Florian Nörl

«Textilstein» (textile stone) is a material specially developed by Florian Nörl that redefines the boundaries of the textile medium in the visual arts. The "Textilstein" finds its place at this interface with an interaction of sculptural and pictorial engagement with the textile material. Through a special process and technology, the feel is velvety, and the surface is reminiscent of "stucco lustro" from a distance. Only through touch can the viewer really understand the textile material.

The textile stone is a layering of memories," explains artist Florian Nörl. The "textile stone" is created in a process in which pieces are cut from multi-layered rolls of fabric, usually donated bed linen, placed in a frame, soaked in a special liquid, and pressed for several months. The image mass hardens, and the loose scrolls turn into ornamental fabric inlays. "Postmodern material is transformed into contemporary art," Nörl emphasises.
Finally, the textile character is brought back to the small-scale surface through rough sculptural treatment. The colourful, tightly packed spirals whisper of softness in transition to hardness and dance between image and sculptural object. In the series "sedimental", Nörl makes direct references between the formal structure of his works and the geological formation process of sedimentary rock. With "but...fly'?" he uses individually depicted butterfly wings, which refer to a missing dimension, to address socially relevant issues such as human flight or the extinction of endangered non-human creatures.

Nörl studied textile.art.design at the Linz University of Art. Since 2020, the textile artist has been working in a studio in the Egon Hofmann House in the Dörfl in Linz. During an art scholarship from the Federal Ministry, Nörl came to the Hartheim Institute for six months in November 2021. Together with the Institute's clients, I create works of art. The aim is to gain a new perspective on one's own work and to experience a creative exchange together." Florian Nörl regularly presents his works at international exhibitions and art fairs. From April, his pictorial objects can be seen at the Hofburg Innsbruck and in the summer in a large solo exhibition in Görlitz (Germany). In the Dumas Living Room Gallery in Linz/Urfahr, Nörl's "Textile Stones" can be experienced all year round in a cosy atmosphere.

In their materiality, the spiral-shaped textile snails tell a story of evasion, resisting, letting go and ultimately resigning oneself to permanent adaptation. An inescapable being pressed against each other, a moment in which individual softness's solidify into a hard conglomerate mass and their exhaustion materialises in the textiles. A moment in which, according to Nörl, "contemporary gems" are created. The fingertip traces contours of small snails and suddenly feels the hardness of their structure. It senses associations of shimmering smoothness that penetrate from a roughened, frayed pictorial mass.
(Text: Cultural Report of Upper Austria, Victoria Windtner, 03/2022)

Florian Nörl: infinity wave / Textilstein Technik, 4x 140 x 190 cm, 2017-2020 \\ Exhibition view Max Planck Institut Martinsried/München 2020

Florian Nörl: time interval / Textilstein Technik, 280 x 200 cm 2021