Notes and texts by Ole Ukena.https://oleukena.com/en-ushttps://oleukena.com/writing/across-classes/https://oleukena.com/writing/across-classes/I trained at UdK in Lothar Baumgarten's class. That is incomplete. From the beginning I attended Sieverding, Experimentelle Medien, Steyerl, Daniel Richter, and architecture classes I was not enrolled in. The cross-disciplinary practice started in the cross-class education.Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://oleukena.com/writing/on-distributed-authorship/https://oleukena.com/writing/on-distributed-authorship/The work is made by hands that are named. Bali studio, UKENA's seven-layer chain, Most Realistic Alien as the 2009 prototype. The named chain is the work, not labor hidden under one signature.Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://oleukena.com/writing/on-the-hand-mark/https://oleukena.com/writing/on-the-hand-mark/The chalk drawn fast on dark fabric is the through-line. From early drawings to the textile work in Bali, the same rule: don't think, don't redo, don't lift. The line crosses to another hand. The gap is the work.Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://oleukena.com/writing/2010-2013-prototype-period/https://oleukena.com/writing/2010-2013-prototype-period/Between 2010 and 2013 I made a series of small textile-conceptual works that I thought of as experiments. I now think they were the prototype. Everything that scaled up in Bali after 2017 was already there, in miniature.Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://oleukena.com/writing/two-registers/https://oleukena.com/writing/two-registers/For twenty years I have made work in two directions. The diptych operation across every register, the inverse of LeWitt as the textile practice's structural claim, and the frames as work in the erweiterter Kunstbegriff tradition.Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://oleukena.com/writing/why-i-built-air/https://oleukena.com/writing/why-i-built-air/I built AIR because the residency itself was the artwork I wanted to make. The frames are not branding and not businesses on the side. They are the work, and they are how I afford to keep making the studio work without depending on the gallery system.Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://oleukena.com/writing/ideas-and-concepts-that-are-born-through-sleep-and-moving-landscapes/https://oleukena.com/writing/ideas-and-concepts-that-are-born-through-sleep-and-moving-landscapes/I noticed that there are two places where I seem to get most of my ideas from and I am not sure yet how they are connected. So to share a bit about how I walk through life a bit of the backstory: I always have this nerdy looking fanny with me and in it I carry a little black sketchSun, 09 Jun 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://oleukena.com/writing/killing-the-myth-of-the-suffering-artist/https://oleukena.com/writing/killing-the-myth-of-the-suffering-artist/I am not really sure who started this whole trend of the "suffering artist" and that somehow the self image of a creative person is a lot of time linked to the idea of enduring hardship and pain. Society loves the stories of artists that kill themselves or have some mental issuesThu, 27 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://oleukena.com/writing/aonde-vamos-exhibition-galeria-lume-sao-paulo/https://oleukena.com/writing/aonde-vamos-exhibition-galeria-lume-sao-paulo/Vernissage: 1st Dec  13HTue, 27 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://oleukena.com/writing/theartistresidency/https://oleukena.com/writing/theartistresidency/Bang Lamung, ThailandThu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://oleukena.com/writing/colombian-wall-flair/https://oleukena.com/writing/colombian-wall-flair/Cartagena, ColombiaTue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://oleukena.com/writing/museo-del-oro/https://oleukena.com/writing/museo-del-oro/One lasting impression in my recent stay in Bogotá was the Museo del Oro. It displays an extraordinary selection of its pre-colombian artworks - the biggest in the world. I had seen them in books before but now being surrounded by them by such large numbers was something very difThu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://oleukena.com/writing/real-thread/https://oleukena.com/writing/real-thread/A piece containing text in combination with material can translate to a kind of associative puzzle that awaits to be deciphered by the viewer. The material I chose for this piece was carefully selected to reveal the story it represents, the story of its nature. Here is the story Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://oleukena.com/writing/the-ideal-city-project/https://oleukena.com/writing/the-ideal-city-project/Collaborative Ping Pong Mural / Chalk on Stone / India, 2011Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://oleukena.com/writing/the-timeless-project-in-varanassi/https://oleukena.com/writing/the-timeless-project-in-varanassi/Some projects are born in seconds, other ones in minutes. Very few take decades. The “Timeless” project has, of course, taken time to materialize, but—as its name might suggest—the perception of time itself happened to be the project’s subject. I carried this project idea with meMon, 04 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT