Starting in early November, the St. Gallen-based artist Priska Rita Oeler came down to the Sittertal everyday and—with consistent regularity and intensity—had a large-format work created in the Sitterwerk guest studio.
A roll of unbleached linen was carefully positioned, contemplated, the 10-by-3-meter-long cloth unfolded, dropped, contemplated, moved, had a drawing sketched on it with painters’ tape, was laid out anew, left alone, and finally painted on—a process in which the negative thus became a line, and the paint merely a frayed edge.
As a result of the empty space, dimensions, light, and temperature found in the studio, and thanks to the view from the gallery down into the workspace that is possible here, the work took on the conditions of the space. Priska Rita Oeler first meticulously documented each step in the work process in photos, going up the stairs to the gallery again and again. The view from above changed the perspective onto and thus the object on the floor as well.
The bundled canvas became a sculptural object, the unfolding a performative act, the laid out canvas a relief, the painted surface an installation, and the documentation a process. Priska Rita Oeler moved subtly and skillfully within the context of artistic questions with respect to formality, perception, and materiality.