Work presentation 2025
KS Room
"Fast people – I am one of them, not proud of it – better people are lazy and sleep with fish." – Karl Karner
Building on an intensive dialogue with nature, which was already explored in depth in Karner’s previous series “fichtengrün” and the accompanying exhibition “Fichtengrau”, the artist’s new work focuses even more on the dimension of time within this process. He examines the modern obsession with speed, efficiency, and the relentless pursuit of immediate results. In this context, nature, with its organic rhythms, stands in stark contrast to the frantic pace we impose upon ourselves. At the same time, Karner questions humanity’s role in this dynamic—our urgent need to exert control and constantly optimize conditions. In the exhibition, we encounter sculptures that seem to resist final completion, reminding us that time itself is not a limitation but a medium.
Karner further expands the structures of his sculptures, transforming them into self-contained spaces. Within their aluminum frameworks, hollow chambers emerge, carrying the potential to become habitats for insects and plants of various kinds. These sculptures are simultaneously complete and unfinished - an embodiment of our own dualities: ambition and patience, creation and destruction, learning and unlearning.
These reflections are further emphasized by the subtle temporal dimension of the works. Time appears as a medium—one we try to master but must ultimately submit to, especially in the face of a planet struggling to regenerate. The materials and organic elements used in Karner’s work highlight the tension between permanence and impermanence, illustrating the inseparable connection between growth and decay. Nature, untamed and self-determined, asserts itself over the sculptures, shaping and reclaiming them beyond the artist’s control. At the same time, Karner underscores our own agency, demonstrating how we can create structures that allow us to actively shape change.
