Tag Archives: neon sign

This is not a gallery!

Lena Lapschina “This is not a gallery!” 2021 light object 130 by 160 cm [exhibition view] © Lena Lapschina / Verena Mayrhofer
Lena Lapschina “This is not a gallery!” 2021 light object 130 by 160 cm [exhibition view] © Lena Lapschina / Verena Mayrhofer
Lena Lapschina “This is not a gallery!” 2021 light object 130 by 160 cm [exhibition view] © Lena Lapschina / Verena Mayrhofer

With her hastily scrawled note “This is not a gallery!”, complete with exclamation marks and double underlines, Lena Lapschina sows confusion in the shop window. Passers-by find themselves engaging in self-dialogues. “This is not a gallery!” they murmur. “So what is it then? What’s happening here?” Through this work, Lena Lapschina highlights the decorative-aesthetic function of the glass case in urban space and the voids that emerge when the rhythm of stores and commerce is disrupted.

I’m citing here the catalogue for the schaudrei exhibit at ent, where my latest light object, “This is not a gallery!”, is on display.

The above-stated confusion, I have to admit, is produced by taking a means of advertising (the “neon” sign), letting it glow, and injecting the word “not”.

Shout-out: The beautiful photographs here were shot on location by Verena Mayrhofer.

Please tap or click on any photo for a full-screen experience.

Neon sculpture “Yes/No” by Lena Lapschina to be sold at Paddle8 auction

Lapschina_Paddle8_YESNO

Paddle8 has selected “Yes/No” for their House Sale 22 auction. Please feel encouraged to sign up with facebook or regular email and “follow the artist”, “watch the work”, share the word with your contacts and/or “place a bid”.

The choice between Yes and No

2015 started with a totally fresh work, and it started in New York City. Here’s the leaflet:

“Lena Lapschina presents ‘Yes/No,’ an installation for Open Source Gallery.
In Lapschina’s work, communication is key. Lapschina is well-known for her systematic and methodical investigation into social issues through the exploration of malfunctions and opposing factors. She explores not only the outcomes of choices, but what opportunities are being missed by having to choose. ‘Yes/No’ is a spatial installation of two light objects produced from neon. Illuminated against a stark background and obscured by the particles emitted from a fog machine, two choices are clear with little in between but a limbo: ‘Yes’ and ‘No.’
Visitors are welcomed into a space where they may move freely between dualities without reaching a decision. However, while the viewer is free to choose, one may not have the choices of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ simultaneously. On one side there is the affirmative of ‘Yes,’ but by simply turning around, it now becomes ‘No.’ In ‘Yes/No,’ opposing ideas do not clash, but still remain on opposite sides of the coin.”

Some seldom shown pieces reunited for open studio show

During Vienna Art Week, I had a mini-show in a twelve-room apartment aka the Viennese studio. Old friends, like my neon sign “Girls wanted”, the pizza-boxed video series “17 Sekunden Kunst”, the Wittmann-manufactured cushions “Art-Free Territory” and the Mercedes-Benz tribute photo series “Communication”, joined forces with brand new stuff, like the installation “Curators’ Water”, the light-boxed photo series “Some things that long time do not exist” (Duratrans, light-box, crank), the xerography-inspired, Teheran-produced work “Role Models” (edition: 1), the photographed alphabet “Trees and poets, citified” (Dibond) and the post-future of painting series “Stuff”. Visitors also got a chance to preview the video series “Message to the World” while hanging out at the bar, and to engage in the participatory media installation “Get Fit With Dr. Lapschina”.
N.B.: “Thank you” to everyone who made this exhib possible, and especially to Mario Codognato for more than an hour of questions and answers.