THE SECESSION GALLERY

Exhibition design and graphics for Emily Roysdon’s solo exhibition “Comedy of Margin Theatre” at the Secession in Vienna.

Summer Studio for Emily Roysdon

Background

Emily Roysdon (1977) is a New York and Stockholm-based artist and writer, working with with a variety of practices such as performance, photographic installations, text and video. Roysdon contacted Summer Studio to design a floor piece interpreting vocabulary from her text “Uncounted”, for her solo exhibition at the Secession Gallery in Vienna in 2015.

Summer Studio for Emily Roysdon Summer Studio the Secession Gallery

Floor piece 1

The floor piece, the exhibition’s largest component at 83 square meters, consists of two distinct parts. The first part combines an image of exaggerated legs, text and hand written notes that refer to the writings of Virginia Woolf, Charlie Parker, Richard Foreman, and Jack Smith.

Summer Studio the Secession Gallery Summer Studio the Secession Gallery

Logotype

The symbol O—O (“circle line circle”) stands in for Roysdon’s idea “how not to be the thing itself,” which is discussed in Uncounted and reflects her ethics of collaboration and improvisation. The floor design serves as a dramaturgical backdrop and setting for live actions.

Summer Studio for Emily Roysdon

Floor piece 2

The second part is a litany of text that may be read in either direction and introduces key terms for a discourse on theater, marginality, and improvisation. Visible in both floor pieces is the logotype - a sign that might belong to a system of choreographic notation.

Summer Studio for Emily Roysdon Summer Studio for Emily Roysdon Summer Studio for Emily Roysdon

Photos by Iris Ranzinger courtesy of Secession.