Harry´s Blog

Padhi at the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna 2007
“A genius is at work here - and nobody takes notice”
But now they are taking notice!
Padhi Frieberger’s One-Man Show

Padhi’s Key: “I not only conceived my work, I lived it.”

Padhi Is Here
(from the catalogue)

Herbert Kuhner

Charlie came first and then came Buster. Charlie pratfell and caused pratfalls, and he battered around with the heavies. Charlie had a mean streak but Buster was gentle. The Looney Tunes cartoon characters carried on in the roughhouse manner. Buster was the earnest and sincere one, always trying and failing and falling till maybe the end. There were the beauties that, in spite of his bashfulness and awkwardness, would sense the pure heart that beat in his breast and thus Buster was rewarded. Yes, Buster was pure of heart with innocent charm, and he had a grace of movement that had a touch of gamin. And Buster just kept on trying and trying again. There was no bilking or cadging.

Needless to say it was Buster who captivated me. But then I’m biased. Not that I wanted to be like Buster. I wanted to have a smooth ride, but due to my Buster qualities. I’ve always had a rough one.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Buster. Not Keaten, but Padhi. Buster, who still lives in his films, is long gone now, but Padhi is here, and he’s Buster to me.

Padhi is an artist like Buster, but he’s not an actor or comedian. Padhi is one of the greatest, if not the greatest artist producing today as far as I’m concerned. There may indeed be others with are similar to Padhi, but there couldn’t be another one quite like him. He’s an object artist, photographer, painter and collagist who is in harmony with his work. Padhi lives art. He’s as pure and innocent as Buster, and he does not compromise. He goes his way no matter how hard and painful it may be. Not that Padhi would not like to reap financial fruits, but he’s never stooped to pick them up if attaining them meant stooping. Producing art is more important to him than the monetary aspect. And he produces as well as he can without the benefits and accouterments that money brings. When Padhi works, he has art in mind, not the marketing or the dough or bread that comes from the marketing. For him, the art takes precedence over the marketing. And this is mildly put, since the art is created as art, and not merely as commodity to be sold.

For Padhi, art is very much connected to ethics and ethics are to be found in his work and ethics dictate his life style. I know how seldom these ingredients are combined, and I respect and love Padhi for what he does and what he is.

Padhi presents his social views in mail art collages that he sends out to his friends. lt is his way of commenting on the injustices that occur in the world. Padhi is committed to humanism as well as art, for the two are inseparable to him. Padhi goes against the grain. He is anything but “comfortable.” And for that there are repercussions.

Here is his autobiographical quote:

Critique of the meretricious:
The protagonist
ostracized
kept beyond the pale
and pushed onto a siding
by the organized “cultural establishment.

And here is my biographical quote:

Padhi Frieberger has been on the periphery of “the scene” for years, decades, always an innovator, always ahead of his time, continuing to work under conditions far from ideal, not letting lack of opportunities or recognition hold him back, not compromising or ingratiating himself to the powers-that-be, speaking and writing his mind regardless of the repercussions.

The mountebanks and the purveyors of mediocrity constantly plead for tolerance but invariably seem to be experts in blocking the exceptional artist. Nevertheless Padhi has persevered and endured. Padhi Frieberger does not follow, he leads. He has an innate feeling for rhythm and composition. Everything he touches turns to art, but there is no assembly line. Padhi does not mass produce.

Padhi Frieberger has my respect and admiration for his ability and integrity. I was struck by the brilliance and vitality of his objects, his photographic compositions and his verbal collages when I had the genuine pleasure of being confronted with his work and I was convinced that a book had to result from our meeting.

Padhi is gentle person; he can explode, but he cannot be malicious. Being malicious means using evil as a weapon, and that Padhi cannot do, for it is contrary to his gentle being. Padhi knows what injustice and suffering are. Padhi hasn’t told me much, but I am aware of what he has gone through. I know how cruel, how murderously cruel the savages of the art world are. Their cruelty knows no bounds when they encounter a man with talent and integrity.

There is a play about Padhi by a notable dramatist. He describes how a notable writer builds Padhi up and then causes him to fall. The Padhi of the play commits suicide, but the real-life Padhi is very much alive. It is the notable writer who committed suicide in life.

The bright glow of his work would melt the products of the charlatans who run the show, and they would by blinded at the sight of it. The mere presence of Padhi and his art, even though he does not have the media at his disposal, is a threat to them. Yes, as far as they are concerned, Padhi must be destroyed.

Young Padhi was buried in the basement of a bombed building in the last phase of the war before being dug out. And in post-war Austria the cultural powers-that-be did and do their best to bury him spiritually.

Padhi is referred to as “Padhi doesn’t show up.” I’ve heard this, and my answer is: he showed up in the beginning and he showed up after that, but perhaps now he doesn’t always show up. He doesn’t want to be promoted by a purveyor of junk and he doesn’t want his work to be part of a junk show.

That’s why Padhi must be kept on that siding.

As a coda for an article on the savages of the cultural establishment, I used the following Padhi quote:

The Nazis attempted to destroy art from the outside. Those who practice destruction today have taken over on the inside and destroy art from within.

Two friends of mine, who did not disagree with the view expressed, told me that his name did not bear enough weight for the climax. But Padhi hit the nail right on the head, and it’s the right quote to use. I told each of them that it was sad that the words of someone deprived of exposure weren’t heavy enough for them. And it is precisely the articulation of this view that insures exclusion from the media. And who, besides Padhi, would be courageous enough to express it?

I’ve never sought the company of the charlatans who hold sway in the art world. Padhi is more my style and he’s here as far as I’m concerned. Yes, Padhi is here. And I’ll stay with him.

And ditto for Fritz.

My friend Fritz Kleibel who has completed the first part of a film trilogy on Padhi says: “I’m glad that there is a Padhi, and that’s enough for me.”

I’m glad too and I’m doing a book with him. And I know that being teamed up with him means being teamed up with the finest. And again, ditto for Fritz!

We live in a society where art is a commodity, and the selling of the product takes precedence over its intrinsic value.

The paintings of van Gogh, who sold one painting in his lifetime, now sell for millions. But the work of this great artist, whose bitter life ended with suicide, is not bought and sold for its value as art. Van Gogh too, like the products of the charlatans who would not be worthy of licking his boots, is merely bought and sold as a commodity for the sake of speculation.

Padhi, who loves van Gogh, does not fit into the setup.

Fritz and I are well aware of the many obstacles since we too have Padhi qualities and have shared the repercussions that the establishment has in store for the likes of Padhi. For we too are dedicated to art, Fritz as a filmmaker and I as a writer. And if you are dedicated to art, you must be dedicated to Padhi.

* * * * * * * * * *
Fritz Kleibel

Fritz is a filmmaker in every sense of the word. He carries through from beginning to end. He’s his own director, cameraman, cutter and what-have-you. When he starts out, he knows where he’s going and he gets there by the hard work of doing the best he can. He has the ability, and the ability has to be there to start with, but it takes more than ability to create a work of art. It takes motivation and drive. Fritz knows his craft, and he never uses technique for its own sake or lets it dominate him. He has mastered the technical aspects, and he is always in command. He uses cinematic tricks, but when he uses them they aren’t tricks. He knows how to integrate them, and they always fit. They’re never obtrusive or irritating. Fritz has a natural feeling for composition and he knows that breaking the rules means adhering to rules. Fritz is a magician and not a conjurer. Making the magic entails hard and meticulous work. A conjurer uses sleight of hand. With Fritz, the magic is genuine. I know what Fritz is about since I use the same approach.

When I met Fritz and viewed the first sampling of his work, I knew we would hit it off, and we did. I thought that it would be marvelous if he could make a film about me. But I considered my life to trite to be an interesting subject. Yet Fritz took his camera along to two events in which I participated. The first was a jazz gig in ‘99 where I drummed and recited poems jazz poems and where guitarist Manfred Markowski exhibited his portraits of jazz musicians. In the second I took over the role of Jeremiah at the Archbishop’s Palace in Vienna. A villainous clergyman who had acted as caretaker of souls and patron for “artists”, who advocate and practice violence, was being “canonized” in a holier-than-thou atmosphere. I intruded by reading a rabidly anti-Semitic statement by the clergyman in question that the men in skirts would like to forget, and afterwards they did their best to forget. Fritz filmed the proceedings as only he could.

Fritz has the knack. That’s the trouble! He has to compete with those who don’t have the knack. The assembly-line people are running the show. And Fritz does not use the assembly line. He uses a camera in a way that makes it an instrument that could only be his. They call Fritz Andy Warhol. He has a shock of white hair like Andy. But the resemblance ends with the hair and the difference begins with the hair. As we know, Andy wore a white wig, but with Fritz, the hair is the real McCoy, and Fritz is the genuine article. Fritz wears T-shirts, jeans and a heavy leather jacket or coat. If I wore a jacket or coat like Fritz, the weight would drag me down to the floor. But Fritz bears that weight on his short slim frame. Fritz moves forward in slow motion. In addition to having the knack, he has decency and integrity, and is a loyal friend. These qualities do not insure quick movement. They are ballast in an artist’s career. The competition and their lackeys try to push him back, but yet he continues to move forward. And I know that as he goes along, he will move more quickly. Success and recognition are inevitable. Fritz is a small giant.

padhi.tv - Fritz Kleibel

Fritz Kleibel’s filmic exhibit, titled padhi.tv shown at Wienstation-Gürtelbogen 28 on June 2, 2007 consists of a series of short films from 2 to 5 minutes long. His subject matter is the Austrian object artist and photographer Padhi Frieberger. We see Padhi at various locations at work, washing pots, walking to a brook with a pail for water, opening and closing various doors, and so on. These are vignettes of the life of one of Austria’s great contemporary artists, if not the greatest, who has gone his own way in reflecting our society in plastic, wood, canvass, cardboard and what-have-you collages. Fritz and Padhi have much in common as artists. They can take pieces from here and there and put them together to form a composition in which all segments fit to make a whole.

Fritz calls his films TV-Streams, fragmentary Web-Movies and these in particular: Padhi-Casts. They are filmic short pieces, and each one tells a story that begins and ends with each cut, but yet continues to contribute to the entity of the whole film, which is a story in itself.

It is opportune that these artists have encountered each other to compliment each other.
Padhi-TV has combined the essence of two very individual artists. It is a combination that is as unique as it is essential.

Felling a Giant

For my friend Fritz Kleibel
the filmmaker

It’s not easy to fell a giant,
especially if you’re tiny,
but it can be done
if you are cunning
and you unite with your kind.

All you need is enough allies
who are your size,
the more, the better.

The Lilliputians
did it with Gulliver.

They bound him down
while he was asleep,
which is fine,
but if there are enough of you,
you can do the trick,
while he is awake,
with no danger to yourself
and those who are on your side.

All you have to do
is limit his movement
and keep him occupied
with trivialities.

That should be an easy task
for someone who doesn’t
need much room,
even if that someone
is a half-pint, a midget, a pigmy.

When someone
who is minuscule
works with a lot of others
who are like him,
they can do wonders together.

The trick is
to corral a giant spiritually
so that he doesn’t find an excuse
to use his strength.

If you do that,
you can limit his movement
and keep limiting it
until his strength is sapped
from shadow boxing
with his own shadow,
as well as those
of others.

The strain
of trying to focus
on blurry images
that assert and reassert themselves
not only impairs vision
but makes the toughest muscle flaccid.

And in the end
the giant
will be putty in your hands.

* * * * * * * * * * * *
October 24, 2007
Peter Noever
Director MAK

Dear Director Noever,

Congratulations on a great (in every sense of the word) exhibit!
The peaen in “Der Standard”:

Hier arbeitet ein Genie - und keiner merkt’s
A genius is at work here - and nobody takes notice

This is just the beginning. Now people will notice.

Padhi is finally getting the recognition he deserves, thanks to you and your staff.

Your opening words were excellent and accurate! You described Padhi as he is.

Wonderful organisation and arrangement by Maria Bussmann!
Top catalogue work by Maria Anna Friedl and Anna Mirfattahi!

Thanks to all for a singular morning! The museum was abuzz with enthusiasm.

Here’s an epigram from my Swing Men and Women jazz poems:

There can be art with anger,
but there cannot be art without love.

This is what Padhi and all concerned are about.

I am honored to have my piece on Padhi in the catalogue.

Sincerely,

Herbert Kuhner