Public Art Project: Mural and garden object for a Children's Hospital, Graz
Procedure: Invited art contest, 1. price
Realisation: 2002
For the front facade of the Children's Clinic, a mural was produced that shows a variegated butterfly chrysalis floating over a white ground. The motive was painted in layers employing interference pigments that shift in colour according to both illumination and observing angle. Their refractions and reflections of light at the sun exposed southern facade of the building vary during the course of the day in an interplay of colours. The painted chrysalis thus not only refers to transformation but becomes a metamorphosing entity in itself, offering ever changing iridescent views from across the expanse of the hospital grounds.
THE WINGS OF THE PUPATED BUTTERFLY BEGIN TO SHOW IN EXQUISITE MINIATURE THROUGH THE WING-CASES OF THE CHRYSALIS ... IT IS A TIGHT FEELING – AND THEN AN UNBEARABLE ITCH, HE MUST SHED THAT TIGHT, DRY SKIN ...
For the outdoor area around the Children's Hospital, the theme of the facade was translated into an accessible garden object on the same scale: a chrysalis shaped hill permeates white in-situ concrete blocks for sitting. Planted with butterfly attracting perennial herbs and shrubs, the hill offers retreat to endemic butterfly species now endangered by land clearing measures. Visitors to this butterfly oasis can witness the insects' metmorphosis, while indoor patients are offered a view onto a living chrysalis shape that changes over the seasons. The final location for the planned garden object is still under discussion with the Hospital Authority.
THE LOVELY FLUSH OF THE GROUND-COLOR, A DARK MARGIN, A RUDIMENTARY EYESPOT ... THE PATHETIC SIGHT OF AN IRIDESCENT FUTURE TRANSPIRING THROUGH THE SHELL OF THE PAST (Vladimir Nabokov, Lepidopterological papers, 1941-1953)
The chrysalis theme evokes the transformative agency of birth, disease and convalescence, forboding not least our open-ended last 'casting of the skin'. Today, these central transitions in our span of life are mainly experienced within a hospital environment.
Katarina Matiasek, 2002
offsite.kulturserver-graz.at
photos © Paul Ott/ KAGes Steirische Krankenanstalten
Procedure: Invited art contest, 1. price
Realisation: 2002
For the front facade of the Children's Clinic, a mural was produced that shows a variegated butterfly chrysalis floating over a white ground. The motive was painted in layers employing interference pigments that shift in colour according to both illumination and observing angle. Their refractions and reflections of light at the sun exposed southern facade of the building vary during the course of the day in an interplay of colours. The painted chrysalis thus not only refers to transformation but becomes a metamorphosing entity in itself, offering ever changing iridescent views from across the expanse of the hospital grounds.
THE WINGS OF THE PUPATED BUTTERFLY BEGIN TO SHOW IN EXQUISITE MINIATURE THROUGH THE WING-CASES OF THE CHRYSALIS ... IT IS A TIGHT FEELING – AND THEN AN UNBEARABLE ITCH, HE MUST SHED THAT TIGHT, DRY SKIN ...
For the outdoor area around the Children's Hospital, the theme of the facade was translated into an accessible garden object on the same scale: a chrysalis shaped hill permeates white in-situ concrete blocks for sitting. Planted with butterfly attracting perennial herbs and shrubs, the hill offers retreat to endemic butterfly species now endangered by land clearing measures. Visitors to this butterfly oasis can witness the insects' metmorphosis, while indoor patients are offered a view onto a living chrysalis shape that changes over the seasons. The final location for the planned garden object is still under discussion with the Hospital Authority.
THE LOVELY FLUSH OF THE GROUND-COLOR, A DARK MARGIN, A RUDIMENTARY EYESPOT ... THE PATHETIC SIGHT OF AN IRIDESCENT FUTURE TRANSPIRING THROUGH THE SHELL OF THE PAST (Vladimir Nabokov, Lepidopterological papers, 1941-1953)
The chrysalis theme evokes the transformative agency of birth, disease and convalescence, forboding not least our open-ended last 'casting of the skin'. Today, these central transitions in our span of life are mainly experienced within a hospital environment.
Katarina Matiasek, 2002
offsite.kulturserver-graz.at
photos © Paul Ott/ KAGes Steirische Krankenanstalten