"Reißbrett Nr. 21 – Schwarze Kiste 2"

collage, drawings on paper on wood

signed (pencil) on recto

The film Passenger from the year 2000 shows the route covered by a model railroad that Hans Schabus laid through his workspace at a height of 2.7 meters, following the layout of his studio. In “Retrospect”, fragmentary pieces of the space traveled through collapse upon the viewer. The retrospective refers to views of the space passing by the eye. Unlike the modern figure of the flâneur, who appropriates his surroundings with a wandering gaze, Schabus is the “passenger”, past whom things pass without the eye being able to steer or fixate: He surrenders to time and space, remains attracted to the phenomena, cannot escape them. The movement is primarily preoccupied with itself; the everyday life of the studio is only peripherally recognizable. This is about the creation of images of space and time. The viewers themselves become passengers.
(Kerstin Engholm Gallery, Vienna, 2000, translated by deepL)

The "Reissbrett“ (drawing board) is a special form of study and sketch in the artistic work of Hans Schabus. It shows the artist's research-based approach and refers to the reference to architecture and technology in his work. Until the introduction of computer-aided architectural drawing (CAD) in the 1990s, the drawing board was a technical tool for creating technical drawings. One feature of the drawing board was that the correct angularity of the lines to each other was ensured by means of a mechanism or a drawing rail guided by an angle.
(Christoph Fuchs, translated by deepL)