LINDE WABER’S DAILY DRAWINGS
Ivan Ristic
Linde Waber is one of today’s most versatile and dynamic artists. She was born in Zwettl, Lower Austria, and studied graphic design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. In the 1970s, she undertook two extended trips to Japan. The Oskar Kokoschka prize of the City of Salzburg was the first of many awards she has received in her artistic career. To this day, Linde Waber’s life is devoted to extended, long-distance travels and exhibitions. The Leopold Museum held a major exhibition dedicated to her in the spring of 2010.
In 1983 Linde Waber produced her first “daily drawings” on fine Japanese paper. Since July 1988, she has been pursuing this activity unceasingly; her work progresses 365 days a year. Whether portrayed as a simple note or evoking a considerable amount of work, these quickly scribbled drawing Haikus alternate between palimpsests and expressive landscapes.
Writer Bodo Hell best describes Waber’s daily drawing process: “she hints at it, she frames it, she checks it off, she squiggles around, she forms medallions, she underscores certain lines and statements, dynamizes, washes, does not prevent drippings, obscures, makes translucent, conceals behind a veil, alternates abundance and emptiness, and connects the parts, tight but not binding, so that, improbably,collaged images arise which have the potential to become iconic.”
For the artist this is much more than creating an artistic diary or some sort of form to measure time. To undertake this “daily celebration work” (Bodo Hell), is according to Linde Waber, somewhat akin “to stopping and taking a deep breath”.
These daily drawings also reflect Linde Waber’s long-term friendships with Friederike Mayröcker, Ernst Jandl and other literati. I Just Want to Settle Down on Your Imageis the title of a recently published book in which Christel and Matthias Fallenstein published lyrics by Friederike Mayröcker and 140 drawings by Linde Waber. The book will be presented on November 27that 6:00 pm to celebrate the poet’s 90thbirthday. Renald Deppe will musically accompany a reading by Friederike Mayröcker and Bodo Hell. Linde Waber will create a live daily-drawing for the audience.