Johanna Kandl, Material

The Austrian artist Johanna Kandl has worked with the material side of art for many years. She researches organic and inorganic painting materials and travels to their respective places of origin, e. g. to Hormuz Island, to Sudan, to Sumatra or Slovakia. Using resin and gum yielding plants (Gummi arabicum in Sudan), themes such as economic sustainability for the inhabitants in the regions concerned are addressed. The artist’s works—paintings, photos and films—interact with minerals, pigment samples and archive documents. In this way she creates a narrative that oscillates between factual documentation and personal fiction. In the catalogue Johanna Kandl makes use of both a detached scientific perspective as well as her emotional and personal attachment that derives from the fact that she is from a family of paint manufacturers. With the help of specialists, the stories behind the painting materials are traced out in this publication and pressing social questions are broached. Text: Hubert de Foresta, Miroslav Haľák, Vera M. F. Hammer, Stefanie Jahn, Johanna Kandl, Georg Kremer, Stella Rollig, Manfred Schreiner / Bernadette Frühmann / Wilfried Vetter, Andreas Spiegl