Katharina Schilling: Balancing Opposites In Conversation with Sophia Roxane Rohwetter Photos by Luca Celine Müller Link in bio 🛡️ Through the appropriation and pictorial alienation of historical subjects and techniques such as medieval illuminated manuscripts and Dutch still life, Katharina Schilling explores the potential of traditional artistic forms for contemporary painting. Using contrasting styles, each negotiating the relationship between abstraction and figuration in a different way, she breaks with common dichotomies of figure and ground, depth and flatness, control and chance. Her works are complex compositions that challenge our perception and allow us to see a utopic potential in (art) history. Sophia: For some time now, you have been working on two very different painting series: large-format paintings in which everyday objects such as peaches, eggs, or iPhones float on abstract, expressive ground, and a series of smaller figurative paintings – Sand is water you can walk on – in which you appropriate and alienate fragments of medieval Gothic drawings to transform them into new, contemporary compositions. How do the series vary, also in terms of their process? Katharina: As you say, the series are very different, and this, of course also affects the painting process. While the paintings of the series Sand is water you can walk on start from a concept, a sketch or a pictorial idea, the backgrounds of the large images develop through an unpredictable process that starts from the material itself. I lay the canvas on the floor and let the water and pigments lead the way. It’s almost like an action painting outburst from my usual, very controlled painting process. Only later, when I begin to select and re-sew parts of the canvas, does a compositional decision-making process begin. [...] Don’t miss her duo exhibition with Miriam Stoney "Common Notions“, which is on view at House of Spouse from Nov 10 – Dec 28. @katharinaschilling @roxyro95 @luca.celine @houseofspouse #pwmagazine #pwmag #katharinaschilling #sophiaroxanerohwetter #lucacelinemueller #houseofspouse