III
Group of Sculptures

Leon Höllhumer, Madonna, Face II (how life feels for Schmetterlings Jesus), 2024
Glazed ceramics
20 × 20 × 10 cm
Beyond the projection screen are Höllhumer’s sculptural works. While the wall acting as a projection screen is white and smooth on its front side, the back has been left raw and unpainted, and on the visible supporting aluminum frame is bare plasterboard, forming a kind of dirty corner that appears less staged than simply set aside. As such, this setting reminds us of a view behind a movie set.
Höllhumer’s sculptures are mostly ceramics that are painted after firing, but for this exhibition, he has also experimented with cast aluminum. The sculptures rest on a variety of pedestals from HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark’s collection in different colors and with signs of wear. Generally, Hölhumer’s sculptures are given a performative function by becoming part of a costume or stage set.
They are therefore not to be understood as autonomous works, but as active objects, and can be considered as part of Höllhumer’s cinematic and narrative universe like finds in a cabinet of curiosities. As a group, they are not really arranged into a typical museum arrangement, but rather lie on the ground as if in storage, waiting to be used. What unites them is that they all look like costumes or props. After watching Höllhumer’s videos, viewers will be able to identify parts of the costume of the Madonna of Thorns along with items worn by various other characters. Other objects on the pedestals might form a continuation of the films by creating new scenes in the viewers’ imagination.
Insalate di Sentimenti (Salad of Feelings) (2024) is a ceramic heart in a bowl of fruit and vegetables, and provides the image for the exhibition’s invitation card. Although reminiscent of a still life as painted by the Old Masters, the ceramic heart spurts blood like a fountain and looks like a failed joke or a prop from a horror movie. Like so many other figures in The Feast, the work pairs visual opulence with a certain naivety, leading to an affective ambivalence.
A similar idea can be found with Strada del Sole (2024), in which the artist has baked a kind of clubfoot out of bread dough, which seems to swell beyond the boundaries of its shoe. The associations opened up by this eerie yet amusing object is manifold. It is not clear whether it depicts a severed foot, a crude joke, a sad story connected to the dancers in the films or an autobiographical anecdote. For the title, Höllhumer quotes another song from the 1980s. In 1981, Reinhard Fendrich published a song with the same name about a sandal-wearer who is poorly treated during his vacation in Italy.
The motif of a plate of food returns with some ceramic food fused with glass – also resembling a prop for film or theater. Even if ceramics are not actually used to produce food props on sets for films or advertising, the aim is to create an artificial setting which, at least at first glance, resembles a real plate. Along with the aluminum salt sticks, the plate creates a direct association to the exhibition’s title, The Feast, and symbolizes a heavily laid table at which a party comes together to celebrate a special occasion. Whether this party turns out to be an orgy, a coffee party with friends or a funeral feast remains to be seen.
Knabber-Modul I, 2024
Aluminium cast, 20 pieces
each 11 cm
Strada del Sole, 2024
Aluminium cast, bread, spices
10 × 30 cm
Plate VI, 2024
Ceramics and mixed media
Ø 25 cm
Insalata di Sentimenti II, 2024
Vegetables, fake blood, glazed ceramics, air pump
Ø 30 cm
Madonna, Face II (how life feels for Schmetterlings Jesus), 2024
Glazed ceramics
20 × 20 × 10 cm
Regina, 2024
Glazed ceramics
20 × 20 × 10 cm
Gesicht I, Babsi, 2024
Glazed ceramics
20 × 20 × 10 cm
(Brüste Babsi), 2024
Glazed ceramics
35 × 20 × 15 cm
Gesicht II, Anatomie, 2024
Glazed ceramics
20 × 15 cm
Torso II, Anatomie, 2024
Glazed ceramics
20 × 20 × 10 cm
Hände Babsi, 2024
Glazed ceramics
2 pieces, each 10 × 10 × 30 cm
Hände Regina, 2024
Glazed ceramics
2 pieces, each 10 × 10 × 30 cm
Unter 18, 2024
Glass, ceramics
Ø 50 cm
Madonna Bust (how it feels for Schmetterlings Jesus), 2024
Glazed ceramics
50 × 45 cm