Kamilla Bischof
Kamilla Bischof is an Austrian artist based in Berlin. She works in a variety of media, although her projects have their origins in painting. Before studying fine arts in Vienna, she gained experience in architecture and stage design. Her large-format canvases are frequently populated by flamboyant beings posing in the scenery with everyday objects, surrounded by pieces of furniture that seem to have a life of their own. Some series appear to be zoomed in, or objects have been blown up into freestanding individuals in an abstract color space. A growing repertoire of elements, honed and repeated from canvas to canvas, overlaps and coalesces into speculative narratives. This results in compositions that reflect Bischof's fascination with prefabricated living environments and catalogue-like interior ideas, between the conflicting desire for individual expression and exuberant aesthetics. In tandem to this she interrogates her scenarios in writing, which unfolds simultaneously and in response to the canvases. The staged objects and motifs create a gentle irritation; they are alienated, fall out of their function, exist in a state of transition and appear as ambivalent characters in the text. Since a six-month residency in Los Angeles in 2022 as part of the MAK Artists- and Architects-in-Residence Program, Bischof has focused on video, particularly its ability to condense the various strands of her practice into one baroque universe. Sets of sculptural props and painted surfaces are arranged to unleash the desires embodied in everyday products and materials. A stream of the imaginary reveals - as if a landscape of lovingly organised, flashing shop windows; where everything looks delicious but nothing is edible were passing by the viewer, questioning the veracity of things.
EDUCATION
2015
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Vienna, Austria
JURY
Helge Mooshammer
Jenni Tischer
Thomas Trummer
Nicole Scheyerer
Lilli Hollein
