www.mariannelang.at, @langmarianne
Work: 1. Illuminated, 2. Illuminated, 2021/22, pyrography on paper
Audience Award, endowed with EUR 2,500 and a four-week Artist-in-Residence stay in Krems.
Prize Donors: Friends of Erich Grabner, represented by Thomas and Hannelore Grabner
Laudatory Speech: Alexandra Schantl (Scientific Director, Collection of the State of Lower Austria, Art after 1960)
About the Work
Marianne Lang, born in Graz and living in Vienna, impressed visitors of the paper unlimited. exhibition with her pyrography series Illuminated, exploring the fragile relationship between humans and nature. The hyperrealistic depictions of moths capture, with technical finesse and conceptual depth, the ambivalence of the attraction to light.
Jury Statement
The Audience Award, determined by votes from visitors to the paper unlimited. exhibition, goes to Marianne Lang, born in 1979 in Graz and living in Vienna. Lang experiments with a wide range of techniques and materials, focusing primarily on drawing, whose possibilities she continually explores and expands. Her repertoire ranges from precise pencil drawings to glass engraving, combinations with wood inlays, and even the use of a soldering iron.
Thematically, Lang’s work revolves around the ambivalent relationship between humans and nature, often expressed in extensive, parallel-created series that explore a specific aspect or central motif. Particular attention is given to technically consistent implementations, as in the series Illuminated, which includes the pieces awarded the Audience Prize.
These works are hyperrealistic depictions of moths, not drawn but burned into the paper using pyrography. The technique reflects the fatal attraction of light to the moths, literally causing them to burn. One sheet suggests a central light source, sought out by individual moths at the edges of the swarm. The other sheet presents a single moth magnified to a monumental scale, with intricate detail reminiscent of historical natural science illustrations.
[Text: Alexandra Schantl]