Paul Leitner

Paul Leitner (*1983 Vienna, AT) elevates the status of everyday objects to art in new and unexpected ways. From a distance, Sucrologist may at first glance resemble some sort of fictitious map. If we look closer though, we see hundreds of sugar sachets from all over the world. These carry a wide variety of colours, languages and cultural symbols, reflecting the diversity of their various countries of origin. “Sucrologist” is the term for someone who collects sugar sachets and wrappers as a hobby. Nonetheless, the title of the artwork may suggest a scientific approach to the arrangement of these everyday objects, one that creates new constellations of shape and colour. Liberated from conventional notions of geographical boundaries, the viewer is free to explore the uncharted territory opened up by the artist’s powerful and creative imagination.

Light bulbs and their thermal effect are the motif of another artwork by the same artist. The installation Untitled (thermometer) consists of a rectangular steel frame upon which a row of 50 thermometers is mounted. A thermal image is created by the thermometers, which record the temperature as determined by the heat emitted from the four light bulbs mounted on the wall. The viewer themselves completes the picture as one bulb is wired to a motion sensor and lights up whenever someone approaches the artwork.