Fernweh: Crystal Lupa Solo Exhibition

Our relationship with the faraway sometimes begins with something as simple as finding a place to sleep. At night, as we lie down, the unfinished thoughts of the day remain with us. A pillow supports the weight of the head and neck, while small shifts of the body help us find a position in which we can finally relax, if only for a moment. TKG+ Projects is pleased to present Fernweh, a solo exhibition by Crystal Lupa that takes this everyday search for comfort as a starting point for imagining elsewhere.

At one point, Lupa began collecting words associated with different emotions as a way of making sense of her own feelings. Among them was Fernweh, a German word combining fern, meaning “far,” and Weh, meaning “ache” or “pain,” to describe a deep longing for distant places. Finding an unfamiliar word for a feeling that was both recognizable and difficult to articulate resonated with her attraction to the unknown. The faraway may be encountered through travel, reading, images, or dreams. A place can occupy the imagination long before it becomes part of our lived experience. While familiar surroundings can offer a sense of security, they can also limit our perception. The unfamiliar, though sometimes unsettling, can awaken curiosity and a desire to explore. This longing does not necessarily arise from dissatisfaction or a wish to escape. It can also offer a new perspective on everyday life, creating room to breathe and the possibility of moving forward.

Bringing together more than 100 works, including works on paper, the PILLOW SERIES, and oil paintings on wood panels, the exhibition explores how imaginings of the faraway take shape through different materials and forms. Dozens of works on paper extend along an entire wall of the gallery, tracing the development of Lupa's visual ideas and explorations. Presented in dialogue with works in other media, they invite viewers to follow the connections and variations between images, revealing how feelings gradually develop into ideas and continue to evolve through changes in material and form.

The PILLOW SERIES unfolds through a process with a rhythm reminiscent of factory production. From the moment Lupa encounters a piece of fabric, its color, texture, and feel begin to spark associations. Through printing and dyeing, quilting, padding, and wrapping fabric around canvas, she constructs three-dimensional, pillow-like forms. She then selects one according to her feelings each day, in a ritual much like choosing a pillow before going to bed. The space reserved at its center becomes an opening into a liminal space, making room for a dream yet to come. The painted images emerge from associations first prompted by the materials, allowing the entire process of making to shape the meaning of the work. As painting enters these soft objects, the visible stitches and padded forms evoke visual and tactile memories of bedding and the body's familiar encounters with fabric.

French philosopher Gaston Bachelard's exploration of intimate spaces in The Poetics of Space offers a way of approaching these works. The meaning of a space is shaped not only by its physical dimensions but also by the lived experiences, memories, and imaginings it holds. Seen in this light, a pillow can open onto an inner space where reverie unfolds. While the painted images draw the viewer's gaze inward, the sheen, folds, and thickness of the surrounding fabrics bring attention back to the physical object. The stains and traces left by plant-based dyes remind Lupa of sweat and saliva marks left on bedding after sleep, giving dreams, however fleeting, a tangible presence in waking life. The surrounding fabric both defines the boundaries of the image and contributes to the work's meaning. Through this movement between material and imagination, the faraway remains connected to the here and now.

Returning to the pillow, the intimate object that first set this exploration in motion, the exhibition considers how something familiar can become a point of departure for elsewhere. Amid the shifting tensions of distance and proximity, the faraway remains intertwined with everyday life, offering something to look toward in the days ahead. Beginning with the making of a familiar object, Lupa's process brings together material experimentation, repetitive labor, and improvisation. As the painted image enters the space prepared for it, these different stages of making come together, giving the work its final form. Life may never be entirely within our control, and the search for comfort continues. In Lupa's work, this ongoing capacity to adjust between stability and change becomes a survival strategy, a way of continually reshaping our relationship with the world.