16 current works by the photographer Sabine Jelinek can currently be seen in the splace, an exhibition space of the Linz Art University on the main square. Under the title “The blind spot lies in the fold”, the native of Vienna shows a wide range of work. She has been teaching at the university since 2008 and has held one of the three professorships for photography since 2019 – in this respect the show is something of a belated inaugural lecture.
Many of Jelinek’s photographs are taken while travelling, but they usually do not reveal the location. This is also the case with the Game Drive cycle, which shows wood washed up on the beach. She photographs the wooden sculptures with light and shadow effects in such a sophisticated way that they look like menacing animals in the midst of a holiday idyll.
What’s behind it?
Jelinek, who works exclusively with analogue cameras, repeatedly plays with perception in her works and integrates special features into her art that other artists would sort out as mistakes. In the photograph “The Blind Spot”, the viewer sees the extensive complex of a harbor by the sea. But at the bottom right, the view is interrupted by a black square. Did the photographer take the picture through a window pane with a sticker blocking the view on the outside? Is the view deliberately blocked out, or did that happen? And what could be behind it?
The 52-year-old has shown her works in numerous exhibitions, including in Vienna, Linz, Salzburg, Luxembourg, Paris and New York. Jelinek not only prints the photos on paper, plastic plates or canvas, but also on fabric using a special process. In the work “Southern Cross”, seven cloths hang from the ceiling like flags, on which silos and stairwells can be seen – so greatly enlarged and detailed that it looks like architecture broken down to its basic essence. Jelinek’s finely crafted photographs are irritating – and that’s exactly why they lead those who get involved into unknown worlds. (hes)
The exhibition “The blind spot in the fold” can be seen in the splace, Hauptplatz 6, until May 12th. It is open Monday to Friday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Source: Nachrichten
