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The Berlin-based artist Claudia Wieser joins the Interior Design program at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture for a week-long workshop titled “The Auratic Object.” By crafting physical objects that, according to Wieser, “you can sit on, but it is not a chair,” students will gain exposure to the artist’s philosophy, creative process, and attitude toward working with materials. During the visit, Wieser will also present a public lecture, “Material Matters,” at 5pm CT on Wednesday, March 27, followed by a Q&A.
Known for her modernist-inspired geometric constructions, Wieser’s dynamic and multifaceted artistic practice includes hand-painted and patterned ceramics, carved wooden sculptures, tiled mirrored works, colored pencil and gold leaf drawings, and site-specific wall installations and tapestries. Influenced by the work of artists like Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee, who embraced spirituality as part of their aesthetic process, Wieser broadens their ideals to consider the coexistence of abstraction and physiological experience through her spatial installations.
Through an early apprenticeship as a blacksmith at Bergmeister Kunstschmiede, Wieser honed her understanding of art and the object, and the aesthetic and the functional. Her artistic practice also draws upon the history of art, design, and architecture—carefully stitching together a constellation of elements that aim to change her viewers’ visual interpretation. She is represented by Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York and Jessica Silverman Gallery in San Francisco.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with Claudia,” said Igor Siddiqui, Director for Interior Design. “Her work carves out a critical space for reflecting upon all the ways in which art, architecture, and design are intertwined.”
Wieser’s public lecture and week-long workshop is the third installation of a five-year initiative designed to provide students with ongoing opportunities to explore and celebrate the role of craft and artisanship in interior environments. During Wieser’s time with students, she will engage both undergraduate and graduate students in an intimate, hands-on studio setting.
Previous artistic engagements supported by the Emily Summers Fund for Craft & Artisanship in Interior Design have brought Lonneke Gordijn of Studio DRIFT and the MacArthur Fellow Jorge Pardo to UT Austin’s campus. Funded by the Dallas-based interior designer Emily Summers, the initiative supports and expands the UT Austin Interior Design program’s vision of interior design as a truly interdisciplinary and hands-on creative practice. By embedding other craft-related arts like furniture design, installation, textiles, and lighting into students’ educational experience; supporting travel to visit ateliers, workshops, and factories; and funding workshops like Wieser’s where students are exposed to internationally renowned experts in the field, the program provides each cohort of undergraduate and graduate interior design students with a diverse understanding of the expansiveness of interior design as a discipline.
Wieser’s lecture on Wednesday, March 27 is free and open to the public, followed by a reception at The School of Architecture’s Materials Lab on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition Looks Like But Isn’t curated by Igor Siddiqui. Visit the School of Architecture’s website for more information.
