A few times a year, I turn on the kiln in my ceramic studio in Dornbirn (Vorarlberg), Austria, and fire the ceramic pieces I've produced during the months before. The work process of a ceramic piece can span several weeks. First, I open a bag of porcelain or clay, take out a lump, and start to shape my piece. Then, I let it dry and when it is fairly dry, I work on the details with a sponge. After around a week, when it is completely dry, it is ready to fire. When I have created enough pieces for a firing, I fill the kiln and fire them at 900°. After the first firing, I paint, glaze, and fire them again, this time at 1250°. Filling a kiln can take months, and during various stages, many pieces break or tear – I've had to say goodbye to so many darlings!

This time, the work I put into the kiln was a wild mix – from fragile, wafer-thin porcelain bowls to raw plates made of speckled clay, depicting creatures from the forest and the sea.

Although many collectors hang my plates on the wall as piece of art to enjoy, many of my ceramics are not purely artworks, but also functional pieces, and you can use them to serve your best food as well – but treat them with care: all of my pieces are handmade and hand-painted unique artworks.

THE FOREST SUITE: ARTWORKS FOR ROSEWOOD SCHLOSS FUSCHL 
(Deutsche Version weiter unten)

83 paintings

22 x 22 cm 

gouache on Rives

When I started to work on the paintings for Schloss Fuschl, I only knew the Salzkammergut as a beautiful, but far memory from geography class. I live in Vorarlberg, in the West of Austria, around a four-hour ride away from the Salzkammergut, in the Rhine Valley, which is located in the Alps as well and therefore located at least in the same natural area as the Salzkammergut: Think high, snow-covered mountains, crystal-clear lakes, and dark pine forests where stags and deer dwell. At least in this aspect, it was for me, although not known to me, a seemingly familiar world that was biogeographically closely related to mine. It was a world that, I imagined, was not only geographically but also atmospherically situated somewhere in the middle between the austere and rural Rhine valley in the far West of Austria and the sumptuous imperial Vienna in the far East, but still had to be its very own cultural area, full of history and stories.

This history and stories I met in the chronicles of Schloss Fuschl; after having browsed through them and familiarized myself with the flora and fauna of the area, I got an idea of the space in which Schloss Fuschl is situated, and the times it has gone through.

And so, a fantastical land started to grow in my imagination around the castle between forest and lake, a land which I unlocked for myself with bold, black brush strokes, first with Indian ink, which did not lead to the result I had imagined. The technique I eventually chose was gouache, with which I painted on Rives, a handmade printmaking paper. And so, I started to work on my first drafts.

After my drafts had been presented and the direction in which the artworks should go was reviewed, the framework in which I was going to move my brush was set. One artwork for each of the guest rooms of the castle was needed – 83 of them in total. For the first artworks, I made preliminary pencil sketches, and after some time I started to paint directly: I had immersed myself deep enough into my imagery world that the figures started to appear almost by themselves. All I had to do at this point was to paint and paint and paint.

Inspired by old paintings of Empress Sissi on horseback, a noble horsewoman in different variations came into existence, sometimes with a hat, sometimes with her hair blowing in the wind, an elegant adventurer who roams the seascapes riding aside on her tall horse. There was also a Franz Joseph, he will live in the castle in the suite named after him.

The first figure appearing in this imagery world was the ibex, which I subsequently painted in many variations. Then came the hunter, running across the paper with his gun, sometimes accompanied by a dog, sometimes with a bird on his shoulder, the feathered hat pulled over his face, deeply immersed in a dialogue with nature.

There was a dancer in an imaginary alpine costume; I imagine her dancing through the rooms of the castle, sometimes accompanied by a wolfhound; another one, in dark, flowing skirts, is roaming with fawns through the dark forests. 
In the end, a huntress appeared, a forest guardian with a mischievous smile; sometimes she’s smoking a pipe. She became my favourite. 
And then there was a big, dark bear.

The figures inhabiting this imagery world are dark, mystical, almost symbolic. They rest in themselves and yet are full of spirit and lust for life. They are reduced to a few, quick brushstrokes, they are mere suggestions, offering room to imagination. They are full of references to the past, but they clearly belong to the present. They live in a world where the wild meets the noble, timeless space between forest, mountain, and lake.

After I had completed the assignments, the artworks were ready for delivery. Of course, now I was feeling like getting to know the world that I had imagined and painted in its reality, and so I decided to use the opportunity and bring the artworks to the Salzkammergut myself.

And so I set off on my journey; it was snowing, and I saw the breathtaking beauty of the wild lakes, into which high, steep slopes were dropping, and on their shores the fishermen’s houses with their elaborately carved facades of sunburnt wood, and between them I was moving through a cultural landscape with an immeasurable history, reaching back to the Neolithic.

And on the shore of one of these lakes stood, immersed in itself, the old, honorable castle, still wearing a scaffold, because it was being renovated. I left my artworks in Bad Ischl, where they should be framed. Now they didn’t belong to me anymore, but to themselves, the castle, the lake, and the humans who were going to live with them. 
A circle had closed. I returned home, and also the paintings would soon be brought to their new home, soon they would be brought to the old castle at Lake Fuschl. On the way out of the Salzkammergut, the road was leading again past the castle, which has been standing there for almost 600 years, overlooking the dark, silent lake. Soon, it will be filled with new life again. It is nice to know my paintings there.

DIE WALDSUITE: KUNSTWERKE FÜR DAS ROSEWOOD SCHLOSS FUSCHL

83 Gemälde

22 x 22 cm 

Guache auf Rives

Als ich die Arbeit an den Bildern für das Schloss Fuschl begann, kannte ich das Salzkammergut nur als schöne, aber ferne Erinnerung aus dem Geografieunterricht. Ich selbst lebe in Vorarlberg, im Westen Österreichs, ungefähr vier Autostunden vom Salzkammergut entfernt, im Rheintal, das ebenfalls in den Alpen und damit immerhin im selben Naturraum wie das Salzkammergut liegt – man denkt an hohe, schneebedeckte Berge, kristallklare Seen und dunkle Tannenwälder, in denen sich Hirsche und Rehe tummeln. Zumindest in dieser Hinsicht war es also für mich eine zwar nicht bekannte, aber dennoch vertraute wirkende Welt, die biogeografisch eng mit der meinen verwandt war und die, wie ich mir vorstellte, nicht nur geografisch, sondern auch atmosphärisch irgendwo in der Mitte zwischen dem kargen, bäuerlich geprägten Rheintal ganz im Westen Österreichs und dem opulenten kaiserlichen Wien ganz im Osten zu verorten war und dennoch ein ganz eigener Kulturraum sein musste, voller Geschichte und Geschichten.

Diese Geschichte und Geschichten begegneten mir in der Chronik des Schloss Fuschls; Nachdem ich darin geschmökert hatte und mich mit Flora und Fauna der Gegend vertraut gemacht hatte, bekam ich eine Vorstellung des Raumes, in dem sich das Schloss Fuschl befindet, und die Zeiten, durch die es gegangen ist.

Und so wuchs in meiner Imagination um das Jagdschloss Fuschl zwischen Wald und See ein fantastisches Land, das ich mir durch schwungvolle, schwarze Pinselstriche erschloss, zunächst mit Tusche, was aber nicht zu dem Resultat führte, das ich mir vorgestellt hatte. Die Technik, für die ich mich schließlich entschied, war Gouache, mit der ich auf Rives, ein handgemachtes Druckgrafikpapier, malte. Und so arbeitete ich an den ersten Entwürfen.

Nachdem ich meine Entwürfe vorgelegt und die Richtung, in die die Motive gehen sollte, besprochen war, war der Rahmen abgesteckt, in dem ich frei arbeiten konnte. Es sollte ein Bild für jedes Gästezimmer des Schlosses geben, 83 an der Zahl. Die ersten Bilder zeichnete ich mit Bleistift vor, nach einiger Zeit malte ich direkt: Ich war nun tief genug in die Bilderwelt eingetaucht, dass die Figuren fast wie von selbst kamen. An diesem Punkt gab es nur noch zu malen und zu malen und zu malen.

Die erste Figur, die in dieser Bilderwelt auftauchte, war der Steinbock, den ich anschließend in vielen verschiedenen Variationen malte. Dann kam der Jäger, der mit der Flinte übers Papier lief, machmal begleitet von einem Hund, manchmal mit einem Vogel auf der Schulter, den federbesetzten Hut ins Gesicht gezogen, tief ins Zwiegespräch mit der Natur versunken.

Inspiriert von alten Gemälden der Kaiserin Sissi zu Pferde entstand eine noble Reiterin in vielen Spielarten, manchmal mit Hut, manchmal mit wehendem Haar, eine elegante Abenteurerin, die hoch zu Pferde im Damensitz und mit weiten Röcken durch das Seengebiet streift. Auch einen Franz Josef gab es, er wird im Schloss in der nach ihm benannten Suite wohnen. 
Es gab eine Tänzerin in einer imaginären alpinen Tracht, ich stelle mir vor, wie sie durch die Zimmer des Schlosses tanzt, manchmal von einem Wolfshund begleitet; eine andere, in dunklen, fließenden Röcken, streift mit Rehkitzlein durch den dunklen Wald. 
Am Ende tauchte noch eine Jägerin auf, eine Waldhüterin mit spitzbübischem Seitenblick, manchmal rauchte sie eine Pfeife; Sie wurde zu meiner Favoritin. 
Dann gab es noch einen großen, schwarzen Bären. 
Die Figuren, die diese Bilderwelt bevölkern, sind dunkel, mystisch, fast symbolisch: Sie ruhen in sich und sind dennoch voller Schwung und Lebensfreude. Sie sind auf wenige, schnelle Pinselstriche reduziert, Andeutungen, die der Imagination weiten Raum bieten. Sie sind voller Referenzen auf die Vergangenheit, aber sie sind eindeutig der Gegenwart angehörig. Sie leben in einer Welt, in der das Wilde auf das Edle trifft, eine zeitloser Raum zwischen Wald, Berg und See.

Nachdem ich den Auftrag abgeschlossen hatte, stand die Lieferung der Kunstwerke an. Ich hatte nun natürlich große Lust bekommen, die Welt, die mir ausgemalt und die ich gemalt hatte, in ihrer Wirklichkeit kennenlernen, und so beschloss ich, die Gelegenheit zu nutzen und die Bilder selbst ins Salzkammergut zu bringen. 
Und so fuhr ich los; es schneite, ich sah die atemberaubende Schönheit der wilden Seen, in die sich steil schroffe Abhänge stürzten, an ihren Ufern die uralten Fischerhäuser mit kunstvoll geschnitzten Fassaden aus sonnenverbranntem Holz, zwischen ihnen hindurch bewegte ich mich durch eine Kulturlandschaft mit einer unermesslichen Geschichte, deren Beginn bis ins Neolithikum reicht. 

Und an einem dieser Seen stand, tief in sich selbst versunken, das alte, ehrwürdige Schloss, das noch ein Baugerüst trug, denn es wurde gerade renoviert. 
Ich ließ meine Bilder in Bad Ischl, wo sie gerahmt werden würden. Jetzt gehören sie nicht mehr mir, sondern sich selbst, dem Schloss, dem See, den Menschen, die bei ihnen wohnen werden. Ein Kreis schloss sich. Ich fuhr nach Hause, und auch die Bilder würden bald in ihr neues Zuhause gebracht werden, bald würden sie in das alte Jagdschloss am Fuschlsee gebracht werden. Auf der Rückfahrt aus dem Salzkammergut hinaus führte die Straße wieder am Schloss vorbei, das seit fast 600 Jahren am Ufer steht und den dunklen, stillen See überblickt. Bald wird es wieder mit neuem Leben gefüllt. Es ist schön, meine Bilder dort zu wissen.

“The Forbidden Land” is an ongoing art project based on a research trip to the Hindukush I did in spring 2022 with two artist and academic colleagues, supported by the Austrian Embassy and the Federal Ministery for Arts and Culture Austria.

We were researching Dappa, the secret poetry of the women of the tribes living in the Hindukush, finding ourselves in an area haunted by conflict, war, brutal patriarchy, and the Taliban.

The poems are about (forbidden, of course) love, war, death, and oppression. They are a way to express oppressed and forbidden feelings, and they are sensual, direct, naughty, and earthy – and sadly, most of them are lost because they are not being written down as most of the poets are analphabets.

These porcelain maps are the exploration of geographical and emotional landscapes in the Hindukush; they retrace a forbidden land full of magic and terror, a (women’s) land, or that is not allowed to exis, but still needs to exist, as everything in this world comes from women.

Pencil drawings. 2023.

ISLA | Bianca Tschaikner | Galerie Lisi Hämmerle


 16. 12. 22 –14.1. 23

In her exhibition ISLA at Galerie Lisi Hämmerle in Bregenz, Austria, artist Bianca Tschaikner presents a project developed during an artist residency at Fundació Miró in Palma, Mallorca in October 2021, consisting of prints and drawings as well as ceramic objects and porcelain plates.

Working for one month in Joan Miró‘s old printmaking workshop in Son Boter, an old Majorcan farmer’s house high above the sea, Bianca Tschaikner experimented with watercolor, pigment, and various Japanese and Korean papers, resulting in a series of monotypes that are inspired by Mediterranean myths and atmospheres. 

On the island, the artist finds herself in an eternal spring, and the sensuality of timelessness turns the island into a fantastical place, seducing her to play with the colors and shapes of the joie de vivre. 

Creatures appear on the horizon; they are the children of imagination and mythology. While the Balanguera, the great, mystical weaver, who is still sung about in old Majorcan folk songs, weaves the threads of time and our existence, the palm tree becomes a metaphor for longing. Sky and water become indistinguishable, the fish are flying with the birds, and far out on the ocean, a white sail billows in the wind.

Ceramic plates made of porcelain & freckled clay.
Each plate is a handmade and hand-painted unique piece.
This was the first series of ceramic plates I was producing in my studio in Dornbirn (Vorarlberg), Austria.

Keramikteller aus Porzellan und gesprenkeltem Ton.
Jeder Teller ist ein handgemachtes und handbemaltes Einzelstück. Diese ist die erste Serie, die in meinem Keramikstudio in Vorarlberg hergestellt wurde.

ENTROPIA

Gouache, 12 x 2 m
Commissioned work for Kunsthaus FRO in the Funkhaus Dornbirn / ORF Vorarlberg, Austria.
Duration of the exhibition: 18.10. 22 – 15. 1. 23
Curated by Marbod Fritsch

In the panoramic painting ENTROPIA the jungle becomes a mythological metaphor for a space filled with communication, populated by humans, animals, and other creatures.
In the chiaroscuro of a round dance of transmission and reception, of call and silence, birds chirp, leopards keep silent, flowers turn into loudspeakers, and cats with multiple heads breathe fire. Humans take off their masks.
This artwork forges a bridge to a poem I wrote years ago in India while spending a night in the jungle.

Oh, just once to be as virtuous
as an animal
to know how to raise
the right sound,
to know how to praise
the world.
To find my own voice
in this entropy of noise

Jungle of Baroda, 2014

ENTROPIA

Gouache, 12 x 2 m
Auftragsarbeit für das Kunsthaus FRO im Funkhaus Dornbirn / ORF Vorarlberg, Österreich.
Ausstellungsdauer: 18.10. 22 – 15. 1. 23
Kuratiert von Marbod Fritsch

Im Panoramabild “ENTROPIA” wird der Dschungel zu einer mythologischen Metapher für einen durch Kommunikation ausgefüllten Raum, der von Menschen, Tieren und Mischwesen bevölkert ist.
In lautloser Lautmalerei entsteht ein helldunkler Reigen aus Sendung und Empfang, aus Rufen und Schweigen: Vögel zwitschern, Leoparden schweigen, Blumen werden zu Lautsprechern, vielköpfige Katzen spucken Feuer, Menschen nehmen die Maske ab.
Und nicht zuletzt spannt dieses Bild einen Bogen zu einem Gedicht, das ich vor vielen Jahren in Indien geschrieben habe.

Oh, just once to be as virtuous
as an animal
to know how to raise
the right sound,
to know how to praise
the world.
To find my own voice
in this entropy of noise

Jungle of Baroda, 2014

“Entropie” ist ein physikalischer Begriff aus der Termodynamik und bezeichnet, grob gesagt, das Maß an Unordnung in einem System.

Diese Arbeit wurde geschaffen mit freundlicher Unterstützung der CampusVähre – Creative Institute Vorarlberg.

Bianca Tschaikner & Sapperlotta
Musiklesung mit Visuals
Juli 2022

Texte und Visuals: Bianca Tschaikner
Musik: Sapperlotta
Ort: Haegi Wendls
Video: Bence Szalai / RnB Pictures

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Die künstlerisch-musikalische Kollaboration der Band Sapperlotta und Bianca Tschaikner entstand während der ORF Langen Nacht der Museen im Herbst 2021 bei einem gemeinsamen Auftritt in der Galerie Lisi Hämmerle.

Nach diesem Abend entwickelten Tschaikner und Sapperlotta ihr einzigartiges Bühnenkonzept – die Musiklesung: Ein zauberhaftes Zwischenspiel zwischen Biancas Kurzgeschichten, ihren Lichtzeichnungen und Sapperlottas Songs.

Rhythmische Sprache begegnet bildhafter Musik, fügen sich mit ihr zu einer symbiotischen, magischen und poetischen Atmosphäre, in der Text/Bild und Musik eins werden. Im zweiten Teil wechselt Bianca vom Text zum Overheadprojektor, mit dem sie in der Dunkelheit schwebende, leuchtende Bilder in den Raum zaubert.

Und aus einem fantastischer Flow entsteht ein magisches und einzigartiges Gesamterlebnis, das zum Träumen einlädt – und das nachwirkt.

Sowohl Biancas als die Werke des sechsköpfigen Wunder-Ensembles sind inspiriert von verschiedenen Kulturen, der Sehnsucht nach fernen Welten: Wir verwandeln die Bühne in einen fliegenden Teppich aus Bildern, Worten und Klängen, mit denen das Publikum Sehnsuchtsorte bereist: Sapperlotta versetzt uns in die Klangwelten des Ostens, während Bianca von geflügelten Wesen aus dem Orient und Spaziergängen am Ende der Welt erzählt. Ein sinnlicher Streifzug durch die Welt: Lebensfreude wechselt sich ab mit Saudade, Fernweh mit Fantasie, Heiterkeit mit Verträumtheit.

HAZE

Lithography. 60 x 80 cm, 2021

Voilà – my first porcelain collection in blue and white!
Blue and white porcelain is a traditional style of decorating pottery that is more than a thousand years old.
Blue and white pottery were first made in Iraq, where Chinese porcelain was decorated with local blue glazes.
Later, it was used in Chinese, Islamic, and Japanese pottery, and even later came to Europe.
Timeless beauty always comes with a long story – and the story continues: I really enjoy working in the blue and white tradition, playing around with traditional themes, picking up old threads, and trying to give this old tradition a refreshing and contemporary twist.
The collection consists of a limited edition of 16 porcelain pieces inspired by Mediterranean themes and mythologies and by my own travels to the Mediterranean.
Each piece is handmade and hand-painted, each of them a unique piece of art with a story behind it.

My blue and white collection is available now here

Solo exhibition at Khaas Gallery in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Watercolour paintings, etchings and monotypes created during journeys to the East and the West, including artworks inspired by stories and impressions from her travels to Pakistan.

Inspired by mythologies, poems, fantasies and dreams, the artworks of this exhibition form a magic carpet, carrying you to far away places. And in images brought from deserts and cities – Persia, Lorestan, Lahore, Saidpur, Rawalpindi, and Galicia – you meet flute players, pipe smokers, winged horses and other mythical creatures.

Porcelain collection #2: Eternal spring

This series of hand-painted porcelain plates was created in a remote village in the Austrian Alps during a long, snowy winter. Outside the white of the snow, inside the white of the porcelain. Winter, the season of introversion, with the sense of endlessness and stillness it brings, is a good time to work with porcelain. it is also a good time to reflect on past wanderings through the South and to dream of new ones.

Infused with memories of the Mediterranean, and the joyful anticipation of spring, images of palm trees, fruit, and ocean divers appeared on the white of my porcelain plates.

The Eternal Spring Collection is available in my shop

Wir wohnen nicht alleine in der Stadt – in unseren Gärten, unseren Flüssen, unseren Wiesen und Wäldern, unseren Tagen und Nächten leben mit uns Tiere und Pflanzen, es sind tausende und abertausende. Sie sind Teil eines einzigartigen, kostbaren und wunderschönen ökologischen Systems, das uns erhält und dass wir nicht zuletzt deshalb erhalten müssen.

Diese (potentiell wohl fast unaufhörliche) Serie von Illustrationen entsteht gerade im Auftrag der Dornbirner Grüne und ist für mich eine schöne Gelegenheit, in das bunte und vielfältige Ökosystem unserer Gegend einzutauchen.

Die wilde und halbwilde Welt des Feuersalamanders und der Kugeldistel, der Wildkatzen und Libellen bleibt für viele von uns Stadtmenschen meist unsichtbar. Nur manchmal tut sich ein Fenster auf zu dieser Welt, ein kurzer Einblick, meist ein Augenblick nur: Auf den Waldwegen, wo ein Eichhörnchen vor uns in die Höhen der Baumkronen flieht, oder wenn ein Fuchs nachts die Straße überquert, während wir gleichzeitig, ohne es zu wissen, die unsichtbare Straße des Fuchses überqueren, die weit älter ist als die unsere, oder wenn ein fernes Reh, das uns längst wahrgenommen hat, bevor wir es sehen, vor uns in der Tiefe des Waldes verschwindet.

Es scheint fast wie eine andere Welt, die wir betreten und manchmal, wenn wir Glück haben, auch berühren können, wenn wir durch Wald und Wiesen streifen, doch in Wahrheit ist auch diese Welt unsere eigene Welt, die wir nie verlassen haben und auch nicht verlassen können, obwohl wir uns weit von ihr entfernt haben, und mit der wir ständig in Berührung sind, obwohl wir sie immer weniger spüren.

Sie ist eine andere Welt ist als die unsere und doch die selbe, jedenfalls mit ihr untrennbar verwoben. Und geht diese Welt unter, dann wird die unsere mit ihr untergehen.

Gemeinhin wird der Regenwald im Amazonasgebiet für das vielfältigste Ökosystem gehalten. In Wahrheit ist es jedoch die Natur im Alpenraum, was durch die vielen verschiedenen Höhenlagen und die vielen verschiedenen Einfallswinkel der Sonne auf den Hängen der Berge bedingt ist.

Bald wird es Sticker geben und auch ein kleines Büchlein mit diesen Illustrationen. In der Zwischenzeit könnt ihr in der Serie Ich lebe in Dornbirn von Juliane Alton mehr über unsere wilden Mitwesen erfahren.

A new series of miniature watercolor paintings.
Personal work. 2021.

Some of them are available as high-quality reproductions in my shop.

(English text below)

Bianca Tschaikner stellt ihre während eines dreimonatigen Aufenthalts in einem abgelegenen Dorf im nordspanischen Galicien entstanden Arbeiten vor. Galicien, auch Terra Meiga, verwunschenes Land genannt, ein abgelegenes, verschlafenes, mystisches und oft mittelalterlich anmutendens Land am wilden Atlantik, dient als Hintergrundkulisse für die Bilder, die Außen und Innen aufsteigen. Dieser abgelegene Ort wird im Pandemiejahr 2020 für die Künstlerin zum Ausgangspunkt für den Nicht-Ort, die andere Seite, das Unbewusste: Die Ferne Provinz. Die Ferne Provinz ist eine Erkundung der Innenwelt im weitesten Sinne: Sie taucht ein in das allumfassende kollektive Unbewusste, zwischen die miteinander verschlungenen, unsichtbaren Wurzeln, die zwischen uns wachsen, die lebendigen Schatten, in denen wir schlafen, wenn wir denken, dass wir wach sind. Die Ferne Provinz ist eine Kartographierung dieser dunklen, fluiden Welt, die von halb realen, halb imaginären Wesen bevölkert ist. In der Ausstellung gezeigt werden Monotypien, Aquatintaradierungen und Keramiken, die lose von der galicischen, islamischen und griechischen Mythologie inspiriert sind: Die gehörnte Hesperide, das wilde Pferd, die Muschelsucherin, das Buraq, der lächerliche Zauberer, die Wolkenmacherin – das alles sind Wesen, die im Zusammenspiel der wilden Natur und Erinnerungen an Mythologien auferstehen.

The Far Province wurde erstmals in der Galerie Lisi Hämmerle in Bregenz gezeigt.

Einen Einblick in die Finissage-Lesung von Bianca Tschaikner mit Sapperlotta im Rahmen der ORF-Lange Nacht der Museen gibt es hier

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In this exhibition, Bianca Tschaikner shows artworks created during a three months long stay in Galicia, Northern Spain.

Galicia, also called “Terra Meiga” (Land of the witches) is a historical landscape, a remote province of Spain relatively unknown – a rural, almost medieval land, a mystical and magical country of pilgrims and witches, serving as a backdrop and a mirror to images raising up from within and without.

In the year of the pandemic, this remote place becomes the point of departure for the non-place, the other side, the subconscious: The Far Province.

The Far Province is an exploration of the inner world in the broadest sense. It immerses itself into the all-encompassing collective unconscious, the intertwined, invisible roots that grow between us; the living shadows in which we sleep when we think we are awake.

The Far Province is a mapping of a fluid world inhabited by creatures that are part real, part imaginary. The exhibition consists of monotypes, aquatint etchings, ceramics, and texts loosely inspired by Galician, Islamic and Greek mythology: The horned Hesperide, the wild horse, the shell seeker, the mermaid, the ridiculous magician, the secret saint. They all live in the dark spaces between us and raise into visibility from the interplay between the wild nature and memories of mythologies.

The Far Province was first shown at Galerie Lisi Hämmerle in Bregenz, Austria.

Here’s a short clip from the Finissage with music from Sapperlotta who accompanied Bianca Tschaikner’s reading with their wonderful music.

Sculptures made from clay and porcelain, made in my studio in Dornbirn (Vorarlberg).

Isla is a project created during an artist residency at Fundació Miró in Palma, Mallorca.

Working in Joan Miró’s old printmaking workshop, I created a series of monotypes prints, working with images emerging from the interplay with the material and immaterial surroundings on the island.

While the Balanguera, the mystical weaver still sung about in old Mallorcan songs, weaves the threads of time and our mysterious existence, the palm tree becomes a metaphor for longing; the Bougainvillea, pouring over the high walls of gardens, private paradises, turn autumn into spring in shifted geographies; the longer the sun shines high and the palm trees cast black shades, the more the island turns into a figment of your imagination:

The island became the childhood dream you never knew you had. The bliss of children is simple. Beauty is beauty. Lemons are stars, pomegranates are galaxies to explore, palm trees are explosions, blossoms are plentiful and precious. The sun is your friend, and you don’t think about the day’s ending. You don’t care about the difference between the sky and the ocean. In the water, you become a fish. Everything you love loves you back. There is no difference between a noun, or a verb, or an adjective. Everything is simply true, most of all your questions.

Fundacion Miró, October 2021

Sculpture modeled after a paper cut. Powder-coated aluminum. The Melusina mermaid is an ancient matriarchal symbol. Her two tails stand for the two aspects of womanhood, motherhood and erotic, which are two sides of the same coin and which are violently separated by patriarchy.

Available in different colors in my shop

Mythical Monotypes

A new series of monotypes – fantastic beings inspired by different mythologies – Greek, Islamic, and Galician.

Selected monotypes are available in my shop – more will be added soon!

The Far Province II (winter)

A project in two parts, summer and winter, inspired by images coming from within and without in Galicia, a remote, wild region in Northern Spain.
The Nubeira, the two-tailed mermaid, the lonely shell-seeker, the burning eucalyptus, the horned lady, the rider on the two-headed horse: they talk to us from the outside and appear as images on the inside.
And although we don’t know what they are telling us, we understand, and although we have never seen them, we recognise them.

The Far Province consists of a series of miniature aluminum etchings accompanied by some pieces of short prose, two of which you can read here:

Forbidden trees and nameless flowers

The end of the far province

The artworks are available in my shop

Porcelain collection #1

Porcelain is a fine and delicate material whose secret was guarded by the Chinese for centuries – and obsessing the Europeans.

Porcelain is something totally different than clay: It is made from two different materials, kaolin and petunse.

Porcelain is translucent – it is, even if it seems more delicate, harder, and more durable than clay, but also much more difficult to work with.

It's harder to model because it is like chewing gum in your hands, but it's also more difficult also because it breaks easier and it has a memory and might change its shape during firing.

If all goes well, although you never know, the result is amazing: You get extremely thin and white plates that let light pass through.

This small collection of porcelain plates features a joyful bunch of fantastical creatures. Each piece is handmade and hand-painted,  making each one of them unique.

Selected pieces are available for purchase in my online art shop

Hesperides – series of 17 monotypes

In Greek mythology, the Hesperides are nymph-goddesses of the evening and the golden light of the sunset, believed to live in the far West, possibly in Spain, where they guard the garden with the golden apples which grant immortality.

This is a series of monotypes created in the workshops of Fundacion CIEC in Betanzos, a little village in Galicia, Northern Spain, near the Atlantic coast. Using papers like Fabriano and Nepalese Lodka Paper in different colors, plates and stencils were cut out from recycled aluminum offset plates or acetate, inked with a roller, and then ink was removed with q-tips for the details, or ink was painted on the plate with brushes, using black, golden and silver ink, and in some prints, glowing pigment was added.

These prints belong to The Far Province, a project that is loosely inspired by different mythologies and images from the East and the West, such as the Galician wild horse and the Islamic Buraq, the eternal sell seekers of Galicia and fierce mermaids of the Atlantic sea, all linked by the search of the garden of the Hesperides, which is believed to be located in the far West of Europe, possibly in Spain, maybe in Galicia…

Hand-painted porcelain faces with metal hook.

Available here

Illustrations for the Austrian Architect Ursula Spannberger for her book Raum wirkt.

Papercut illustrations for a series of posters for Freudenhaus, a cultural venue in Lustenau, Vorarlberg, Austria with a circus-like atmosphere and a focus on performing arts like cabaret, acrobatics, theatre, and music.

Graphic design by Kurt Dornig

Monotypes on Fabriano Rosaspina.

New moon and full moon are the same. A new moon teaches gradualness and deliberation and how one gives birth to oneself slowly. Patience with small details makes perfect a large work, like the universe.
What nine months of attention does for an embryo, forty early mornings will do for your gradually growing wholeness.

From New moon, Hilal by Molana

Wherever I think I end, I begin

The Far Province is a series of etchings and drawings created at Fundación CIEC in the late summer of 2020 in Galicia, Northern Spain.

Galicia, also called Terra Meiga (land of the witches) is a historical landscape, a remote and relatively unknown province of Spain – a rural, almost medieval land, a mystical and magical country of pilgrims and witches, serving as a backdrop and a mirror to images rising up from within and without, lending a face to that what is faceless.

This remote place by the rough Atlantic sea, full of windy harbors and endless forests once thought to be the end of the world, serves as a point of departure for a non-place, the other side, the subconscious: The Far Province.

In a time where the whole world comes to a halt and the only step we can do is a step back, the exploration of The Far Province is an exploration of the inside world in a wider sense: Not restricting itself to a “self”, it explores the all-encompassing collective unconscious, the intertwined, invisible roots that grow between us; the living shadows in which we sleep when we think we are awake: And what sleeps us in these shadows raises to light in the shape of wondrous, marvelous and sometimes horrific images.

The Far Province alludes to Rumi’s poem “the far mosque”, which describes a place that can only be found within, a secret place in the soul where mystical conversation takes place. It also refers to the image of the “other province” coined by the Polish poet Czesław Miłosz, which stands for times that have passed and will never come back.

The Far Province is a mapping of a fluid world inhabited by creatures that are part real, part imaginary: The wild horse, the shell seeker, the mermaid, the ridiculous magician, the secret saint. They all live in the dark spaces between us and raise into visibility from the interplay between the wild nature and memories of mythologies. And between what is real and what is imaginary emerges imagery that is both foreign and familiar, both personal and universal.

The Far Province is an ongoing project which is planned to be continued as soon as the circumstances allow.

The etchings are available here

The Far Mosque

The place that Solomon made to worship in,
called the Far Mosque, is not built of earth
and water and stone, but of intention and wisdom
and mystical conversation and compassionate action.

Every part of it is intelligent and responsive
to every other. The carpet bows to the broom.
The door knocker and the door swing together
like musicians. This heart sanctuary
does exist, though it cannot be described.

Solomon goes there every morning
and gives guidance with words,
with musical harmonies, and in actions,
which are the deepest teaching.
A prince is just a conceit,
until he does something with his generosity.

The Far Mosque, Molana

Gathering Apricots

In the sun, while there, below, over the bay
Only clouds of white mist wander, fleeting,
And the range of hills is grayish on the blue,
Apricots, the whole tree full of them, in the dark leaves,
Glimmer, yellow and red, bringing to mind
The garden of Hesperides and apples of Paradise.
I reach for a fruit and suddenly feel the presence
And put aside the basket and say: “It’s a pity
That you died and cannot see these apricots,
While I celebrate this undeserved life.”

COMMENTARY

Alas, I did not say what I should have.
I submitted fog and chaos to a distillation.
That other kingdom of being or non-being
Is always with me and makes itself heard
With thousands of calls, screams, complaints,
And she, the one to whom I turned,
Is perhaps a leader of a chorus.
What happens only once does not stay in words.
Countries disappeared and towns and circumstances.
Nobody will be able to see her face.
And form itself is always a betrayal.

Czesław Miłosz

Zuhause in mir. The home within me. Wir sind, wer wir waren, und sind es doch nicht mehr. Momente, die eine gemeinsame Geschichte erzählen.

10 Frauen, 10 Geschichten. In »Zuhause in mir«, der Wanderausstellung der youngCaritas Vorarlberg, werden bewegende Fluchtgeschichten erzählt.

Zehn Frauen schildern ihren Weg bis zur Familienzusammenführung in Vorarlberg. Eine unglaubliche Reise liegt hinter ihnen, ein neuer Weg vor ihnen — ein neues Leben in einem noch unbekannten Land beginnt.

Sorgen, neue Perspektiven und Hürden kreuzen den Weg im neuen, herbeigesehnten Land, doch eines vereint und bleibt trotz großer Veränderung beständig — die Erinnerung an das alte Zuhause und die Hoffnung auf eine friedliche, sichere Zukunft in Vorarlberg.

Landhaus Bregenz
Eröffnung 28.01., 17 Uhr 28.01. – 13.02., Römerstr. 15

carla Store Bludenz
Eröffnung 18.02., 17 Uhr 18.02. – 12.03., Klarenbrunnstr. 46

Caritas WirkRaum Dornbirn Eröffnung 17.03., 17 Uhr 17.03. – 13.04, Bahnhofstr. 9

Galerie Lisi Hämmerle Bregenz Eröffnung 05.05., 17 Uhr 05.05. – 23.05., Anton-Schneider-Str. 4a

Folkfestival Arbogast Götzis 26.06. – 28.06., Montfortstr. 88

Entstanden in Zusammenarbeit mit Lena Seeberger und Astrid Neumayr von Neotonie und der YoungCaritas Vorarlberg.

Weitere Informationen zur Ausstellung und dem Rahmenprogramm finden Sie auf oder auf Facebook mit @youngCaritas Vorarlberg. #zuhauseinmir

Blum Group is an international company with its headquarters in Hard, Vorarlberg, Austria.

Every year, they send out Christmas cards to 10.000 employees in 33 countries, and in 2021, I was the first artist invited to illustrate their Christmas card.

The idea was to create a card that was elegant and festive, but simple – a spirit that we found perfectly embodied by this quickly drawn golden angel on cream paper.

My treasure: To feel before I know
To live by the sea and swim somewhere else
To have seen the great palaces
and not died of beauty

Lake City is a more than 3 meters long ink drawing that was created during a two month long artist residency in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, during spring 2017. 

The book is available here.

Udaipur, also called Lake City and known as the “Venice of the East”, is considered one of the most beautiful cities of India. It is so beautiful that many Bollywood stars choose to have their wedding there. 

Udaipur is a fairytale city full of gorgeous palaces, a labyrinth of lakes and bridges, and millions of intricate alleyways leading to mysterious temples. 

Lake City was created while exploring the city and directly drawn in the streets of Udaipur during many, many hours. It is a multispatial tour through the city and documents things seen, experienced, memorized, and fantasized about in a surreal city. 

The drawn panorama of the city begins with a (drawing) self-portrait in an arcade of Ganghaur Ghat and then meanders around the magical lakescapes of Pichola Lake and Fateh Sagar Lake with its fantastic palaces, temples, and gardens as well as the winding alleys of the old town with its many shrines, tiny tea stalls, and open fires. 

The drawing might seem to depict an imaginary place, but it contains just as many real as fantastic elements – it blurs the line between imagination and reality and thus reproduces the feeling one gets while strolling through Udaipur. 

The drawing Lake City is an attempt to capture the overwhelming surreality and beauty of a city with its people, gods, and animals. Palaces swimming on lakes, goddesses showing their tongues, women floating on the water riding on swans, and horses disguised as baby elephants – all these are images found in Udaipur and become part of a fantastic portrait of the spirit of the city. 

LAKE CITY has been featured in the Guardian’s Illustrated Cities Series and you can read all the stories of the book here!

Paintings inspired by credible and incredible stories I found in the cities of Lahore and Islamabad.

Behind these illustrations are stories of disobedient children, the defiant poetry of Pashto women mocking men, smuggling alcohol under the eyes of the moral guardians, stories of cats that got almost shot, and memories of lost homelands.

Nobody’s Song

Like the bird,
I want to sing songs of the earth

Like the cicada,
I want to sing of timelessness
and the sinking sun that
might never come again

Like the Bougainville blossom 
I want to kiss the sky
with an open mouth

Like the rice
I want to know how to be full
and to be ready

I am a human: I am none of these
I am confined to my papers
onto which occasionally
some rain drops and some
insects crawl.

Wind, blow away my papers
I am tired and I want to 
go out into the fields.

This is my sketchbook from a journey to West Sumatra, the country of the Minangkabau, a matrilineal* and matrilocal society where women traditionally used to have an important role. At the same time, they are devoted Muslims, which means they are combining matriarchal and patriarchal elements in their way of life.

In the traditional way of life, which is now slowly disappearing, women would live together in houses, while the sons of the family would spend the night in the mosque from a very young age, and the husbands of the daughters would only stay with them at night.

Minangkabau means “victorious buffalo”, as legend has it that in a fight with the Javanese, they defeated their buffalo with a baby buffalo who had sharpened horns.

The importance of the buffalo is reflected in the traditional houses of the Minangkabau whose roofs are shaped like buffalo horns, and in the traditional horn-like headgear of women.

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*the family name and possessions are passed on from mother to daughter
**after marriage, the couple lives at the woman’s family home

This project was supported by the BKA / Federal Chancellery Austria and the Austrian Embassy in Jakarta.

Small ceramic sculptures. More to come soon!

Hate speech in the internet is a big problem. I made this editorial illustration of a lovely internet troll for an article about hate speech in the Newspaper Stadtzeitung Falter in Vienna, Austria.

Illustration für einen Artikel über Hassposter, veröffentlicht in der Stadtzeitung Falter in Wien, Österreich.

Summer 2020, papercutting in the Albaícin, the old Moorish quarter of Granada. The totem came to me from elsewhere, the colors I chose fit to the flowers of my neighbor’s window.

Papercut Illustrations for a city guide to Vienna for children, published by Falter Verlag.

Shiraz – city of poets and nightingales

I made this illustrated map of my beloved city Shiraz in Iran – Shiraz is one of my favourite places in the world. It’s an ancient city full of lovely gardens, tea houses where stories are told, bazaars to buy magical carpets, fragrant flowers and herbs, and mosques that are so stunningly beautiful you almost don’t want to leave them anymore.

There, you also find the tombs of the poets Hafez and Saadi, surrounded beautiful gardens where people gather at sunset to sit on carpets, drink tea, and recite their most beloved poems, while men walk around carrying canary birds and boxes with folded poems, from which they let the birds pick one for you.

My illustrated map of Shiraz is available as fine art print here

The city of open windows is an art project created during a two-week-long artist residency in Valletta, the capital of Malta.

It is a network of eleven papercut illustrations spread about the city of Valletta, inspired by stories and anecdotes found in the streets, bars, and ports of Valletta as well as in closed monasteries and in the catacombs of old churches.

It is an exploration of a city with a long history and a rich and multifaceted culture, its everyday life, and its microhistorical curiosities, showing the hidden sides of Valletta.

Watercolor illustrations for “Was ist Yoga?” (“What is yoga”), a philosophical book about yoga by Austrian writer, journalist, and yoga teacher Kirstin Breitenfellner, published by Falter Verlag, Vienna, Austria.

The yoga book is available here

Interested in some yoga art prints? A few of these yoga illustrations are available as high-quality fine art prints in the print section of my online shop

Mariscadoras – series of monotypes.

Mariscadoras are shell-pickers from Galicia. I learnt about their work and the beauty and difficulties that come with it at the Illa de Arousa, staying with La Platanera.

The Mariscadora series is available as fine art print here.

The mariscadora has learned to speak the language of the sea early; her fingers have read thousands of shells, her hands have searched the unspeakable mud until they started to read signs in it. The mariscadora is a farmer, a farmer of the sea; she sows her fields and harvests them: her fruit are called almejas and berberechos..

Unlike the man, who proves himself against longitudes and latitudes, she is driven by curiosity – and curiosity is a form of love of life: She learns to read the moon and the tide; she reads the holes in the mud, she now knows where the shells hide; she bows under the sun, the whole day, her feet and her hands in the sea. Her body becomes the bridge between the land and the sea. She walks in the mud against an eternal, untouchable horizon. Often there is rain, almost always there is wind. Treasure hunting is hard work.

Where her man uses the stars to navigate through the unknown, she becomes the moon.

The sun and the wind draw lines in her face; they make her wrinkled and radiant, they make her what she is; a being of two worlds. During the day, she is the sister of the fish; tied to the rhythm of the tide, she only returns to the land when the sea rises: She has another garden there – and what would her hair be without the wind blowing in it?

The mariscadora is never alone, she is always surrounded by sisters who have arrived with the low tide. When her bucket is full, she helps to fill her sister’s one. Mariscar – it’s a work that only can be done by hand, and is done best with lending each other a hand.

Editorial illustrations for the Viennese newspaper Stadtzeitung Falter about the re-opening of schools in Austria after the lockdown.

++++ für deutschen Text nach unten scrollen ++++

MEGHALAYA is a book inspired by myths, traditions, and everyday stories I collected and recorded during a month living amongst the Khasi tribe in the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya, a remote area in Northeast India.

The Khasi of Meghalaya in Northeast India is a matrilineal tribe, which means that women own all property and pass their surnames to their children, while husbands move to the wife's household after marriage. 
The Kadduh, the youngest daughter of the family, will inherit all property, take care of her parents and continue the family line.

This, together with their vivid cultural heritage of myths and traditions makes the Khasi Hills a dreamy and magical place where time seems to have stopped but which, at the same time, is the home of a society that is surprisingly modern and equal.

The Meghalaya sketchbook, documenting one month of living in the Khasi Hills, is full of fascinating stories from Khasi culture – age-old myths of snake goddesses and other mythical creatures, funny jungle stories. It tells about the witnessing of complicated animist sacrificial rituals, wandering through sacred forests, listening to life stories in gloomy teahouses, everyday absurdities of India – and how it is to live in a country where women rule.

Buy the book here

Meghalaya ist ein Buch mit Geschichten und Zeichnungen, das während meines Aufenthalts beim Stamm der Khasi in Meghalaya in Nordostindien im November 2018 entstanden ist. 

 Die dschungelbedeckten Khasi-hügel (vormals Teil von Assam) sind eine entlegene, schwer erreichbare und für Touristen eingeschränkt zugängliche Gegend in Nordostindien, in der ich im November 2018 einen Monat im Rahmen der Artist Point Residency in Mawkyrwat lang Geschichten und Eindrücke der dort lebenden Khasi sammelte und aufzeichnete. 

Die Besonderheit der Khasi-Kultur ist ihr matrilineares System – Besitz und Familiennamen werden über die jüngste Tochter vererbt – eine einzigartige, traditionsbewusste Gesellschaft, in der einerseits die Zeit stehengeblieben zu sein scheint, die aber gleichzeitig in ihrer Egalität erstaunlich zeitgemäß anmutet. 

Die in Meghalaya entstandenen Zeichnungen geben Einblicke in eine weitgehend unbekannte Kultur, die von der Globalisierung und der patriarchalischen Mehrheitskultur bedroht wird.

Die Zeichnungen sind Annäherungen und Interpretationen von Eindrücken und Geschichten, die im Gespräch mit den Khasi entstanden sind. 

Das Buch dokumentiert uralte Mythen und Märchen von Schlangengöttinnen und anderer Fabelwesen, in Alltagsgeschichten und Dschungelanekdoten verpacktes Kulturgut, die blutigen Rituale der Naturreligion der Khasi, Hexerei und Ahnenverehrung, Kochrezepte, verzauberte Geisterwälder, Biografien und Anekdoten unterschiedlichster Menschen – und nicht zuletzt zeichnet das Buch ein Bild davon, wie es ist, in einem Land zu leben, in dem die Frauen regieren.

Ein spannender, persönlicher und poetischer Reisebericht, der seltene Einblicke in ein ganz besonderes und märchenhaftes Land gibt, dessen einzigartige Kultur im Untergang begriffen ist. 

Buch kaufen

Some editorial illustrations for Austrian ORIGINAL Magazine – illustrations for philosophical essays and illustrated maps.

When I was in Malta, I found myself in the middle of some pretty angry protests of the Maltese people against the Maltese government, which is heavily suspected to be involved in the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galicia two years ago.

In solidarity with those who fight for justice and against mafia structures that should have no place in the European Union, I made this papercut.

Illustrations for the poster for the exhibition “THE SOUND OF LECH – Der Klang eines Ortes.“ in the Lechmuseum in Austria.

A cottage of wind
at times full of thunder
at times full of birdsong

A cottage of wind is an artist book created during an artist residency in August 2019 in Castagno di Pitecchio, a tiny village of 80 inhabitants situated in the Tuscan hills. It’s a collection of poems, drawings, and text miniatures, inspired by impressions of the village and tales and memories by its inhabitants, for example memories of bombings during the Second World War and encounters with soldiers, contrasted with seemingly random anecdotes of the village life. 

There is the saying that every village is a world of its own, and it’s so true. 

What on the first day was nothing to me but a random settlement of stone houses, in two weeks turned into a universe of its own, full of meaning, complex and complete with all its little wonders and equally beautiful banalities. 

Every day another door opened, both literally and metaphorically, and led path to something (or someone) new and beautiful, and in the end I found myself feeling that I had become part of the village, and the village part of me, filling all my senses with its fragrant forests and kitchens, with the cool water from the old fountains running through my hands, with the soundscape of Via Castagno, a street that belongs to the children and the cats, the flavours from the vineyard and the olive groves served by new friends, cool shades of old stone arcades and forest paths giving shelter from the white Tuscan sun, and the walks through the pitch-black forest at night, all accompanied by the cricket’s song that knows no beginning and no end…

In addition to the book, I made some ink drawings inspired by stories found in the village and wild flowers found in the forest.

I also made a wallpainting of Greta and her friend Emma, and that was how I met her:

For some days I had been playing with the idea of making a wall painting, but althought I had collected so many interesting stories, none of them really caught me for a wall painting.

But then one day I was having lunch at Benedetta’s garden, when all of a sudden I heard a strange sound – it sounded like a very weird bird.
What is this? I asked curiously.
Oh, this is just Greta, answered Benedettas husband and laughed. Greta and her trompetta. You might have seen her, she’s the little girl with the hoola hoop. And, he added, she can even do the hoola hoop and play the trumpet at the same time!

An image popped up in my head, and I knew that I had found my theme for the wall painting.
And so I went out, grabbed my drawing stuff and went to meet Greta.

Greta's mother invited me to do the painting on the facade of her house, which was perfect. And I'm glad to have found – amongst all these stories about castles, bombings and trains – such a happy and lively image from the future for this dreamy little village that has been living in the past for so long.

Black and white photos by Rachele Salvioli.

Papercut illustration for an article about the rise of male violence during the lockdown in Austria. For Viennese Newspaper Stadtzeitung Falter.

The Escapist  – hand-colored aluminum etching.
This artwork is available as a fine art print my shop.

Read the story behind this etching here

You can buy SAVARI here.

SAVARI is a collection of drawings from my sketchbook from five months of Iran & India. 
It‘s a travelogue full of drawings, sketches, poems and notes, capturing my day-to-day adventures in a strange world, telling stories about operated noses in Iran, baking cakes in Shiraz, harvesting pomegranates in Iranian villages, encounters with strangers in fairytale-like mosques and drinking whiskey in the Indian jungle.  
Half imaginary, half real, it‘s a many-layered documentation of a personal story in the form of a journey. At the same time, it tells about the political circumstances and the cultural environment in which the journey takes place, always oscillating between reality and fantasy. 

The story behind SAVARI: 

In October 2014, I traveled through Iran for one month with the mission to fill up my sketchbook with impressions and stories that would capture the spirit of a mysterious and magical country. 
I wanted to seek inspiration in its fascinating culture that goes back thousands of years, and at the same time explore a country that nowadays is regarded with much controversy and prejudice. 
It turned out to be the most ambivalent journey I had ever taken: As a woman who was traveling alone, I experienced many difficulties and even threatening situations. 
But soon, I found myself in a fascinating world full of architecture and art so stunningly beautiful that I could not take my eyes off of it; 
What I found in Iran seemed different from everything else I had seen before: It was a world full of beauty, art and poetry, where old persian poets are still worshipped, and where people actually enjoy reciting poetry on every occasion.  
A world full of magic and inspiration, full of mystery and beauty, inhabited by the most hospitable and refined people I had ever met. It was something I could not have imagined actually existed before. It was a world that profoundly touched me. 

There was inspiration everywhere. I sketched in tea houses, in rose gardens, in mosques, in courtyards, on bazaars, sitting on the kitchen floors of new friends.

And while the story of my journey evolved in my sketchbook, I was fascinated with how much interest my book aroused amongst the people I met there, how they carefully leafed through it, how thoroughly they studied every single page, and how thoughtfully they commented on it, and the enthusiasm with which they told other people about it, and how delighted they were when they finally became part of the book themselves.
It was kind of a singular experience. My book became everybody’s book. It went through so many hands, connected me with so many people, and this is one of the most beautiful memories I have about Iran. This is why it makes sense for me to make art.
I continued to sketch about my journey when I moved on to India, finding plenty of new inspiration between the jungle and the sea.

Illustrierte Landkarte von Vorarlberg, dem westlichsten Bundesland Österreichs, auch bekannt als “Ländle” – beauftragt vom St. Galler Tagblatt in der benachbarten Schweiz.
Die Ländle-Karte ist als Kunstdruck (100% made im Ländle!) und als Postkarte erhältlich.

Ebenfalls als Kunstdruck erhältlich sind:
Seebrünzler
Hölzlar
Ghörig Tua (Ländleoma)
All dra!
Schpära
Schaffa, schaffa, Hüsle baua
Käsknöpfle

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Illustrated map of my home region in Western Austria.
Commissioned by the Swiss newspaper St. Galler Tagblatt.
Available as postcard and fine art print.

This is a series of miniature aluminum aquatint etchings I made in the summer of 2017 at Alfara Studio, Spain.

They are available in my shop.

Label for a fine organic vodka by the legendary organic farm Vetter Hof in Vorarlberg, Western Austria.

Olga ist eine bolschewistische Großfürstin mit starken, pinken Schultern. Ihre Armspannweite reicht vom Kaukasus bis zu den Westalpen. Olga bringt euch das Ferne im Nahen. Sie schläft in einem helldunklen Russland und wacht auf alpenländischen Kartoffelfeldern. Olga ist eine Deserteurin aus dem blinden Heer der Matrjoschkas und eine Generalin der strahlenden Armee der rioting pussies.

Olga ist vieles: Olga ist auch diese Vodkaflasche, und eine Flasche ist vielleicht immer auch eine Art Matrjoschka.

Olga hat immer die Augen offen. Olga kennt die Zukunft, und wenn der Vodka weg ist, wird sie immer noch sein. Olga bleibt immer wach. Sie verliert sich weder in ornamentalen Tundrablüten noch im alpinen Vodkarausch. Olga steht gerne aufrecht, leistet euch Gesellschaft beim Trinken und schaut besser auf euch als der russische Geheimdienst. Wasche sdorowje!

The best excursions in Austria!

Illustrated map for ORIGINAL – Magazin für nachhaltige Lebenskultur

small worlds is a traveling exhibition in the double sense: it does not only tells stories about traveling, but it is actually traveling through the world  – and it is being expanded with every new stop. as it travels through the world, every journey of the exhibition to a new country offers the possibility of a new “small world”, which then can be added to the exhibition and travel to new places. 

places where small worlds has been exhibited so far:  

kollektiv raum, bregenz, austria,
austrian residency, islamabad, pakistan,
institute of arts and culture, lahore, pakistan
austrian cultural forum, new delhi, india  

small worlds  

the exhibition small worlds consists of drawings, sketches, etchings, woodcuts and miniature paintings from different projects, series and books from bianca tschaikners body of work. they are arranged into new contexts and set together to form several small worlds, thus creating new imaginary or geographic units. 

these small worlds currently are persia, india, hispania, pakistan, italia, planet gaia, an alpinarium, the triassic, a collection of miniature worlds from different countries, and a small library with books and artist books. 

small worlds consist of around 40 mainly small format works, which are hung on the walls as clusters, each forming a microcosmos in which the artworks interact not only with regard to content but also to with regard to hanging, forming aesthetical unities together. 

thus, different artworks from bianca tschaikners body of work are presented in a new way, and through their interaction on the walls narrative entities with new contexts and expression are created. 

small worlds is, just like the big world, fluid, open, constantly moving and growing, which means that it is possible that single artworks and whole worlds can be changing.

Magazine covers for the Austrian Original Magazin.

Illlustrated city map of Bregenz for the first issue of “B”, a new citizen’s magazine for the city of Bregenz, Austria.

MINISUTRA – a tiny little book of colorful miniature watercolor paintings depicting funny Kamasutra positions. 

MINISUTRA is a big, colorful circus of sex and fun, consisting of 34 funny sex positions you may or may not want to try at home, such as the “jealous frog position” or the “love orchestra”.

MINISUTRA is inspired by the classical, precolonial Indian erotic culture in which the Kamasutra, an ancient Indian text about the art of love, originates, a culture which was, compared to our sterile, commercialized, and often misogynist mainstream sexual culture – manifold, vivid, sensual, relaxed and playful, and often with tongue-in-cheek humor.

The idea for the book was born in December 2016 – I was staying in cold and gloomy Edinburgh, looking forward to a journey to India for Christmas, when I had the idea to create a “Kamasutra Advent Calendar” on Facebook. So during Advent, every day I would share a watercolor painting with a funny Kamasutra position, which led to many hilarious discussions and comments, after which I decided to turn the calendar into a book – and so, one year later, MINISUTRA was born.

MINISUTRA has been written about in VICE magazine, The HuffPost, and Harper‘s Bazaar India.

Buy the book

Buy MINISUTRA art prints

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Hardcover
76 pages
10x12 cm
Printed in Austria, 2018 (first print run) and India, 2022 (second print run)
Published with the kind support of the crowd and bildrecht.at

Papercut illustration for Kulturverein Bahnhof, a prolific cultural organization located in an old train station in Andelsbuch in the Bregenzerwald, a region in the Austrian Alps.

Fillas de la Riba is a network of monochrome wallpaintings on old wooden doors spread about the old town and surrounding streets in Riba Roja d’Ebre, a small rural village in Catalonia, Spain. It’s a playful reflection on Riba-Roja’s past, inspired by old photographs of Riba residents in traditional clothes, ancient juniper production, the river Ebre and stories from the remarkable life of Teresa Aguilà Garcia, an illustrious resident of Riba-Roja.

Riba de Ginebre | Juniper River

This door is inspired by the juniper ovens. Some years ago a group around Josep Aguilà, following the reports of very old people, rediscovered seventeen juniper ovens around the village, dome shaped stone-ovens where people used to make juniper oil.

Filla de la Riba

Filla de la Riba, daughter of the River, gave name to the art project I was working on here at Riu'd Art Residency in Riba-roja d‘Ebre, Catalonia.

She was inspired by old photographs of village residents from the beginning of the last century.

La Sirena | Stories from the River

The village of Riba-roja d’Ebre is situated in a loop of the river Ebre, and before there were trains, people used boats to transport goods.

The first story I heard about the river was from a man named Paquito who told me that once there was a man who shipwrecked, couldn’t not swim and saved himself by holding onto a ram’s tail.

Josep Aguilà in turn told me that until the 1920, hundreds of ships would pass the village every day. Some villages next to the river even charged tolls. Downwards the ships would swim with the stream, and upwards with sails or with the help of horses or mules who would pull the ship with a rope from the shore, helped by men with oars inside the boats.

In these days, as there was no running water, women had to go to wash at the river, amongst them Teresa Aguilà. Ships would pass by, and the boat men on the ships would give them compliments, some more elegant than others.

Sometimes words with double senses were exchanged between the boat men and the laundresses. The men would ask them about the state of wetness, pretending to mean the river but meaning something else, and the women would ask whether it was hard and long, pretending to mean the oar but actually meaning something else…

Roses for Rosita

During my stay at Riba-roja d'Ebre, of course I soon had noticed and admired the hundreds of beautiful pot plants that were placed in every corner of the village. Riba-roja is, like many spanish villages, in a severe state of decay that is less romantic than saddening. Especially the beautiful old town of Riba-roja was really desolate, with crumbled walls and ruins where once beautiful houses had been.

The pot plants, lush and green, were decorativley placed in door cases, walls and along the narrow streets and conveyed the comforting feeling that old Riba-roja had not yet been left to its fate. It showed that there still existed some love and care for this old place. It seemed a bit like fairy magic.

There was definitely a good spirit at work, and on the last day before the presentation of the artworks I got to meet the good spirit. She entered the bar where we would have lunch and gifted us with some of her handmade tote bags, just like that. I had never seen her before.

Her name was Rosita, and she told me that after her husband had died she had gone to the mayor and suggested him that if he would pay for it she would decorate the village with pot plants and take care of them. And so she did.

And so I painted some pot plants for Rosita.

Teresa and the wolf

This door painting is about Teresa Aguilà, grandmother of Josep Aguilà, who told me many stories about her during my stay at Riba-roja d’Ebre.

This is the story of Teresa and the wolf as told by Josep.

Teresa Aguilà was born in Riba-roja d’Ebre in the year 1895 and she lived to be 105.

When she was seven, both of her parents died within a week and she went to stay with an aunt who was very poor. So little Teresa, at the age of seven, had to begin to work as an employee in the house of rich people. She worked throughout her childhood and youth, for which she did not even get any payment, only food. She washed clothes, cleaned houses, worked on the field and in the kitchen. Of course, she did not have time to school. But when she was fourteen, she decided to pay a tutor to visit her for an hour every night and teach her how to read, to write and basic mathematics. Teresa read the newspaper every day up to the age of 103, even picked it up herself, at the age of 104 she still looked at the photos and the headlines.

And here comes the incredible story of Teresa and the wolf: When Teresa was 12 or 13, she worked at a finca, a farm three hours away from the village. Every week she had to go and get food for the workers from the village, alone, only accompanied by two mules. She was woken up at 3 in the night, and at 4 her journey began. One night, on her way from the farm to the village, she noticed that there were wolves behind her, coming closer and closer. Terribly scared, she thought how she could save herself. Finally, she took a long rope, tied one end to the saddle and let the other end fall to the ground, and moving the rope she stirred up dust, which frightended the wolves, and they dissappeared.

When she would arrive in the village, the people who prepared the food would force her to attend mass. They would not give her anything to eat, neither before nor after mass. To check whether she actually had attended mass, they used to ask her which priest was holding the mass and what the color of his robe was.

But Teresa, who was as starving as smart, would go to the church, check out the priest and his robe and then go straight back to the house, where she sneaked into the hen house and stole two or three freshly laid eggs, which she ate raw. On the way back, when she was out of sight of the village, she stopped the mules and took a bit of bread and sausage and finally had something proper to eat.

More stories about Teresa:

Teresa and the hunger

When Teresa Aguilà was 17 years old, one of the extra works she did was something called “espigolar”. 
Around her village there were many olive fincas, and “espigolar” meant to go to the owner after the harvest was done and ask for permission to pick the last few overlooked olives. 

It meant looking for olives on the fields after there were practically none left, there were so little olives left that it was not worth the work, almost absurd to do it, and only very poor people would do it. 

At night, after a hard day of work, Teresa and her friend Rosita, would go to “espigolar” to a finca where they had gotten permission to do so. After two or three days of work they collected a ridiculously little amount of olives. 
But then they realized that on the way to the finca there were some fincas where the olives had not been harvested yet, and every day when they would pass by they would pick two, three kilos from those trees without permission, which was much more than they could ever had picked doing “espigolar”. 

They sold these stolen olives and then Teresa said to her friend: What do you think of buying a tupi (a ceramic pot) with the money? So every day we could buy some beans or chickpeas and prepare some nice food. 

This is, in the words of Josep Aguilà, who told me this story, the spirit of survival. Had they been caught, they would have been physically punished or would have ended up in prison. 

This gives you an idea of the bitter poverty Teresa suffered from. But it was even worse. After I told the story to the other artists of the residency, the organizers of the residency told me that when they told Josep about some found some strange looking rodent they had found on their olive farm, Josep would say: My grandmother used to eat that!

Teresa and the dictator

This is the last and the certainly the most haunting story of the life of Teresa Aguilà.
As you already know, Teresa had to fight many wolves in her life, but the biggest one was Francisco Franco, the Spanish dictator, and the regime he embodied. 

Here is the story as it was told to me by Josep Aguilà, the grandson of Teresa. 

Teresa, who was called Tereseta by her friends, or even Teresó (a male sounding version of her name), lived in a time where women faced even more discrimination than today. 90 years ago in Spain, women were mostly locked up in their houses and were not really able to connect with people or surroundings outside their families. 

As you already know, Teresa was very poor and could not go to University, but she was very aware and critical of the power the rich people and the ways they abused poor people, especially women. Women not only earnt less than men, often they did not get any money for work at all and were frequently sexually abused. 

Teresa herself had to work with an army captain in Reus, the next bigger city, as a maid and taking care of the child you see in the picture. She also had to work in different villages helping in the olive and hazelnut harvest, and sometimes she visited her brother in Barcelona working with him in the coal mines in Figol near the Pyrenees.

So she would often get out of her village, and she would adquire her knowledge not at the university but on her trips. 
This also added to the fact that Teresa was more open-minded than the other women in her village. She also liked to talk with men about everything around the work on the fields, she knew all the works perfectly well, the seedtimes, the influences of the moon, and she knew everything about plants and trees – in short, she knew things that the average woman did not know, who would only help on the fields but would not be interested in her work further. 

Teresa also loved talking about politics with men during reunions that took place mostly between 1930-36 and of which many were secret, because these reunions were prohibited.
She was lucky to have a husband who trusted her and did not harass her for meeting other men at these reunions. After the reunions, Teresa would go and explain everything to the women of the village, visiting each of them individually in their own house. 

Many people would later tell Josep that Teresa was ahead her time. She had a very open mind, was feminist and leftist, without being extreme. 

On the 14th of april, 1933, a clock was put in the clocktower of the church from the Republic (the Republicans was the democratically elected spanish government that later would be overturned by the later dictator Francisco Franco by a coup d’etat), and Teresa and a group of other women participated in the celebration. There is even a photograph Josep showed me from that day with Teresa carrying a republican flag. 

The Spanish civil war (or rather the Spanish “uncivil” war, as Josep calls it) ended in 1939. Many Republicans were imprisoned and executed, and many others fled either to other countries or places inside of Spain where nobody would know them to avoid persecution from the Franquistas. Teresa moved to Barcelona with her husband and daughter, where she would work in a farm house of a Franquist owner who did not care about their political views. 
Then, in 1940 Teresa decided to visit her village for some days, against all advice of family and friends who had come together at a family reunion to discuss the matter. 
On the way to Riba-roja with her daughter, she met some people from her village who warned her to go to the village and told her to return immediately, because it was too dangerous. 
But Teresa told them that she had no reason to be afraid because she did not collaborated in the death of anybody, on the contrary, she had even defended saved a Franquists from execution and therefor certainly nobody would harm her. 

The man she had saved had been a widower with two daugthers and the Republians were planing to execute him and Teresa, who had been an orphan herself, convinced them that it was a great injustice to 
turn these two little girls into orphans. Thanks to Teresa, the man was set free. 

On the second day in her village, she was arrested, following a triple denunciation. Three “brave” men seized her at her house, beat her up and kicked her, threw stones at her, spat at her and shaved her head. It was so horrible that the memory of the incident makes Joseps mother-in-law with her 96 years still trembling with terror. 

They put her in the local prison (a building which still exists today and still looks like a prison, but is not used anymore) held a propaganda trial and accused her of “helping the rebellion”, ignoring the fact that the rebell had been Franco, and Teresa had never carried a weapon or harmed anybody. She was sentenced to 15 years of prison just because she had carried the Republican flag in 1933 and because she had been heard speaking about politics. 

Of these 15 years she spent four and a half years in prison in Barcelona, in a prison that once had been a convent and which now is a shopping center. What happened to Teresa happened to thousands of Republican women – 40.000 women went through that prison and now only a small plaquette (two millimeters of memory for each of them, says Josep) reminds of these women who’s only crime it was to be Republican. 

Inside the prison, Teresa secretly made herself a ring from some silver coins her daughter, who walked many days to see her in prison, brought her, engraved with the initials of her husband, J.A. for Josep Alabart (which now happen to be the initials of Josep Aguilà) and herself, T.A. for Teresa Aguilà. 

In the prison, they tried to brainwash them, telling them that they were demons, that the civil war had been their fault, and that they were useless and unwanted by everybody outside and that the world continued better without them. Many were raped by men as well as by women, which the prisoners were pressured to tolerate without resistance in order to get some benefits like more food or more free time. 

Thanks to her ingeniuity, Teresa managed to push herself through prison. But when she came out of prison, she was a different woman. Four and a half years of prison had changed this woman who had been so alive, so happy, so talkative, so intelligent. The woman who returned from prison was scared and dumb and almost speechless, although judging from the photos I saw of her at old age she seemed to have gotten her old self back after time. What had happened during these four years of prison that a person like Teresa would come out of it so scared? 

When Teresa’s husband learnt that they had imprisoned his wife, he did not understand, repeating “this is not possible, she was such a good woman, she didn’t harm anybody…” He was so shocked about the unbelievable and went crazy over the loss that he had to stay at a psychiatry for some months. When he was well again, he went back to work on the farm near Barcelona. 

Teresa and her daughter, Josep’s mother, would later educate him “badly”, as Franquist, in order to protect him (the Franco regime would continue until 1977). But then again, they educated him well enough that he began to see how things were by himself, and then they talked openly and in detail to him about everything. 

I met Josep Aguilà on my first three days of Riu’d Art artist residency, a lively, quick-witted and warm-hearted man overflowing with knowledge and a contagious enthusiasm for many issues. This remarkable man owning so much brain, heart and wit in retrospective gives me an idea of how the personality of his grandmother Teresa might have been.

During the daytime he, together with the organizors of the residency, would lead us around the hills surrounding the village, the dam, the hermitage and one of the juniper ovens he had discovered, answered all of our questions and generously sharing his abundant knowledge with us. 
During the night, he invited us artists to his “Bar Josep”, which would consist of a huge table dragged out on the street in front of his house, where he would serve us delicious craft beer and cheese and good, fun conversation.

When I told him that I wanted to hear all the stories of the village, he told me the story of his grandmother and the wolf. Then he had to travel back to Barcelona, but during my whole stay in the village he kept emailing me stories of his grandmother and stories from the village. 
Yesterday he wrote me a mail where he explained the story of Teresa and the civil war, which he had told me before, in more detail. So now I can share it with you. 

Thank you Josep for sharing these deeply moving stories of Teresa with me and for giving first context and then sense to my artistic stay and work in Riba-roja, where I tried to create some humble memorial for Teresa, knowing that tens of thousands of door paintings would not be enough to adequately remind of and honor Teresa and the other brave Republican Catalan women who were attacked, wounded and killed fighting the horrible beasts of Franco. Hopefully one day these women will get the memorial they deserve.

Album artwork for the Austrian band Sapperlotta. They fell in love with an old illustration of mine and although I usually don’t like to reuse stuff that is too old, now I’m really happy with the outcome.

Photography by Lucas Breuer.

“Im Tal der Alfenz – Geschichten und Bilder vom Klostertal” - a very special book about the Klostertal (a valley in Western Austria).

245x180 mm
214 pages
Published by Klostertal Tourismus
Design by Kurt Dornig

Editorial Illustrations and illustrated recipe.
Technique: Ink pen, watercolor and digital.
Published in the German magazine GLAMOUR .

Interactive illustrated touchwall for an exhibition at Stadtmuseum Dornbirn (Vorarlberg, Austria) about the women working in the western Austrian and Swiss textile industries from home some decades ago. 

The interactive touchwall illustrates the production cycle of embroideries and laces from the factory’s delivery to the home worker to the international export as pieces of underwear. All the scenes are connected with a red thread.

If visitor touches the illustrations on the wall, details of light will “magically” appear on them and turn the illustrations into interactive ones – embroideries will be lit up in the hands of a woman, or a messenger boy will all of a sudden ride on a glowing bicycle.

I had the pleasure to create this logo for the wonderful Joulep Cafe in Shiraz, Iran.

Watercolor miniatures vulvae and peni. Endpapers for my book MINISUTRA.

Some pages from my sketchbook from Tehran, 2016. 

Also including a bit of Shiraz, some islands in the Persian Gulf, Belgrade and Edinburgh. 

TROPICARIUM. Solo exhibition at the National Scientific Library of Tbilisi in cooperation with the Book Art Center Tbilisi. 

I discovered a somewhat mysterious space full of plants hidden on the deserted top floor of the huge communist-era building of the Scientific Library of Tbilisi and decided that it would be fun to exhibit my prints in a pot plant jungle, so I took it over. 

TROPICARIUM consists of prints, plates and an spontaneous installation called "Birds and bees" diverting some old library card catalogues from their intented use, all set in a jungle of pot plants.
 

the chinese dream
etching on aluminum plate. plate size: 11 x 45 cm. paper size: 50x70 cm
2017 for the VII encuentro Fundación CIEC / Alfara Grafica in Salamanca,  Spain. 

Poster for a rooftop cinema in Dornbirn, Austria, organised by the cultural venue Spielboden.

Interactive Illustration: If you touch the illustration on the wall, drawings made of light appear and make little stories happen.

This touchwall is part of the exhibition Niederösterreichische Landesausstellung 2017 in beautiful Pöggstall castle in Lower Austria. 

Exhibition: noe-landesausstellung.at
Touchwall: cat-x.at

Epigrammatica Granadina is an art intervention, mapping, poetry, and illustration project, created in Granada, Spain. 

This project takes place in the the moorish old town of Granada, Andalusia, Southern Spain, whose moorish heritage still has a strong presence with the Alhambra, the red castle, towering over the city, and the labyrinth like Albaícin, Granadas old town, with with its winding alleys, its white washed houses and beautiful gardens still maintains a oriental atmosphere of supernatural beauty. 

Epigrammatica Granadina consists of series of 24 ink drawn epigrams which were inspired by little discoveries in Granada:  The epigramms are more or less puns and references on history, poetic and evocative street names, arab-andalusian poems, carmenes (the traditional moorish gardens), as well as interesting trivia and personal anecdotes. 

The epigrams were hidden in the Albaícin and wait to be discovered by curious spectators who look closely: They will find in them words and riddles that are as playful, mysterious, ambigous as the Albaícin itself.

Illustrated map of music festivals in Austria for GEHÖRT, the magazine of the Austrian broadcaster Ö1.

This series of aquatint etchings is an exploration and mapping of inner landscapes, shaped by perception and memory and inspired by journeys through Uzbekistan, Israel, Jordan, and Spain.

These etchings are composed of personal stories and perceived images, all reflected against a background of history, mythology and poetry, thus linking the outside and the inside world. They are full of signs, hints, and symbols referring to the settings and spaces of time I am moving in.

Every picture represents a small world – it is a visual narration, a mapping of the world as I see it, half autobiographical and half imaginary. 

Inspired by journeys and other occurrences, they are like ephemeral captures from the stream of consciousness, like pictorial distills of life’s moments, of thoughts, feelings, and atmospheres. 

I tried to visualize images as if they were poems, aiming to go beyond the depiction of only one single image at a time and building multi-spatial structures by blending and connecting several impressions and images. 

Dissolving the borders of space and time creates a simultaneousness of events which together form one big image – similar to the way our memory is shaped. Thus, I’m trying to approach the rather intangible nature of mental images and to translate them into a visually manifest form.

Monotypes on Biblos paper, created with yellow and black carbon paper and an etching needle. 

Hardground and aquatint etchings based on my first Persian sketchbook, etched and printed during an artist residency in India in 2014. 

The IRCC is an artist collective founded in India by artists Elina Kawachi, Deveshi Sahgal, Devika Swarup, Samia Singh, Bianca Tschaikner, Kalpana Subramanian, Iria do Castelo and A&Y. 

Watch the documentary by A&Y about the Intercontinental Rollercoaster Club‘s adventures in India. 

Vida muerta is an artist book made at Alfara Gráfica, inspired by the dying little village Encina de San Silvestre in the countryside of Salamanca, Spain. 
Aquaforte on offset plate, 6 pages, 9.8x7cm, Biblos / Hahnemühle Paper.
Edition: 50

Artist book about the spring in Florence, Italy. 

Three color woodcut printed on japanese paper 

125x150mm, 8 pages. 

You can buy it here.