Plank/poschauko
:
Vogelparadies (Bird Paradise)
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"Vogelparadies" is the title of a wall-to-wall mural for the inner courtyard of the nursing home in Wolkersdorf. It was created by Claudia Plank and Hans Werner Poschauko, who won the competition to design the courtyard. The artist duo from Vienna skillfully applied the classic sgraffito technique to create a subtle and poetic work that lures us into a fantasy world. In this world, the inner courtyard is transformed into an atrium, which in ancient Roman architecture was the central hall in the home and the heart of family life.
When looking at the walls closely, we can detect 12 songbirds hidden in the white wine leaves set against the green background. The number 12 evokes many associations – for example, to Greek mythology and the Old Testament. That the birds are smaller than the leaves reflects how Plank & Poschauko are not interested in naturalistic illustrations, but rather in stimulating the imagination as well as new interpretations of a traditional technique. The method of sgraffito, which is all but forgotten today, was developed during the Renaissance. Several remarkable examples can be found in the Waldviertel and Weinviertel regions of Lower Austria – for instance, in Gmünd and Horn. Only natural materials are used in this technique – like quicklime, which is applied in different colored layers while moist, after which parts of the upper layer are scratched away. The strong color contrasts created by the two artists with this technique has produced a delicate drawing that presents the atrium as the center of social life in the nursing home and as a paradise in the sense of a utopia and place of dreams.
(Cornelia Offergeld)
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