A dozen Runestones
Titania Seidl and Lukas Thaler live and work in Vienna (Austria). Since 2019, they have also been working frequently in cooperative projects. Their works have already been shown at White&Weiss Gallery, Bratislava; Jan Koniarek Gallery, Trnava; Daihatsu Rooftop Gallery, Vienna; Bruch and Dallas, Cologne; Zone 1 Hamam, Vienna; and Centrum, Berlin. Their work is part of several international both public and private collections. In addition to their artistic practice, they run the MAUVE art space in Vienna since 2012.
TALK TO ME
In their joint artistic works, Titania Seidl and Lukas Thaler are particularly concerned with the staging of relationships and the resulting communication. Everything desires to speak to each other in these works, regardless of linguistic barriers. The objects are not only directed at their viewers, but also continuously address other objects that accompany them and the space that holds them. It is important to the artists that the “networks” created in this way never form an exclusive system. Also, the hermetic nature of the individual objects thus is always doubted. For visitors of their exhibitions, this method offers a multiplicity of associative moments and possibilities of interpretation. Even though both artists partially differ strongly in their expressions, they both unite in a certain “indecisiveness” — one could also call it “skilful balance” — between figurative and abstract sujets. This convergence makes it easily possible for them to combine their works into a new one, while some of the objects even form astonishing symbioses. The fact that most of the connections dissolve again after the shows are over is also part of the concept — Seidl and Thaler are indeed no fans of unambiguity and (boring) completeness.
AFFORDING CONSOLATION
With their exhibitions, Titania Seidl and Lukas Thaler open up numerous fields of discourse, recalling not least the theories of the sociologist and philosopher Bruno Latour (“Actor-Network-Theory” or “ANT” for short) or those of Michel Serres (“Quasi-Objects”). Both theorists describe in their work, in brief, the relations between object and subject not as a dualistic interplay of two separate bodies, but as objects asserting themselves, through the counterpart — ontological hybrids. Fortunately, to experience these effects, Seidl and Thaler do not necessarily require a (discontinued) philosophy degree. The signs set are usually easy to read for the viewer, sometimes almost immediately, which additionally enables a collective experience. For portal, Seidl and Thaler have engaged extensively with the question of possession, that is to say, the relationship between the one giving (away) and the one receiving. For this purpose they have designed a series of so-called “Runestones” which can be purchased here as NFTs. The twelve objects are the result of a fusion of ceramics (Thaler) and paintings (Seidl), which were digitally merged into a hybrid. The obviously artificial design of the three-dimensional bodies and the collage-like nature of the paintings layering over them, evoke the romantic images of artificial grottos and amusement parks, and thus play with the naive longings of the viewer — Titania Seidl even compares them to “worry stones”, which vicariously stand for a promise (of recovery) and thus represent an archetype of what we call a “token” in the age of crypto-currency. In this sense, Titania Seidl and Lukas Thaler’s project constitutes a successful attempt to reveal and explore the strings and contracts of our relationships with our environments. Have fun collecting and exchanging!
To see all NFTs and discover our other artist vistit: https://www.prtl.art/artists/titania-seidl-lukas-thaler
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