ASTRID ROTHAUG
My work is a constant search, a process of exploration of the layers of reality, imagination and dreams. It has always been a necessity for me, trying to understand the world through artistic media. I prefer not to stick to one medium. On the one hand, I consider it practical to roam freely artistically, given the nature of our times of rapid change and information. Also, due to my way of switching between techniques, I can seek new challenges always. This intermediary approach has often allowed me to gain new perspectives.
The process of drawing is fascinating in its directness. A sketchbook for example, is very interesting regarding its intimacy. Everything is visible and vulnerable. If art isn't vulnerable really, can it be interesting?
The medium "drawing" has always attracted me. When I applied at the University of applied arts in Vienna, I chose my sketchbooks to represent my approach. Pages filled with reduced, driven lines, all so motivated to find something and who really knows what? I have always wanted to fill my parallel universe of graphics with new observations and thoughts expressed in ink.
My drawings are like windows, framing little moments of time, little fragments. Not all of them have a subjective message, some of them do though. I do not think, everything needs to be bound to meaning. Sometimes the meaning is vague and rather a feeling than something to be put into precise words.
I enjoy drawing on the back of my hand. In my regard, it is the most direct way I can create art. It is spontaneous and I have only one chance of getting it right– otherwise I have to wash my hands in order to remove all the ink and start over.
Film is interesting in its capacity to draw you completely into its own reality and let it become part of its audiences memory. It can contribute to a collective memory, just like a book. Also, animating in frame-by-frame technique is a whole new experience of time. It is being split into 12 or 24 frames per second, all these drawings and paintings and digital works preparing for the moment, when you put them all together and let them breath. It is quite a unique art form.
In painting, I am fascinated by the play of colors and lights and quiet compositions. I work with acrylic colors, which dry fast and allow an intuitive approach. With my current series of paintings, I am exploring the topic "home". I am planning an exhibition, where the audience can follow my personal perception of this topic through drawings, paintings, prints and text.
In 2014, I started studying graphics and printmaking, finishing in 2019. I have never truly understood, how much it influenced me from that time on, but it always has. Even though I have produced rather view prints and most of them quite recently, the aesthetics of a print have shaped my way of animating film and my way of painting. In 2022, I enjoyed the opportunity offered by Land Niederösterreich with its AIR program, to spend a month in Westport, Ireland, where I had access to a printing studio. I rediscovered my love for this experimental and elaborate process.
