hans scheirl
Hans Scheirl, transgenics™, 2010
Mixed-media installation
Hans Scheirl, transgenics™, 2010
Mixed-media installation
Hans Scheirl, transgenics™, 2010
Mixed-media installation
Hans Scheirl, transgenics™, 2010
Mixed-media installation
Hans Scheirl, transgenics™, 2010
Mixed-media installation
Hans Scheirl, transgenics™, 2010
Mixed-media installation
transgenics™
the underlying concept of transgenics™ has to do with the "cyborg" as a feed-back-looped interface of human-animal-tool-apparatus-language part-objects. in the paintings on the wall i use pictograms to refer to the overwhelming design aspect of contemporary technoscience. language is represented by punctuation marks and comic-like speech bubbles. on a table the make-shift model-landscape of a transgenic laboratory recalls the material cruelty otherwise hidden in slick fotographs and gives the notion of "part-object" a haptic dimension. overall, there is a sense of a shift away from the i-you relationship as an encounter or confrontation between different entities towards the creepy concept of one being inside the other and the other way round, coming to the foreground in practices like genetic engineering, organ transplants and other biotechnological infiltrations.
Hans Scheirl
Born "Angela Scheirl" 1956 in Salzburg, Austria. While studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (1975-80) Scheirl began to make super-8 films. 1981-82 s/he worked for Arleen Schloss' regular performance event "Wednesdays at A's" in N.Y.C. and started to do performances. Until 1998 Scheirl made more than 50 films in different formats, all of which challenge norms of sexuality and gender identity in a performative way. Best known are the two feature-films "Rote Ohren fetzen durch Asche" ("Flaming Ears") (1991) (co-directors: U. Pürrer + D. Schipek) and "Dandy Dust" (1998). 1996 Scheirl took on a transgender identity. He lived in London for 16 years where he completed an M.A. course in Fine Arts at Saint Martins College of Art + Design in 2003. Since 2006 he is professor for "Contextual Painting" at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.