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Toni Schmale at Mayday

Solo Show «watersports», April 9 until May 17, 2022

Artists

Toni Schmale

Institution

Mayday

Location

Basel

Download

Press release (PDF)

Website

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Exhibition View Toni Schmale Solo Show «watersports» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday

Toni Schmale’s sculptural work reminds one of machines, apparatuses, or training devices for the conditioning of the human body. Through the precise use of materials such as steel, concrete, or rubber, the objects take on an imaginative life of their own—their dysfunctionality has a certain resistance and can be understood as a critique of existing power structures. In the solo exhibition “watersports” at Mayday, Toni Schmale shows new site-specific works that create various references to the harbor, which is located in the immediate vicinity of the exhibition space. Beyond its embedding in the much-invoked romanticism of the port, her interest lies in the aesthetics of a male-dominated working environment, the equipment used to transport goods, and the industrial forms of shipbuilding: deformed and seemingly saggy pipes protrude from large-format galvanized sheets, a massive grid construction with a round opening and powder-coated rollers made of steel dominate the tiled room that used to serve as a locker room for workers of the shipping company. The objects have a hybrid appearance, their function remains uncertain. Situated somewhere between industrial design, fitness equipment, torture devices, and fetish furniture, they refer to the human body and allow us to imagine actions that can be performed on or with them. In these speculative narratives, power, desire, and physical discipline overlap—and are undermined in their unambiguity.

Toni Schmale, born 1980 in Hamburg, lives and works in Vienna. She studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig and at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna. Her work has been shown at the Kyiv Biennial Kiev/UKR, the 56th October Salon, Belgrade Biennial/RS, and the Art Biennial, Labin/HR. Solo exhibitions, among others, at the Vienna Secession; Christine König Galerie, Vienna/AT; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead/UK; nGbK, Berlin/DE, and Neuer Kunstverein Vienna/AT. The exhibition at Mayday is her first in Switzerland.

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Exhibition View Toni Schmale Solo Show «watersports; view on Toni Schmale, watersports, 2022» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday

Exhibition View Toni Schmale Solo Show «watersports; view on Toni Schmale, watersports, 2022, detail» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday

Exhibition View Toni Schmale Solo Show «watersports; view on Toni Schmale, schlauch #1 and schlauch #2, 2022, detail» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday

Exhibition View Toni Schmale Solo Show «watersports; view on Toni Schmale, schlauch #1 and schlauch #1, 2022, detail» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday