Julie Hayward
Peter Baum
There are not a whole lot of younger artists whose works can be unqualifiedly described as autonomous. It is certainly not enough to be simply original. It also does not reflect more than a speculative show of zeitgeist to be seen as obsolete and to have at least a bit of what an event society so bent on entertainment and diversion holds in store as a treat for art and artists. What an oeuvre that seeks to be convincing must emanate are profundity and pictorial implementation based on a foundation of tangible, recognizable and credible parameters that an expanding field of art requires. These are not defined in an apodictic and patronizing way. In conjunction with a constantly changing notion of art there are however, today as in the past, albeit differently, qualities and work-immanent facts that serve as indicators for anyone working in art and for the expert world with all its top trendsetters and active collectors.
An Austrian artist to whom predicates such as autonomous, enduring in the sense of an adequate use of material and inspired, original formal implementation apply is Julie Hayward who has worked in sculpture, drawing, and sometimes also with the medium of photography. Trained from 1987 to 1993 at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and drawing on additional experience from two grants in New York, Hayward has created unusual, philosophically oriented, techno-surreal statements that slowly assumed a presence: first through exhibitions in smaller galleries and some first acquisitions; but also thanks to invitations to show her work in museum exhibitions in Klosterneuburg (Essl Collection), Schloss Morsbroich, Leverkusen, then Lentos in Linz and the Museum of Modern Art in Salzburg.
Projektraum Viktor Bucher, located in Vienna’s second district, has been presenting her latest works for quite some time now. One of the works from the compelling series of these pieces that were usually developed over longer time spans is the one dated 2006 and now included in the Liaunig Collection – "Shelter", a piece that is suspended from the ceiling on nylon strings throughout the entire space. The object, painted in pink and black, combines polyester, aluminum, foam rubber and textile material. When compared with possible role models Bruno Gironcoli probably comes to mind quickly (possibly also Tony Cragg and Richard Deacon), but it soon becomes clear that Julie Hayward is less technically oriented than her prominent Austrian colleague and compensates for this with greater poetry. No matter how ambivalent her work may appear, in her great formal "creations" that offer fascinating impulses, she strives to develop more sweeping, more self-contained form.
Printed in:
Museum Liaunig, Collection catalogue "Zeitgenössische Kunst". Edition Liaunig, Neuhaus/Suha 2008.
Ed. HL Museumsverwaltung, ISBN 978-3-9502610-0-4
Catalogue of the opening exhibition of Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus/Suha 2008
There are not a whole lot of younger artists whose works can be unqualifiedly described as autonomous. It is certainly not enough to be simply original. It also does not reflect more than a speculative show of zeitgeist to be seen as obsolete and to have at least a bit of what an event society so bent on entertainment and diversion holds in store as a treat for art and artists. What an oeuvre that seeks to be convincing must emanate are profundity and pictorial implementation based on a foundation of tangible, recognizable and credible parameters that an expanding field of art requires. These are not defined in an apodictic and patronizing way. In conjunction with a constantly changing notion of art there are however, today as in the past, albeit differently, qualities and work-immanent facts that serve as indicators for anyone working in art and for the expert world with all its top trendsetters and active collectors.
An Austrian artist to whom predicates such as autonomous, enduring in the sense of an adequate use of material and inspired, original formal implementation apply is Julie Hayward who has worked in sculpture, drawing, and sometimes also with the medium of photography. Trained from 1987 to 1993 at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and drawing on additional experience from two grants in New York, Hayward has created unusual, philosophically oriented, techno-surreal statements that slowly assumed a presence: first through exhibitions in smaller galleries and some first acquisitions; but also thanks to invitations to show her work in museum exhibitions in Klosterneuburg (Essl Collection), Schloss Morsbroich, Leverkusen, then Lentos in Linz and the Museum of Modern Art in Salzburg.
Projektraum Viktor Bucher, located in Vienna’s second district, has been presenting her latest works for quite some time now. One of the works from the compelling series of these pieces that were usually developed over longer time spans is the one dated 2006 and now included in the Liaunig Collection – "Shelter", a piece that is suspended from the ceiling on nylon strings throughout the entire space. The object, painted in pink and black, combines polyester, aluminum, foam rubber and textile material. When compared with possible role models Bruno Gironcoli probably comes to mind quickly (possibly also Tony Cragg and Richard Deacon), but it soon becomes clear that Julie Hayward is less technically oriented than her prominent Austrian colleague and compensates for this with greater poetry. No matter how ambivalent her work may appear, in her great formal "creations" that offer fascinating impulses, she strives to develop more sweeping, more self-contained form.
Printed in:
Museum Liaunig, Collection catalogue "Zeitgenössische Kunst". Edition Liaunig, Neuhaus/Suha 2008.
Ed. HL Museumsverwaltung, ISBN 978-3-9502610-0-4
Catalogue of the opening exhibition of Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus/Suha 2008
