Toni Schmale

opferblech
basis e.V.

Can Objects Teach Us to See Bodies Differently?

To make her expansive sculptures, Toni Schmale (b. Hamburg, 1980; lives and works in Vienna) forcefully bends steel components out of their normed shapes prescribed by ISO and other standards. The results are sometimes contradictory sculptures that quote the original functional forms yet refuse to assume one of them. The manipulation of the standardized steel pipes, their contortion and assembly in novel configurations, brings out the fragility and vulnerability at the heart of any object and material. In the associative space of her works, Schmale establishes connections to bodies.

The artist’s book opferblech—the title is a technical term for a metal sheet used in the steel industry to prevent unwanted pressure marks and deformations that can arise during the bending or moulding process of a steel object—provides insight into the genesis of Schmale’s complex art. Writings by several contributors probe the discursive aspects and spaces implicit in her sculptures. Kristina Dreit’s essay examines the significations of steel as a physical material and explores the queer surplus meanings associated with it. Moira Hille retraces the etymology of the term cruising and sketches the concept’s political import beyond the sexual encounter. The curator and editor Carlotta Döhn explores abstraction as a formalist practice on the basis of the mythological figure of Aphrodite and locates Schmale’s sculpture group gefährt*innen in an art-historical context. The centrefold starschnitt poster, designed by Wally Salner and Maria Ziegelböck, is made up of unpublished photographs from the CRUISING TOUR 2024.