those irrevocable words-

text by katharina weinstock

    A jumping-jack suspended in mid-air within the theatrical space of a display case. His weak-willed limbs are floating graciously, hands empty, a heart-shaped hinge screwed over his mouth: a dumb puppet, a lovefool, or worse – a people-pleaser? Tobias Koenig’s guileless wooden man conflates the Victorian toy with the silhouette of a minnesinger, evoking a medieval stereotype of love and masculinity. Meanwhile, a dreamscape-like background, rendered in the colour palette of bruised skin, depicts the labour of love and care as a quite different experience. In pitting a raw form of devotion against its culturally rehearsed performances, “Those Irrevocable Words” envisions love beyond power relations... read more