the cow eat not the honey
The sculpture the cow eat not the honey grows, resonates, and tells stories – of bees and trees, of wounds and healing, of beings suspended between nature and imagination. As part of the FEED series, this work demonstrates how closely material, process, and interaction are interwoven in Karl Karner’s practice.
Karner’s enigmatic titles often point to questions that link social structures and developments with issues of environmental protection. Animals – in this case bees or cows – play a central role in his work, appearing both as metaphors and in the physical traces embedded within the sculptures. Within the broader context of the FEED series, “feeding” signifies not only nourishment but also passing on, sustaining, and continuation. Karner’s works can be conceived as open structures that can be claimed and extended by nature itself – as nesting sites, water basins, or surfaces to be overgrown.
The treatment of the sculpture’s surface reflects this same idea. Tree resin - a substance that emerges only through injury - forms one layer, as does verdigris. After subsequent treatment with liver of sulfur, a matte patina emerges instead of a glossy shell - one that carries within it a narrative of vulnerability, healing, and transformation. Bronze, traditionally associated with permanence, acquires an additional acoustic dimension in Karner’s hands: as a resonant body, the sculpture can be struck, played, and set into vibration. It becomes not only a visual object, but also a resonant chamber for rhythm, sound, and physical experience.
for Enter Art Fair, Copenhagen
collaboration with Crystin MoritzMonumental from a distance, the work unfolds into a richly detailed scene upon closer inspection. Casts of feet, appearing like shadows fallen to the ground, invite viewers to enter this landscape. A multitude of natural forms – honeycombs, branches, mullein plants – emerge, while ghostly creatures rise from the surface. They imbue the sculpture with a surreal, almost dreamlike quality, situating it within an intermediate realm that is neither purely nature nor imagination. The installation is further expanded through a video work by Crystin Moritz, who employs AI-based processes to generate hybrid visual worlds. For this project, she merged her own visual language with Karner’s drawings, texts, and sculptures, creating hybrid figures that oscillate between human and natural form. The result is a vision of body and environment merging into one another – a scene that feels almost alien to our present, in which such closeness is increasingly avoided, and which ultimately challenges the boundaries between the organic and the artificial.
Karl Karner & Crystin Moritz
Hybrids, 2025, 1:01 min
Single-channel video, color