Aequilibration
Lucas Gehrmann, 2009

Equilibration generally denotes the elimination of an internal state of tension in an organism or system that acts on its environment by itself. This self-regulation is achieved through organization (coordination) and/or adaptation and/or assimilation and accommodation (according to Wikipedia).

In her exhibition "Aequilibration II" at Kunstraum Viktor Bucher Julie Hayward brings together ("organizes") sculptural objects, photographs and drawing that can be associated with various psychic and physical states. Her large objects have forms and surfaces that bring together biomorphic and technoid structures, sometimes assuming ambivalent "characters" themselves. For instance, "Pounding Flow" hovers somewhat inertly in the space while the small pieces that resemble protective shields and shovels look both repelling and threatening. The multi-piece sculpture "Aequilibration" could be described as resembling a spinal column, thus alluding to a sculpture supporting something. On the other hand thanks to its virtual individual rotating pieces it can shift into a state of utmost instability. "Inner states of tension" seem to animate these formations that articulate themselves in relation to their being self-contained on the outside in a way that is irritating to the viewers in many ways. Also thanks to their high perfection and precision of their (technical and design) execution Hayward’s sculptural expressions allude to a "veracity" which lends them the potential of real, albeit to date unknown existence or one that has not been recognized as such. As viewers approaching these works in a more rational way we will thus tend to doubt our own knowledge of the world instead of "relegating" the objects straight into the realm of pure fantasy. Yet even if we approach them in a more emotional way, we will see that we do not know them (like that), yet they are not unknown to us. Not in the outside, "real" world do we find their derivatives but in the world of our dreams, our subconscious. "The gaping abyss in Hayward’s sculptures is identified in Freudian style with a psychic parallel world in which the uncanny is linked to everyday feelings and is found again humorously in a formal idiom mediated by artistic means," as Walter Seidler writes. One could also say: Julie Hayward brings two languages together that are in an (unjustified) unbalance in our civilization – rationalist logic (as the dominant, because generally learnable system for "describing" the world) and the (non-determinist) logic of poetic, creative, emotional thought.

The latter is also the basis of Hayward’s creations. Her drawings, on the basis of which three-dimensional objects are implemented, evolve in a sort of psychic automatism, as a result of which, as Jean Starobinski writes, "the emergence of thought is made possible in a primal state." "Aequilibration" as the exhibition title thus describes the ideal of balanced oppositions that can only be negotiated as such. The "language of art" reveals that seeming contradictions can be reconciled or more aptly perhaps: are essentially reconciled.


Printed in:
Folder to the exhibition "Aequilibration II" at Projektraum Viktor Bucher, Vienna 2009