Solange Keschmann is a Swiss-Austrian visual artist born in Geneva and based in Vienna.
She trained in silversmithing and metal work at the Vienna Folk Art University which gave her the technical basis for her work.
Cosmopolitan education (Florence, Cambridge, Barcelone and Vienna).
A life full of experiences, of traveling the world and her family life explain her late artistic vocation that finally unfolds, giving free rein to an overflowing creative imagination.
She currently focuses on the creation of kinetic, abstract and suspended objects, mobiles in homage to Alexander Calder.
about my work…
She trained in silversmithing and metal work at the Vienna Folk Art University which gave her the technical basis for her work.
Cosmopolitan education (Florence, Cambridge, Barcelone and Vienna).
A life full of experiences, of traveling the world and her family life explain her late artistic vocation that finally unfolds, giving free rein to an overflowing creative imagination.
She currently focuses on the creation of kinetic, abstract and suspended objects, mobiles in homage to Alexander Calder.
about my work…
Material and techniques
Material and objects that I keep and that are part of my universe accumulate in my studio; I know that some day I will use them: corks, a current transformer, fragments of china, brass plates, aluminium sheets, Plexiglas, ropes, etc.
The object I discovered by coincidence or the capricious shape of a metal piece inspire me and this in some way predefines the future shape of the sculpture. Usually I begin with a drawing that projects the shape of the piece, even though later, during the working process, I might apply small changes. In the studio I assemble the parts of the sculpture, it takes some time until the definite outlines show.
Material and objects that I keep and that are part of my universe accumulate in my studio; I know that some day I will use them: corks, a current transformer, fragments of china, brass plates, aluminium sheets, Plexiglas, ropes, etc.
The object I discovered by coincidence or the capricious shape of a metal piece inspire me and this in some way predefines the future shape of the sculpture. Usually I begin with a drawing that projects the shape of the piece, even though later, during the working process, I might apply small changes. In the studio I assemble the parts of the sculpture, it takes some time until the definite outlines show.
Equilibrium – construction
My sculptures could be defined as “disequilibrium in harmony”. When I build them I have to take into account the forces and counterforces so that they keep their balance, which isn’t always easy.
My pieces are never symmetrical and the weight and the proportions are always human: at the most a little more than my arms’ length. I want the viewer to feel the human intervention in the handling or the strength of my hands, as well as the precision of the tools I used in the construction.
My sculptures could be defined as “disequilibrium in harmony”. When I build them I have to take into account the forces and counterforces so that they keep their balance, which isn’t always easy.
My pieces are never symmetrical and the weight and the proportions are always human: at the most a little more than my arms’ length. I want the viewer to feel the human intervention in the handling or the strength of my hands, as well as the precision of the tools I used in the construction.
Light
Light is very present in nearly all my pieces. It simply fascinates me and I admire historical figures such as Moholy Nagy, who – rather than a photographer or a painter – was essentially a visual artist of light.
Many of my pieces change completely due to the effect of light, according to where they are placed. I often use material such as Plexiglas, that allows transparencies, or fluorescent Plexiglas, that attracts light capriciously. I work with metals that allow different gradations of lustre according to how I grind and polish them. Light is essential to my sculptures and any change of its incidence alters the formal concept.
Light is very present in nearly all my pieces. It simply fascinates me and I admire historical figures such as Moholy Nagy, who – rather than a photographer or a painter – was essentially a visual artist of light.
Many of my pieces change completely due to the effect of light, according to where they are placed. I often use material such as Plexiglas, that allows transparencies, or fluorescent Plexiglas, that attracts light capriciously. I work with metals that allow different gradations of lustre according to how I grind and polish them. Light is essential to my sculptures and any change of its incidence alters the formal concept.
Humour
There is nothing more remote from my work than a sense of the “sacred” in art. I like to define my pieces as a hotchpotch of possible metaphors, there is always a sense of playfulness. As a Swiss I identify with an entire tradition in the art of my country – from Jean Tinguely’s useless machines to the films about objects by Fischli and Weiss, that are full of humour and an ironic wink of an eye at the sanctification of art, the solemnity of its existence.
There is nothing more remote from my work than a sense of the “sacred” in art. I like to define my pieces as a hotchpotch of possible metaphors, there is always a sense of playfulness. As a Swiss I identify with an entire tradition in the art of my country – from Jean Tinguely’s useless machines to the films about objects by Fischli and Weiss, that are full of humour and an ironic wink of an eye at the sanctification of art, the solemnity of its existence.
