2002, "Hans Schabus," Eye Level

Hans Schabus, an emerging Austrian artist, has created a multi-media installation about his voyage to America.  Schabus' work, ...I Don't Look Back, I Look in Front... was presented at the James Cohan Gallery in New York as his American premier.  The installation includes nautical drawings, a photograph of the East River, a man-made boat, and a short film titled Western.  The film shows Schabus riding the installation's boat,"the Forlorn," through Vienna sewers accompanied by music from the film The Third Man (1938), a film about an American in Europe.  The film and installation represent a sailing adventure.  But after the Forlorn set sail in Vienna for only a few documentary minutes, Schabus docked it, had it shipped, and flew separately to America.  Upon his arrival in New York, he took the boat out into the East River and then into the gallery.  Schabus' sailing adventures were short exploits that were entirely safe and without motive, (compared with the ill fated trans-Atlantic sailing attempt by fellow European Bas Jan Adler who was never seen again).  ...I Don't Look Back, I Look in Front... is intentionally void of suspense and demonstrates the obsessive, adolescent style of performance and documentation used by the American Conceptual artists. Schabus celebrates contrived, anti-climatic adventure. His work indicates the limited capacity for risk, evident in both society and contemporary art of the moment.  There is really no one in danger on Survivor or nothing risky about a multi media installation, but the idea of adventure is certainly attractive.