
Maruša SAGADIN
Maruša SAGADIN
Project Info
- 💙 Christine König Galerie
- 🖤 Maruša SAGADIN
- 💜 Annette Südbeck (translation by Sarah Cormack)
- 💛 kunst-dokumentation.com / Manuel Carreon Lopez
Share on

Exhibition view Maruša SAGADIN, Christine König Galerie, Vienna 2024
Advertisement

Maruša SAGADIN Die Flügelmutter (Blue), 2024 Concrete, wood, acrylic resin, pigments 55 x 220 x 55 cm Courtesy the artist and Christine König Galerie, Vienna

Exhibition view Maruša SAGADIN, Christine König Galerie, Vienna 2024

Maruša SAGADIN DETAIL Hoop (Red), 2023 Cardboard, styrofoam, acrylic polymer, pigments, metal, wood 100 x 35 x 60 cm Courtesy the artist and Christine König Galerie, Vienna

Exhibition view Maruša SAGADIN, Christine König Galerie, Vienna 2024

Maruša SAGADIN Hoop (Cyan), 2024 Cardboard, styrofoam, acrylic resin, pigments, metal, wood 120 x 55 x 55 cm Courtesy the artist and Christine König Galerie, Vienna

Exhibition view Maruša SAGADIN, Christine König Galerie, Vienna 2024

Maruša SAGADIN DETAIL Counter (Yellow), 2024 Wood, varnish, PU foam, acrylic resin, pigments 40 x 365 x 30 cm Courtesy the artist and Christine König Galerie, Vienna

Maruša SAGADIN Schlechter Witz (I), 2024 Cardboard, styrofoam, acrylic polymer, pigments, metal 72 x 42 x 33 cm Courtesy the artist and Christine König Galerie, Vienna

Exhibition view Maruša SAGADIN, Christine König Galerie, Vienna 2024

Maruša SAGADIN Chippendale Top on Counter (Purple), 2024 Wood, varnish, PU foam, acrylic resin, pigments 90 x 305 x 28 cm Courtesy the artist and Christine König Galerie, Vienna

Maruša SAGADIN DETAIL Chippendale Top on Counter (Purple), 2024 Wood, varnish, PU foam, acrylic resin, pigments 90 x 305 x 28 cm Courtesy the artist and Christine König Galerie, Vienna

Maruša SAGADIN DETAIL Untitled (Apple), 2024 Wood, varnish, styrofoam, acrylic resin, pigments 120 x 40 x 42 cm Courtesy the artist and Christine König Galerie, Vienna

Maruša SAGADIN Campfire, 2024 Aluminum, acrylic resin, pigments, wood, varnish 90 x 40 x 30 cm Courtesy the artist and Christine König Galerie, Vienna

Maruša SAGADIN Die Flügelmutter (black), 2024 Concrete, wood, acrylic resin, pigments 55 x 220 x 55 cm Courtesy the artist and Christine König Galerie, Vienna

Maruša SAGADIN DETAIL Die Flügelmutter (black), 2024 Concrete, wood, acrylic resin, pigments 55 x 220 x 55 cm Courtesy the artist and Christine König Galerie, Vienna

Maruša SAGADIN Walls, 2024 Poster, paint, tape 240 x 165 cm Courtesy the artist and Christine König Galerie, Vienna

Maruša SAGADIN DETAIL Drop (red), 2024 PU foam, spray paint, magnets 80 x 50 x 60 cm Courtesy the artist and Christine König Galerie, Vienna
Let’s go, look at me, have a seat, join in, …! The sculptures by Maruša Sagadin always contain an imperative. With their bright colouration, shining surfaces and a comic-like, plump language of form, they address the viewer directly. They provoke a participatory interaction in order to dissolve the division between the observer and the observed, and to transfer it into a symbiotic relationship. For Sagadin, coming to terms with the objects also sometimes means, in a banal sense, to sit down. The large, heavy benches that for a number of years have constituted a characteristic group of works for the artist, reveal a patina of layers of colour and traces of use beneath the shine of the polished seating surfaces. Those who sit on them quickly notice that the indentations in their front edges require putting one’s hands on them due to their specific form. This direct grasping of the sculpture implies a certain body posture: broad-shouldered, bending forwards, and with wide-spread fingers – a movement that is conceivable when one allows oneself to relax into it, yet also when one supports oneself when standing up.
Sagadin links her invitation to the viewer in this manner to become a protagonist in her exhibition, with a play that she stages in three acts and which is based on the idea of a sporting event: in the entrance area she arranges various wall objects, reminiscent of basketball baskets and benches for substitute players or the public; in the room behind, a simple shelf is set up as a counter and flanked by two yellow light bulbs, whereas in the final room, an additional bench is located in front of the finely balanced composition of worn-out wallpaper. The final scene is reminiscent of a break room in which the players can enjoy glazed toffee-apples and can change their tank tops. The white object with the circular cut-out at its apex can also be understood at the same time as a reference to Philip Johnson’s skyscraper at 550 Madison Avenue in the Big Apple. The distinctive gable of the postmodern icon makes reference to the style of Chippendale furniture. At about the same time in Los Angeles the Chippendales, known as Chipps, also took their name from this furniture; the members of this male group display their bodies by dancing for a predominantly female public, without t-shirts, for here we have come full circle, or better stated, the vortex of associations leads finally to the long-awaited frivolous abyss of popular culture.
The great dynamism of the joke that repeatedly unfolds in Sagadin’s works is grounded, on the one hand, in the play of double meanings and mistaken identities, and on the other hand in a design that frequently works with enlargement and exaggeration. In addition, she achieves her intention to subtly subvert authorities and established realities in that she consciously makes use of small deviations and distancing effects. This can be observed, for example, in the pieces of jewellery, little gold chains and wooden beads, that are woven into the nets of the baskets. As unnecessary kitsch, ineffective decoration, and elements of a girlish world of glitter, they defy the functional aesthetic of sport as they do the associated ideas of speed, competition, and success. Yet it is precisely in this discrepancy that the power of the works lies. They function like an unexpected punchline in which the unconscious pops up in the familiar. In the best feminist manner, they mark that pivotal moment in which not only perceptions of beauty are suspended, but also alternative forms of being and collectivity appear as a real possibility.
Annette Südbeck (translation by Sarah Cormack)