, 1959, Los Angeles. Photography by Julius Shulman
  • Josef Frank || United Nations Headquarters, 1947, New York

November 9th, 2019

Dress For Distress

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Ines Doujak, Not Dressed for Conquering: 01 Fires, 2015. Installation with various materials

“WE ARE NOT MACHINES”

Chun Tae-il, textile worker, setting himself alight, Seoul 1970 in protest at the ultra-exploitation of the mostly women workers in clothing factories.

“The labourer supplies himself with necessaries in order to maintain his labour-power, just as coal and water are supplied to the steam engine and oil to the wheel.” Karl Marx: Das Kapital Volume I, 1866

“In some cases the young seamstresses did not undress during nine consecutive days and nights, and could only rest a moment or two upon a mattress, where food was served to them ready cut up in order to require the least possible time for swallowing.” Friedrich Engels: The condition of the Working Class in England, 1887

BURN-OUT

“I AM SICK OF LIFE, STRUGGLING FOR MY LIVLIHOOD.
I WANT TO DIE.”

Diary of Sammi, worker at the Greenhill Textile Company, Seoul, who did die along with 21 other workers on 25th March 1988 in a locked in dormitory when a fire broke out in the factory below.

“My main finding is that the garment industry is so bad for women’s health that they cannot continue for more than 4 or 5 years. Often they leave as invalids. It’s just too strenuous.” Dr. Pratima Paul Majumber, Bangladesh

“Because we have no holidays, night shift is too tiring and so our bodies become exhausted. Therefore we take ’Timing’ a medicine to keep us awake. Some of us have eaten too many and are addicted to these pills. If we fall asleep we are reprimanded, beaten and shaken.” A public statement by women workers at Pangrim textiles in Korea in 1978

The OUTSOURCING effect:

“OVERLOADED, OVERSTRETCHED, OVERTIME…and OVER THERE”

24 workers were killed and many more injured at the Mirpur clothing factory, Dhaka, in a fire caused by sparks from an overloaded electricity circuit board on the 6th floor. They were doing enforced overtime and the emergency gates were locked.

“If you didn’t do overtime they would dismiss you, it didn’t matter if it was night or day.” Sophal, Cambodian clothing worker

Haute Couture 01 Fires is in progress.

***

From WOMEN.NOW, a group exhibition showcasing contemporary female artists based in Austria and the United States. On view from September 2018 to February 2019, the show united artists from different generations, commenting on women’s role in society and the arts.

Austrian Cultural Forum

December 8th, 2018

Name-calling

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Women’s Words

Betty Tompkins’ Women’s Words, 2016. Installation, acryl on paper, acryl on canvas

∼paired with∼

Sevda Chkoutova’s Untitled, 2018 (Detail). India ink, painted on wall over two floors

From WOMEN.NOW, a group exhibition showcasing contemporary female artists based in Austria and the United States. On view from September 2018 to February 2019, the show united artists from different generations, commenting on women’s role in society and the arts.

Austrian Cultural Forum

December 8th, 2018