Value, such an abstract thing

“Making websites for projects is not just fun, but also a tangible record of my projects. Website is almost a medium for me,” she remarks.

Tell us something about your background and how you landed in Vienna.
I was born and raised in Karlsruhe. After finishing school, I moved to Bolzano, Italy and I studied Design & Art at the University of Bozen-Bolzano. Then I did Erasmus in Budapest at MOME. There was officially a photography department, but I also “mastered” master courses in media art even though I was still in my bachelor. Somehow, it was the first time that I got in touch with interactive installations and crazy things. Once, I visited a friend in Linz, and this was my first time having such a deep insight into an art university, and then I said, “Uau, great”. This is exactly what I was looking for. I could stay there 24/7. An utopian space with endless freedom somehow. I did then my Master’s degree at the Faculty for Textile Art and Design but did not do a diploma in textile art. I like different mediums and find it weird when people approach you with the question: “What is your medium?”. “Painting or Sculpture?” I say: anything else than painting.

How did you come to Vienna?
Initially, I came for a residency at Burggasse 98, and then I decided to move here. I already knew the city a bit from my visits and it was nearby.

Do you have such a thing as a Stammbar (local bar)?
I don’t know how I ended up there. I celebrated my birthday at Café Savoy; it has a very Viennese atmosphere with Jugendstil interior, super queer and open, and also mixed and diverse. I’m not there regularly, but it always feels good to be there.

Where do you take your inspiration, and which topics are you dealing with?
At a space where I have worked recently, they also wanted some kind of artistic statement, and I realized that my work is not just for consumption culture but also production culture. When I work with fashion, I always work with old textiles, but also with art that deals with sustainability, I don’t only work with waste materials, but I’m dealing with questions like what is waste, what has value? Value such a vague and abstract thing.

Is there a material you have discovered in the last few years that you have fallen in love with?
One material that I like is plastic. I started to work with it in Linz for the first time. What I enjoy is the material itself, its features like melting, and the fact that you don’t need any additional materials to create shapes. You just melt it, and then it shows these crazy features by itself. What excites me about plastic is also its ability to contrast. I also like its soft colors. And it is also innocent in a way. And I think this is such a witty contrast because it’s not innocent at all.

I like your ability to bring beauty to waste. Many people connect waste with ugliness while you make it interesting and give it a beautiful approach.
Thank you for this. If you have sometimes very uncomfortable topics, that you want to speak about, maybe nicely present them, so that people enjoy looking at them.

How is the process when you are creating?
I am very good at structuring myself, as soon I start to think of how to visualize things, the first excitement arises somehow. And then, when I get practical, it even increases and sometimes increases so much that I start to feel sleepless, but not because I’m panicking. For me, making art is a very pleasurable process.

Where do you store your sketches?
Usually, I throw them away. There inside, you also find my work schedules, and they are all mixed. As soon as the projects are done, I throw them. I may keep just the sketches for those things I haven’t done.

Tell us something regarding your free time, outside art maybe.
Prosecco and sunshine are relics from Bolzano. Sunglasses on. My fuel, my engine. I enjoy living so precarious but still drinking Prosecco.

Nina McNab – www.ninamcnab.com, www.instagram.com/vaq2k19/

Note: This text is part of our WallArt Journal #1, which we specially produced for the Hybrid Art Fair 2024 in Madrid. You can find copies around Vienna, or if you want to have one, feel free to contact us.

Les Nouveaux Riches, in collaboration with PARALLEL VIENNA and with the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum in Madrid, presents a group exhibition featuring four artists at the Hybrid Art Fair 2024 in Madrid: Alessandro Albrecht, Carli Fridolin Biller, Felix Schwentner, and Nina McNab.