Flora Hauser

In her work, Flora Hauser often refers to Ancient Greek philosophy and its origins, in particular to the notion of ousia. Central to Greek ontology, ousia can best be described as essence or being, in a very ontological sense, as a continuous, timeless identity, which Hauser, in her reflections and her practice, links to art and artistic production. Her embroidered canvases allude to magical worlds; Birth of the Sun, for example depicts a goddess-like feminine figure stacked at the top of the canvas, while a masculine character seems to praise her with a small fish bowls containing corals. The dreamy imagery, which appears to be split into three different realms, incorporates water, a garden and a kingdom or queendom of heaven, and is underlined by a sentence in the painting’s bottom right corner ​“magically it makes sense,” connecting the scene to sacredness and female power. Energy and its distribution are further recurring themes in Hauser’s practice. She is also devoted to depicting ​‘New Age’ motifs, and this becomes particularly evident in ChuChu-Moon, in which diamonds dangle from a half moon, and a mountain is illuminated by a rising sun. Her most abstract work in this exhibition, Wrenkh1 – Schlürfen werden wir noch dürfen (Wrenkh1 – We’ll be able to slurp), points to an increasing fear of the threats to hard-worn freedoms and emancipations from rising conservative tendencies. While Hauser’s work might appear to be a renunciation of reality and current political proceedings, her representations of liberated female bodies nevertheless suggest subtle notions of critique.

Birth of the Sun, 2024
Acrylic fiber and cotton yarn sewn on canvas
210 × 100 cm

ChuChu-Moon, 2024
Acrylic fiber and cotton yarn sewn on canvas
42 × 42 cm

Wrenkh1 – Schlürfen werden wir wohl dürfen (Wrenkh1 – We’ll be able to slurp), 2023
Acrylic fiber and cotton yarn sewn on canvas
25 × 20 cm

Courtesy Meyer*Kainer, Vienna