Recital: Florian Pumhösl

Florian Pumhösl’s latest body of works consists of marks, straight or curved lines and dots of varying sizes, on smooth panels of cast plaster. The marks are of reddish ocher, and on closer inspection, one can see that they are hand-engraved on the plaster. The carving of these lines is fragile, their compositions precise. However, these lines are not smooth. When viewed up-close, one notices rough edges of these finely etched lines, indicating the inherently forceful nature of the act of cutting into a physical surface. The incisions cluster and disperse, they are springy. Yet, one can sense the orientation of these marks is horizontal, from left to right, and suggests temporal progression. They imply an affinity with musical scores.  

Each of these plaster pieces is based on a red chalk drawing on paper. And these drawings indeed departed from graphic scores by composer Roman Haubenstock-Ramati (1919–1994). He was an influential figure in Vienna in the 1970s and 80s and his works were associated with musique concrète, and was notable for introducing ideas from visual art. “Departed from”, and not “based on”, as Pumhösl took visual elements from the scores and subjected them to an intense process of drawing, that is rearranging, breaking apart, reassembling, compressing and expanding them.

 

Full Press Release by Yuki Higashino: