Using labor-intensive handmade-collage techniques, Sebastian Wahl’s multilayered resin encapsulated collage works harmonize concentric composition strategies with elements of landscape and narrative. Imagery from pop culture, religious iconography, organic forms, and assorted psychedelia are remixed into mandala-esque compositions from which topographies emerge. Unexpected referential juxtapositions and playful shifts of content and scale create a viewing experience that is at once disorienting and contemplative.
Wahl’s astonishingly detailed works are culled from a collection of hand made papers and images that he began obsessively hoarding over 20 years ago. Wahl meticulously isolates the images from their original reality by cutting them out using an x-acto knife and then injecting them into a new reality. Each image within the collages is suspended in time and space floating within the resin. The process he developed in 2006 lends a three-dimensional quality to the works and a sculptural feeling to the finished pieces.
