The new presentation is a project by artist Pae White titled OTHERS.  White has selected works-on-paper and three-dimensional objects  from the MAK Permanent Collection whose authors are principally  unknown. White is “intrigued by objects within the museum’s collections  that are un-attributable, without clear authorship, yet remain  part of the collection. The significance of the objects is clear, but, to  me, their place in a historical narrative is not.” Equally, White is interested  in the role of critics and curators in the formation of narratives,  which exclude objects of ambiguous value in order to create clearer  histories. A major focus of White’s exhibition is the MAK’s extensive  holding of Japanese stencils (katagami), largely unauthored works  on paper that have inspired several generations of European artists  and artisans in their designs for textiles, coverings, and book illuminations.  Pae White affirms that OTHERS is an attempt to rescue some  of these objects, from relative obscurity, and to let them bask in the  light of day. 

In the end, OTHERS is less about the redemption of objects and more about offering the viewer (and the objects) the space to breathe, proposing the poetic silence of the unknown, and opening up a space, freed from the tyranny of history, in which these lovely, mostly anonymous creations can be viewed on their own terms.
—Pae White, Vienna, November 2012

Guest Curator Pae White


VIENNA 1900. Viennese Arts and Crafts 1890–1938
New Presentation of the MAK Permanent Collection
(21.11.2012–23.06.2013)