Tezos

Big🧵/ 1of1 phygital artwork 

eux.lui.elle.nous (them-him-her-us) 

Created between March 2022 and March 2024, this piece faced technical challenges due to the use of the world’s thinnest paper (2g/m²).

I also wanted it to be completed in one attempt, without any tests, requiring significant preparation.

Though I usually refrain from explaining my works, I wanted a text from someone who could offer their interpretation. I knew artist @ellii , who has years of experience writing about art.

I’m happy to share today this beautiful text by @ellii , written in May 2024.

The artwork was sold in early June 2024 by the blackprint gallery @blackprint / on @tezos

Mixed media artist. In love with charcoal, digital, AI, not necessarily in that order.

Deputy curator for 
@artcrush

linktr.ee/Ellii_art

Photography and Image-based Art Gallery.
Exclusive physical/digital artworks. 
https://linktr.ee/black.print.photo


Designed to evolve, built to empower - /tezos

"eux.lui.elle.nous”
The Fleeting Nature of the Self, the Other, and the Us

“eux.lui.elle.nous” is an exploration of temporality and the duality of presence/absence. Using the world's thinnest paper, Hidakawashi Tengusho, weighing just 2 grams per square meter, this piece proposes a delicate interplay between light, texture, and movement. It consists of four panels: the first one is empty, the second shows a woman alone on a bed, the third a man alone on a bed, and the last shows them together. When they are alone, half of the frame is empty, highlighting absence within presence.

"grossiga mpfa habla horem",
Karawane, Von Hugo Ball, 1916 
linktr.ee/wonow |

PFP: "Selfie disjunction"



Suspended from the top, the Hidakawashi Tengusho transforms the installation into a living entity. The panels respond to the slightest air currents, creating movement that evokes the changing dynamics of relationships. The transparency of the paper allows light to penetrate and move across the images, reappropriating texture in matter and light. This interaction breathes a muted energy into the figures, making them appear almost spectral, forgotten, passing by.

In the final act, the panels are set aflame, consuming the delicate figures. The act of burning not only destroys their physical representation but also underscores impermanence, reminding us of the ephemeral quality of all things, symbolizing the briefness of our intertwined lives and capturing the essence of mortality in our connections.

All these stages were intended to embody the themes of impermanence and spontaneity and to embrace randomness and unpredictability, core aspects of an improvisational performative practice. Based on a "single shot" approach, with no preliminary tests and a single video recording, the project faced numerous technical challenges, as it was intended to be realized in a single move process, and unique in the final result, without editions or artist's copies.

The innovation behind this work, printing on such thin paper, and integrating video and fire elements in this delicate medium, align the creation process with the conceptual foundations of the piece.

By redefining our perception of materiality and light, it invites meditation on the transitory beauty of life, love, connection, inevitable decay, and the subtle, often unnoticed changes that occur over time. In contemplating this piece, viewers are encouraged to consider their own experiences of loss, change, and the passage of time.

It proposes a reflection on the fragile essence of life and the evolving nature of our bonds. The use of this unique paper, akin to delicate fabric, enhances the veiled quality of the work and reflects human vulnerability, encouraging the observer to see through the habitual layers of perception.

“eux.lui.elle.nous” leaves the audience in a perplexing, elusive observation, yet pertinent in its beauty. By exploring textures as matter, transparency as evanescence, and temporality as transience, this piece questions and challenges our perceptual habits, encouraging visitors to confront the impermanence of their existence and their relationships with others.

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The social media policy did not allow me to properly share this work until now. 

The complete piece is available in the blackprint online gallery, 

https://www.blackprint.photo/buy-exclusive-black-and-white-photographs/kunstler_edition/wonow/eux-lui-elle-nous-edition-of-1/

and the three videos are featured in their "blackprint Phygital Collection" on objkt.com.

https://objkt.com/collections/KT1SJwR4oUWW844498JGTNKFHBYUchYGGthP

The second part of this work will be presented in June 2025 at Photo Basel / Art Basel.

Thank you to everyone who made it this far (first thread), and once again, a big thank you to @ellii for this text 🙌