SchwanengesangFruehlingssehnsucht Print

1960 | Geboren in Bregenz | Lebt in Bregenz. SencesmashingMutations There have already been some hints of change. With his departure from the traditional workshop in Bregenz and his move to a new studio building in Schwarzach about two years ago, a time of upheaval and reorientation for Edgar Leissing has definitely revealed itself to the outside world. A sample catalogue book, designed by the artist and graphic designer himself and published at the same time, was just an interim result. Leissing, born in Bregenz in 1960, recently spoke of himself, I dont invent pictures myself, I take pictures and details of pictures from the immense flood of images that overwhelm us on a daily basis from billboards, magazines, television and the computer. In the meantime the artist confesses: I no longer steal pictures. This confession of a picture hunter and picture junkie is a quantum leap in these mass media times. Knowing that it is photographs that the artist is talking about photos still being things you find, even if you select your subjects and take them in person - qualifies this statement somewhat. As his love of pictures remains, Edgar Leissing is still on the hunt for pictures even if he is now out on a hunt with a camera in tow, be it at his weekly nude sketching session in his studio or while out on his travels to faraway places.BodyFusionsThe new oil paintings originate from the Sense Smashing Mutations series and are a continuation of the theme of Hermaphrodite Body Collage, a topic that Leissing continues to grapple with on a profound basis. Based on Hermaphroditus, a figure from Greek mythology, son of Aphrodite and Hermes, who became a hermaphrodite by means of fusion with the nymph Salmacis, Leissings paintings combine people who are not usually aware of each others existence. On screens and in pictures bodies grow together that in real life may never have been in the same room at the same time, yet in the pictures they become one in perfect unity. The motifs are based on photographic images that originate from weekly nude drawing sessions. In analogue times Leissing would have had to sample his subjects by means of slide projector, but now digital processing on the computer allows for more and has opened new opportunities to try out things. Finer, faster and more versatile suddenly combinations of 5 to 6 superimposed levels is made possible.