In 'Terminal Classic,' Timo Fahler Grapples with Dualities and Contradictions

"In 2024, while Timo Fahler was out for a run in Los Angeles, he came across a discarded bedspring. It lingered in his studio for months until one day, its thirteen rows of springs revealed themselves as the red and white stripes of the American flag. It also turned out to be the last work he made in the U.S. before he and his family relocated to The Netherlands."

"Fahler often incorporates vibrant Mesoamerican motifs like skulls, serpents, and glyphs derived from Mayan codices. Through the likenesses of Mayan gods and imagery derived from ancient tombs, he explores dualities of past and present, ecological precarity, socio-economic and political divides, and the distances between people and places. Juxtaposed with centuries-old, non-Western motifs, Fahler also delves into deeply symbolic American iconography, like the Stars and Stripes and the bald eagle."

"The latter, of course, is also a profound symbol in many Indigenous American cultures, emblematic of courage and wisdom. And despite the Trump administration's rollbacks of environmental protections, the creature is also a stark reminder of the importance of conservation efforts. After dangerous pesticides reduced the total number of breeding pairs of bald eagles to only a little more than 400 in the 1960s, years of work by ecologists and a government-mandated ban on DDT finally allowed populations to rebound."

Timo Fahler created a slouched stained-glass bedspring flag in Los Angeles in 2024, the final U.S. work before relocating to the Netherlands. The Terminal Classic exhibition at Sebastian Gladstone presents stained-glass sculptures that combine vibrant Mesoamerican imagery—skulls, serpents, Mayan glyphs and gods—with powerful American symbols such as the Stars and Stripes, the bald eagle, and the White House. The works investigate dualities between past and present, ecological precarity, socio-economic and political divides, and the distances between people and places, allowing time and imagery to blur across ancient and contemporary references.

Read at Colossal