Austrian artist brings 'Multiple Voices' to downtown OKC with shiny architectural sculpture
Shining in the strong Oklahoma sun, Eva Schlegel’s sleek, soaring sculpture “Multiple Voices” is literally made for reflection.
“The mirrors work in all ways: down and up. … Do not climb (on it), but you can walk in. You can really step on it, and you can see in all ways. It’s really wild: You can look up there, and it’s endless into heaven,” Schlegel said.
“From outside, it looks very rectangular. And from inside … it’s really playful.”
Known for engineering steel and mirrors into eye-catching architectural sculptures, the Austrian artist debuted her first public artwork in the United States in 2023 with “Multiple Voices.” The towering assemblage of aluminum and glass is on view outside Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center in Campbell Art Park through early 2025.
One of the international collection of renowned artists who contributed work to “Bright Golden Haze,” the inaugural exhibit at Oklahoma Contemporary's new home on Automobile Alley, Schlegel was inspired by Oklahoma City architect Rand Elliott’s shimmering design for the building, which he dubbed “Folding Light,” to create one of her large-scale public works for the grounds.
For three years, Schlegel collaborated with the staff at the nonprofit arts center, working through delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and supply-chain issues to finally see “Multiple Voices” installed in downtown OKC.
“We celebrate the marriage of quite a few things: of aluminum and glass, … of sparkling reflection and enigmatic text, of art and poetry,” said Carina Evangelista, Oklahoma Contemporary’s senior director of curatorial affairs.
“The intentionality and planning and design — and the grace and patience demonstrated by the artist over the protracted process — (have) finally come to fruition.”
During a visit to OKC, Schlegel spoke with The Oklahoman about creating her “Multiple Voices”:
Q: What was it about Oklahoma Contemporary's building that spoke to you?
The structure and the form, because the form is, really, not a rectangular shape. It's more like a flow. And it doesn't have many windows, but if you're inside, it's really beautiful. It has a middle, and then the rooms are oriented around that. … I liked it very much when I came here for the first show.
Q: How is it to show your work in a place where you’ve never done that before?
It's really exciting. … I have architects also working for me, and we do everything in 3-D in renderings. But it's always different when we see it (for) real.
Q: So, is it what you envisioned after all this time?
It's a little different, honestly. … I really like it the way it is, because I'd never worked in aluminum, which we were working in here. … In America, they work a lot in aluminum and not in steel. I work in steel normally. But I love the sharp edges. Super. So, it was really, for me, new to see.
Q: What is it about creating these architectural sculptures that makes it your thing?
My thing is about space. It's about different spaces and the reflections, so that you see in different ways.
Q: How did you get started creating conceptual art?
When I started to study, I started in the period of the (Junge) Wilde painting. … This was the ‘80s, and a lot of young people, after conceptual art, started to paint and to really neglect all rules in starting to paint again.
I was a little bit worried, because I thought, ‘I'm not such a good painter’ … so I decided to do something else. … When you start painting, you have to fight an art history of 2,000 years at least, so I thought you have to be really inventive, if you want to try to say something new.
So, I started, actually, with photography, which was easier accessible, and then I found my path in experimenting a lot.
I was always interested in space, and I experimented with different materials, with photography. But I always tried to find some new formulation for the idea.
Q: What is the significance of the writing on the walls of ‘Multiple Voices?’
The texts are all from poets, like Indigenous poet Joy Harjo. Then, there is some from Steve Bellin-Oka and some from Kimberly Blaeser. The texts, the poems, are on the future, past, space, the space beyond. It's really about space in social and physical and in religious terms. …
I got in contact with Joy Harjo — first with her assistant, then we had this Zoom meeting — and I asked her whether I can use her poems. Same with Kimberly Blaeser; the same with Steve Bellin-Oka. I really talked to them and explained what the sculpture is about, how I want to use it and why. And this was great. They were very supportive and really wonderful.
Q: The text on the sculpture is blurred so that you can’t read it. Why is that?
I work a lot with blurred text. … I thought, ‘If it’s really close to the street. I’ll make text that’s just blurred.’ … Here, I thought, it's interesting, because people pass by, and they think, ‘Is this text? Is this an image? What is this?’ So, they have to stop, and they have to research. And we have this booklet here where you find all the texts readable. And this is great, so they can really find out what it means.
Q: What are your hopes for when people encounter this work of art?
They can photograph themselves, they can photograph their friends, whatever. It’s really more an interactive thing. … I hope that they are trying to read (about) what the space is, what the poems are about, that they're trying to research a little more about Indigenous poets, that they are actually playfully trying their body out when confronting the sculpture — and really searching for new space. Because this is what life is about, to find new ways of existing.
EVA SCHLEGEL’S ‘MULTIPLE VOICES’
When: On view through Jan. 13, 2025.
Where: Campbell Art Park, outside Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, 11 NW 11.
Admission: Free.
Information: https://oklahomacontemporary.org/exhibitions/current/eva-schlegel.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC reflected in Austrian artist's sleek sculpture 'Multiple Voices'
