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’s slouched “flag” is one of a number of recent stained glass sculptures on view in his solo exhibition Terminal Classic at Sebastian Gladstone that reference major changes in the artist’s personal life and the U.S.’s tumultuous socio-political climate. Time becomes slippery as he taps into imagery that is both contemporary and ancient.
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.
The White House is also an apt symbol for clashes of ideals, as the more than 230-year-old building represents American democracy and liberty while also being a place of contradictions. Enslaved people worked alongside other laborers to build it—information that has now been entirely omitted from histories touted by the Trump administration. The current president is also frequently condemned for his authoritarian leanings and his disregard for the country’s democratic foundations.
In Fahler’s piece “Idyllic, Idealic, Idea lick, i’d eel lick, i deal ick,” the structure is viewed through its Pennsylvania Avenue fence. Flattened like a stage backdrop, the White House seems to fade into the background as our attention is continually drawn to its cage-like barrier. The building sits, in a sense, within a prison of its own making.
“Fences, gates, and beds all hold us in different ways—on our land, in our homes, in our sleep,” the gallery says. Fahler repeats the motif over and over, often using gates, chainlink, and window security grates to emphasize the contrast between inside and outside; confinement and freedom.
Terminal Classic continues through December 13 in New York City. Find more on Fahler’s website and Instagram.
