Making visible the invisible
Workshop talk with Denise Schellmann
Was mich im Innersten zusammenhält...VI. 2024. Graphite and colour pencil on paper. 36,7x59,4 cm. Photo (c) Denise Schellmann
Scetch from the Art & Science Department's archive
Colours & Lines | Studies III. 2024. Photo (c) Denise Schellmann
Denise, when did you decide to leave your first profession in pharmaceutical science and become an artist? And how did your passion for art start?
The idea of becoming an artist was right during my Phd theses. It started exactly in 2008, when I visited the Van Gogh Exhibition at the Albertina in Vienna. I was very inspired by his portraits. When I came home afterwards, I took a pencil and started drawing people
out of newspapers and magazines. I found out that I was quite talented in the technique and so my passion for drawing - and
later on painting- as a hobby began. I started taking courses and workshops in portrait painting.
It was a process that ran in parallel: While I was making progress in science, I was also starting my artistic career. In
2012, I met Loys Egg by chance. He was my teacher and mentor for 2 years and gave me private art lessons. I still remember our first meeting in
his studio. I respectfully showed him the portraits I had done up to that point, he looked at them and said: "Well, your work is okay and I can see you have talent. BUT: Forget the portraits! You come from a scientific background and
you have to bring art and science together in your work. Only THAT makes you unique as an artist!“ He told me to take a pencil and to practice drawing with very simple strokes. This was the start of my current drawing style.
When I finished my doctoral studies, it was clear to me that deep down I was an artist. I decided to follow this path with
all its consequences. In 2014, I took the entrance exam at the Art & Science masterclass at the Angewandte and was accepted
straight away.
Do you connect your pharmacy work with your artwork somehow, except visualization?
At the moment, I connect both fields mainly visually and - in some parts - on a very subtile level. I also have the idea to
make a conceptual work about pharmacy in general and about pharmaceutical companies. This topic provides a lot of material
especially on a political and critical level. I haven't had the brilliant idea for it yet. I'm sure it will come sooner or
later. Also I don't have the courage to do it at the moment because I'm still working part-time in the pharmaceutical sector.
It is quite important to find a constructive way to critisize without solely blaming, and to identify boundaries between healthcare industry and ethics.
Which was your latest project?
I finalised my latest and biggest project to date two weeks ago in February. The consulting company Accenture DACH invited me to design their Artstripe for the year 2025. This is an almost 40 metre long and 2.5 metre high canvas in their office. Once a year, an artist is commissioned
to design it. I created a hybrid of drawing and photo for this, „Crystal Vibrations“, which combines microscopic quartz crystals
and abstractly drawn shapes at the interface between art, science and technology.
Artstripe „Crystal Vibrations“, 2025 In collaboration with Accenture DACH
Some weeks ago I have met you at the Parallel Editions 24 in which you were exhibiting. Can you explain what Editions means?
An Edition means a specific version or form of a reproduced work or series. They are multiples such as prints, sculptures, books, postcards,
etc. At the Parallel Editions we could only present series of several media. Which means the artworks are cheaper compared to the originals; it is a low-threshold
access to art.
With a limited number of copies?
Yes.
What are you doing with your original works?
I was used to only sell original works. Print editions are a new field for me, which I am currently in the process of establishing. Especially the Hybrid 24 series. These are prints of microscopic photos, which I rework by drawing. I add colours and lines.
Imagine you make an edition from a certain work of e.g. 20 copies and you sell all of them. Later on, you'll have another request on this print. Would it then be possible to produce another set?
No. This is not possible. In such a case you have to be careful. It can quickly end up in fraud. I also don’t sell the original
works of my print series. I strictly make a difference between original drawings which I produce for prints and drawings that
I sell as unique pieces.
What kind of copy-shop and paper do you use for your prints?
A normal print-shop and fine art paper, it is called a pigment digital print. I send the original work, they scan and print
it. It is a reproduction process.
Maybe one can buy a book or a catalogue of your work later on?
I already made a catalogue in 2016. And I also have a brand-new portfolio in catalogue-format. (Download link below)
Kartoffeltierchen III. 2023.
Photo (c) Denise Schellmann
Photo (c) Denise Schellmann
Crossing Over V. 2024
Photo (c) Denise Schellmann
"For me, everything is drawing, no matter what medium I work with."
How would you describe your artistic style?
I make abstract drawings inspired by microscopic images. I created my own drawing language in colours and shapes, which is
unique. Besides classical drawings with pencil and paper I make stop motion videos, sculptures and performances.
You say that your sources of inspiration are images from the microscope?
Yes, somehow. But first of all, I must say that I do not illustrate images from the microscope. During my Phd thesis at the
department of Medicinal / Pharmaceutical Chemistry, I was working with the microscope a lot. I was synthesising new molecules
for cancer treatment in the lab. And I also grew cancer cells in a test tube. Analysing cell growth and crystal structures
was my daily business for a very long time. During this phase of my life, I fell in love with the microcosm. I almost inhaled
these images and was fascinated by their beauty. In art nowadays, I transform all these beautiful images, which I stored in
my heart, into my own drawing language.
What kind of samples do you put onto the microscope?
Oh, almost everything. I like different things from our daily life, e.g. hairs, dust, mold fungus, onion skins, etc. When
I was doing my pharmacy diploma we had to analyse every tea drug under the microscope. I am still fascinated by the beauty
and diversity of dried medical plants and substances. Sometimes I go to the forest and collect samples from leaves or water
ponds and soil. There I often find living microbes of which I take videos or photos under the microscope.
In June 2023, I was part of the exhibition HUMAN_NATURE at Künstlerhaus Vienna with the live performance Tracing the Invisibles. I collected water samples from several waters in Vienna. I put drops of each water under the microscope and projected the
live video onto a big paper, which was fixed on the floor. Then I traced the microbes with pencil on the paper. The outcome
were beautiful abstract and very colourful drawings which profiled our microcosmic surrounding in Vienna.
You are mainly drawing with colour pencil?
Yes, colour pencil and graphite.
Traces of Invisibles. 2023.
Traces of Invisibles @Künstlerhaus Vienna. 2023.
Photos above (c) Frédérique Neuts
Photos above (c) Frédérique Neuts
Dyptich Storytelling I. 2024. Photo (c) Denise Schellmann
Are you open for other techniques?
Yes, but for the moment I am only interested in dry techniques, which is more direct.
"I don’t erase something I have drawn. In my drawing there is no correction and no embellishment. Every stroke has its raison d'être. It is what it is. That's what fascinates me about pencil and colored pencil."
Tea Time I (3/3), 2024, Graphit, Farbstifte, Pigmentdruck auf Hahnemühle Papier 25 x 15 cm
Can you imagine drawing figurative?
I started with it some months ago. I want to get new insights and inspirations and I want to get a new feeling for shapes and shades. I think therefore it is a very good practice. But I don’t plan to change my drawing style into a figurative one.
Which other projects are you currently working on?
At the moment I am working on my Hybrid prints, which I mentioned before. They are photos of microscopic images on which I
am drawing. And I am also working on a project for a big company, which I I am not allowed to explain in detail by now. It
will be published in February.
Do you find your projects or do they find you?
Most of the time they find me.
When you start an artwork, do you usually have a concept? Do you know what you want to draw?
No. I am more the intuitive type of person, artist and also scientist. Sometimes I experience a kind of flow-state during
my working process.
So you have this state of „muse“ in which you can really forget everything around you?
Yes. Not always, but often. It is a state where I forget space and time and everything around me. I think this is the moment,
where art & science and everything else become one. When I finish an artwork, I may be surprised about the outcome. Only afterwards
I start thinking about it. During the drawing process I try not to think anyway.
If I like something within an intuitive drawing of mine, I try to make new versions and a series out of it. This subsequent
drawing process is - of course - conceptual and no longer intuitive.
Do you keep your works in an archive? Do you document your work?
Yes. I document everything in my archive. Good documentation is important to me. I learned this during my doctoral thesis
at the department of pharmaceutical Chemistry. Back then, I had to chronologically number every single substance that I synthesised
in the lab. I have now adopted this method into my studio and number each individual drawing.
Would you then call your individual artworks an opus?
Yes you can say so.
It seems you are a very accurate person.
Yes, I am.
Photo left: Denise in her studio showing me one of her "hybrids". 2024
What means ART, what means SCIENCE to you and how to you bring those two fields together?
This is the essential question in my art and also in my life. For my master thesis The Arscientic Andism - my romantic manifesto I wrote a manifesto about this topic, which ended up in a short film. You can read it on my website and also watch the film.
Movie-Poster of The Arscientic Andism
Design (c) Petra Rautenstrauch
Design (c) Petra Rautenstrauch
You finished your master at the Art & Science department in 2019. Can you tell us something about your master thesis?
During my time in the Art & Science master class I always wondered what „Art & Science“ means and if there is a general definition
for it. Well, I found out there is not. There are not many artists who have a deep insight into scientific research in natural
sciences AND in arts like I have. So I took the chance and tried to find out what it means to me personally. I created The Arscientic Andism – my romantic manifesto, a humanistic but serious video performance and written manifesto on working in the space-in-between as a scientist and artist.
It was awarded and selected at several film festivals worldwide. Too bad it was during the pandemic. I couldn't attend any
of the events in person.
What was your highlight during the time at the Art & Science department?
Oh, this is a nice question! My most exciting experience was the cooperation with CERN, the nuclear research center in Geneva, Switzerland. After our regular year project in 2017 with the Art & Science class, I extended my work to a 3-year cooperation. I could do a lot of artistic research for my master thesis with them, and was part of several exhibitions together with Daniela Brill. My installation Reality was exhibited in their control center in Geneva.
Photos left & middle (c) Peter Kainz. 2019: Stills from the Master's project film. Photo right: Studio in Vienna, 9th
Do you still meet former Art & Science colleagues?
Yes, every now and then I am in contact with Daniela Brill. In 2021, I had an exhibition together with Rafael Lippuner, which was very nice. The title was (YOU) made my day. and we exhibited in the gallery contemporary 12-14, 1040 Vienna. During all the Covid lockdowns we wanted to show something cheerful and make the visitors smile and delight them. I was
sewing 21 soft sculptures, which were presented in a shelf. The sculptures I called butterflies and people were allowed to touch and to play with them.
Last year in June 2024, I randomly met Monica C. LoCascio again. We both were invited by Simon Rees to be part at the exhibition The Window and The Couch by 74th arts (Becca Hoffman). It was an exhibition about Sigmund Freud’s life. I was invited to make an artwork about Freud’s cancer of his oral cavity
(freud was a heavy cigar smoker.) My artwork was a diptych called „Freud & Leid“, in which I contrasted vitality and destruction at the cellular level.
To conclude, would you like to tell us something about your private life?
Yes. Sure. I live and work in Vienna. My studio is in the 9th district and I also have a second working space now at my partner’s
house in the 14th. A very inspiring, beautiful place, next to the Wienerwald, where I can find a lot of research material
for my microscope and my drawings.
Thank you very much Denise, for the talk here in your studio. It was a pleasure.
(YOU) made my day.
Photo (c) Denise Schellmann
Photo (c) Denise Schellmann
Dyptich Freud und Leid. 2024. Photo (c) Denise Schellmann
DENISE SCHELLMANN
@deniseschellmann
www.deniseschellmann.com
Denise Schellmann @Art&Science
Interview and photos (unless otherwise stated): Gerda Tschœrdy Fischbach. February 2025
Transcription of the audio file by Denise. THANK YOU!
