“I experience myself within limits whose existence I question. Aren‘t they rather transitions that are subject to a constant process of negotiation and are thus formed from different sides? Membranes of various kinds, sometimes permeable, sometimes solid. Protective and sensitive?

The in-between changes with the actors. The difference between the one and the other marks, constitutes the respective side. Each element is co-defined by the difference to the other. This in-between is constantly in motion, repeats itself, deviates, recomposes and overlaps.

The transition from one stage to the next, from one situation to the other, from one person to the next holds potential and an unlimited number of possibilities.

I explore myself in my scope of action and try to gradually expand and reshape it. Between power to act and powerlessness I ask myself how far I want to fit into the precasted paths and where I consider it necessary to break out.

I seek closeness and distance. From an overview that controls everything to losing (oneself) in the nearness of the touch and so forth.

The sun touches the object, the shadow of the object touches the foil, the drawing touches the shadow and the foil, the drawing on the foil touches the photo paper, the sun touches the drawing on the foil on the paper – a contact exposure emerges. I take myself back. The digital image is created by a distanced view. The touch is no longer accessible.

Different kinds of experience, from moment to moment. I draw a line and the world turns. I will never be able to repeat the same superposition of what I have seen, what I have touched and what I have visualized through my gesture in the same way. The shadow moves on.

My position is the same and yet different.”


- Laura Sperl

Laura Sperl (b.1988, Austria) is an artist based in Vienna.

She studied at the Weißensee Academy of Arts Berlin and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She has presented solo exhibitions among others at the Mutuo Gallery in Barcelona and at the Porgy & Bess Public Domain in Vienna. Her works have also been shown in Berlin, Zagreb, London and Lisbon. In Vienna, she recently exhibited at PARALLEL Vienna, Foto Wien, Fotogalerie Wien and Sehsaal. In 2021, she received the START Stipendium for Visual Arts and the Mentoring Programme in cooperation with the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

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︎@laura_sperl