Working in the realm of Viennese Actionism, Kata Oelschlägel’s artistic practice evolves around the exploration of the body’s materiality and the canvas’ physicality, in search of the beauty within pain. While the 1960s actionist movement is closely linked to radical, self-destructive methods aimed at attacking the post-fascist Austrian society, Oelschlägel defines herself as a post-radical Viennese actionist. Using her own body as a starting point for her multi-media works, she questions the traditional actionistic materials and tools such as blood and self-inflicted cutting, evoking a separation between their connotation and perception. By transforming materials and practices associated with pain into aesthetic experiences, she challenges prevailing concepts about the human body and creates conciliatory gestures that replace shock with ambiguity.

The exhibition "Kata Oelschlägel: A Gentle Cut," delves into Oelschlägel's exploration of vulnerability and mortality through the examination of the human body, its organs and physical processes. Starting with the skin – the body's outermost surface and first instance of protection – she gradually proceeds to the physical substance, the bones. In Hand Sewn, Oelschlägel reflects on the intense physical and emotional response to materials and practices associated with pain. By creating delicate line patterns through hand stitches on the skin, she evokes ambiguous emotions, oscillating between the aversion to physical pain and the admiration for the filigree beauty of the grid-like lines. Destruction and healing go hand in hand when she harms her skin with a stich type reminiscent of those used for wound suturing. Thus, she creates new associations towards pain-connoted practices. Materializing bodily experiences, the stiches are transferred to the canvas in her Sewing Paintings, thereby transforming it into an expanded skin. Incisions in the canvas exceed the confines of traditional two- dimensional image carriers and evoke the idea of a living organism. The direct translation of actionist practices to the canvas, whereby pain is separated from the human body and projected to an abstract surface, emphasizes the perception’s dependence on the medium and facilitates the establishment of new associations with vulnerability and injury.

Shifting the focus towards the hidden parts of the body that remain mostly invisible, internal organs are abstracted into amorphous structures in Oelschlägel’s Bubble Paintings and metaphorically sugar-coated in mellow colors. Richly decorated skeletons filled with intestine-like textiles and supplied with fluids through a tube, function as contemporary memento mori, confronting viewers with their own mortality and the inevitability of death. Adorned with fabrics, they deprive death of its fearfulness through the positive reinterpretation of its symbols. Presented on a pedestal in a venerate manner, their visual dominance physically manifests the pervasive presence of death while removing its threat. The juxtaposition of the lifeless human shell with life-sustaining physical processes such as blood circulation obscures the principles of life and death, propagating their indispensable connection and eliminating definitive
ascriptions. By recognizing death as a prerequisite for life, a reconciliation with one’s own mortality can be achieved, which imbues death – and thus life – with a new connotation.

Text by Sophie Wratzfeld, July 2024