exhibited:

31.10.–21.12.2024 LUKAS THALER ooze, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Vienna, AT



“Soluble Subjects” is a series of works ongoing since 2023. The objects, reminiscent of fragments of scenery or facades, explore a sculptural approach to painterly principles such as space, light, illusion, and representation. Diverse textures, drops, lumps, or chunks hint at various materials that only appear to exist in different consistencies or states of matter. They reveal material conditions such as hard, soft, solid, or (viscous-) liquid. The surfaces appear partly ephemeral and mutable, like snapshots within a changing process, as if in the process of dissolving themselves.



The works bear multiple overlapping manual and mechanical interventions. Traces of intuitive, hand-drawn gestures blend with machine-generated engravings and cuts. The layered strata are visible traces of a temporal process, with each gesture stored in the material. Openings in the surface, such as handholds, reveal both the structure of the pieces and the wall on which they hang. Engraved words and text fragments run throughout the series, arranged like loose book pages or stone tablets. These fragments resemble dedications addressing the viewer, comments, phrases, references, speech bubbles, stage directions, or subtitles. The works position themselves as mediating characters or figures that reflect on their own nature, readability, and potential interaction with them. Text and texture become vehicles for a loose narrative.



The objects in the series function as autonomous works but can also be arranged in chapter-like groups, creating a loosely connected sequence.