In your fourth exhibition at Galerie Barbara Wien you show ten textile works. The exhibition title Guiding Fabric also refers to their production – how can you imagine this process? What fascinates you when you were sewing?

Free: I start making my works by working with a simple, aquele-like cotton, called Kaliko, with the sewing machine. Later I applaud these machine-stitched elements by hand on painted canvases. The depictions remind of landscapes, living systems and hybrid architectural motifs. Each work has a special character, influenced by the fine variations of the seams and the chromatic depth of the colours obtained from the background. The manufacturing process requires careful planning, intuition and an understanding of technical synergies – from the selection of the fabric and the adjustment of the thread tension to cutting, folding, ironing, mechanical sewing, hand sewing, knotting and ironing. For me, the appeal of sewing and working with textiles in this meticulous process, in which every detail contributes to the result.

How did you develop the motifs for the images? What associations are important to you?

Free: The textile works were created on the basis of preparatory drawings, which were refined in numerous repetitions by me in order to achieve the right tension. I search for images that are familiar and yet strange, recognizable and yet not easy to assign – they are an allusion to an idea of a place without necessarily representing certain places. Each work stands by itself, but can also be seen as part of a story or a score with recurring elements such as shorelines, circles or polygons. The motifs that suggest continuity are inspired by memories and observations of everyday situations, combined with graphical, almost schematic representations of landscape and architecture. Some works are characterized by a change of perspective, whereby cross-sections merge with a map view. Others remain unclear the standard – is it a microorganism, a city map or a design for a larger system?

How do you differently feel and sewing?

In contrast to drawing, where the hand holds the pen, the process is reversed when sewing, because you have to carry out the fabric under the needle of the sewing machine. There is a close connection between the body, the senses and the creative process, since the whole body is involved in moving the fabric and controlling the machine. It is similar to playing an instrument where fingers, hands, arms and even body movements create sound and rhythm.

What role do the different colored, passepartout-like backgrounds play? How did you choose the colors?

Free: The backgrounds have a structural and an aesthetic function. The painted cotton sailing cloths allow easy suspension of the lighter, sewn works and frame them. Each background has a different color and forms a protective and ornamental edging. These awakens associations that are consistent with the visual narrative of the motifs or create a contrast to it. Even in the titles of the works, colors are mentioned, which arouses various connotations to the material used and the represented elements.

What interests you in the mediumality of textiles, which can be contextualized in many ways?

Free: One of the reasons for my fascination with textiles is their double character – they are both decorative and functional. Through their material quality and presence, textiles offer an experience for the senses that go beyond the direct and visual and interweaves diverse cultural, historical and temporal meanings as well as personal associations. The conscious choice of the potash complicated fabric and the use of an ordinary household appliance such as the sewing machine underline a feeling of 'simpleness'. The sewing machine, which is traditionally associated with practical tasks and domestic manual labour, plays a new and extended role for me in these works. It conveys familiarity and combines the work of art with the everyday experiences of the viewer: which are.

How are these new works related to earlier works in which you have used textiles in spatial and participatory contexts?

Free: When I think about previous work such as the Quilts in Musica Viva Spreads (2016) and the upholstered furniture of Circular Arrangement (2019–2020), I see a clear development in my handling of textiles. Musica Viva spreads, for example, stressed
Visual and political aspects of translation, which were a topic in a music magazine published by my grandfather, the conductor Hermann Scherchen in 1939. Similarly, the furniture sculptures of Circular Arrangement explore the geometric symbols of the flow diagram, an instrument for the visualization and communication of work processes. Although they seem to be different, both have one thing in common – a connection to the body, to language and to communication. It is about taking a widely available material and designing it with intentionality and attention to detail, whereby every crease, sting and texture becomes a language that speaks directly to the viewer.

What atmosphere do you want to create with your textile work? And how does the steel mobile entitled Polygon Apertures (2024) contribute to this?

Free: Through the relationship between the textile works and the mobile, I want to create an immersive, floating atmosphere in which the flat polygonal rings of the mobile reflect the forms of textile work. In Polygon Apertures, connection and change are embedded as themes. These show themselves in the steel hooks reminiscent of seams, on which the various elements of the mobile are suspended, and in the developing patina of the metal. The circular openings in the rings emphasise the relational aspect of the installation and serve as lenses through which the visitors can explore and observe the surrounding space.