Schriftzug=Atemzug, Übung am 25-6-88 1988

Curator: Looking at Irma Blank’s work always feels like stepping into a different tempo. Here we have “Schriftzug=Atemzug, Übung am 25-6-88” from 1988. It's a drawing on paper, predominantly monochrome with delicate blue lines. Editor: My first thought is quietude. It reminds me of looking at a horizon over a calm sea, or maybe even lines of music viewed from a distance. There’s an incredible serenity to it. Curator: Blank's work has always investigated language, but often departing from traditional linguistic forms, of course. "Schriftzug=Atemzug," translates to something like "Writing=Breath," and in this piece, she focuses on the physicality of mark-making, repeating lines almost like she's meditating through her art. I mean, literally the exercise from 25/6/88. Editor: The breath as the core and necessity, as the motor of expression, of action, of thought, and, obviously, life. In a historical context, especially considering when this piece was made, there is an element of endurance and of repetitive acts that is evocative of the women artists that kept engaging with those type of works even though they were excluded or diminished by the Art system back in the day. Curator: That connection is powerful. And it makes me wonder how that repetitive action perhaps became a grounding point for her. Did she engage in that action to try and re-signify a position as a woman and as an artist that she had been previously barred from, or to create her own space as one, at a crucial time of identity deconstruction? Editor: Absolutely! This work resonates with minimalist aesthetics but there's something more intimate happening too. There’s also this visual experience that gives way to thinking about performative repetition and it's connection with a life's quest. The piece definitely makes you want to pause, to breathe alongside the artist, and that opens it up into larger dialogues about control, identity and resistance. Curator: So true, looking closely allows us to recognize a certain shakiness, perhaps even the artist holding a less-than-steady breath. The paper becomes a testament to the labor that is hidden when you consider art's relation to perfection. Editor: And maybe, Blank created those images from what could have been called a “less than” position. And now we are standing in front of them giving those horizontal tonal variations another voice. Curator: Exactly, her exercises make a profound, albeit very subtle, statement about her labor and position, something very crucial if we consider what the role of the artist, especially the women, used to be only a couple decades ago. It brings it all into focus. Thank you.