Rising stress levels, fear of the future, burn-out, depression, too much to do, scarce free time. Today, more and more people are experiencing phenomena of ‚acceleration‘. This collective term for a whole host of related effects is becoming the subject of an increasing number of self-help / non-fiction books, (scientific) articles, Instagram captions, TikToks, etc. Advertising above all else, of course. But you don’t even have to look that far: In exchanges with friends and family, the desire for rest and “slowing down” has become a big topic – Whether this “slow down” is just the wellness industry’s best recent slogan or maybe the new leisure activity of the burgeoning ’slow‘ industries (see luxury detox resorts, spa weekends, or ‚lite-mindfulness lunchtimes‘) – either way, it’s a phenomenon that is evidently on people’s minds. As part of ‚GOAT‘ – Timur Lukas‘ first solo exhibition with us – the artist is presenting a series of paintings that deal with the situation described in several ways. Lukas last presented works with us whose historical sujets dealt intensively with archival research. But now a clear shift can be seen.
During a residency in 2024, Lukas traveled to Portugal, where he found himself freshly confronted with the issues of deceleration and stress. Not only thanks to the self-sustaining yoga slowness community that populates the resort, but also thanks to such sights as silent groups of people staring at the ocean at dusk. Portugal’s empty beaches. This pause — a desire for casualness, Unverkopftheit/Headlessness — led Lukas to begin drawing the animals of the resort, with quick sketches and DIY paints from the hardware store. According to Lukas himself, this enabled him to work in a more detached way – self-limitation for the sake of self-liberation.
The combination with old habits back in the studio ultimately creates the hybrid form that is now on show. Characterized by the canvases that are almost ground down to paper – with champagne chalk and rabbit-skin glue as a primer – serving as an analogue to the sketchpad, his flat use of colour, ink quill and the animal motifs immediately create a clear framing that, however, does not detract from the naivety of the works. They provide enough structure for the eye to glide, rather than getting lost in the open lines and general playfulness.
Apart from their genesis and style, the selected animal motifs also tell of in-between moments – it usually remains unclear whether the animals are in motion, pausing, hesitating, wavering or even posing – but they capture the eyes with theirs over and over again, especially the eponymous goat.
Here, deceleration can be found in its highest form, not as a commodity, relief or meme, but as a true moment without temporality, pointing before and behind itself, as it were. Call it pause, intervention, distraction – what render these words and paintings as wirksam is a persistence within the latent, mere possibility. Perhaps it’s same thing that the people staring at the ocean are trying to locate, or our glance into the goat’s eye – the question is: who’s staring back?
TEXT: Fredi Thiele
