HQ gallery is pleased to announce Trophicana, a single sculpture show by the German-Romanian artist Felix Toth. The title Trophicana is a play of words that reflects notions of a promised land and triumphal success that are both cynically countered in the austere appearance of the sculpture. The actual artwork appears to be a mixture between a cat tree and a partially assembled trophy. Various transparent plastic tubes are standing in a discarded cardboard box; a black turtleneck sweater, covered with white hair, is thrown onto the lower portion of the sculpture. It’s top is crowned by a big screw, whose thread points blankly upwards. The actual signifier for triumph is missing; the trophy as such becomes a neglected pedestal whose new function might be to satisfy the needs of pets or serve as extended closet. The title and the sculpture constitute an oscillating relationship, which conveys the dialectics of triumph and relapse, luxury and shortage, fulfillment and lack, presence and absence.

Felix Toth’s work usually operates in the mode of mock or sham-referentiality. The ability to resemble the quality of other substances or things is essential to his work. The contrast between organic and inorganic material as well as between surfaces of different substances is a crucial aesthetic quality as well. Felix Toth’s art comes with a gesture of understatement; its fragile, light-hearted, almost coincidental appearance defies the meticulous working process that stands behind it’s existence. A couple of booklets accompany the sculpture like sham manuals of construction. These booklets are the result of a joined authorship between the artist, the curator and the gallery owner. Rather than to serve as guides for interpretation, they scout the way into other territories, they offer a multitude of possibilities of completion – welcome to Trophicana!