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Phantomspeisung – Lukas Gartiser, Paul Laakmann, Paul Schuseil
Location: EMDE GALLERY - Mainz
The Emde Gallery is pleased to open its 2026 exhibition programme with the group exhibition "Phantomspeisung" (engl. phantom power), presenting works by Lukas Gartiser, Paul Laakmann and Paul Schuseil.
The term "Phantomspeisung" originates from audio engineering and refers to a power supply for microphones that is transmitted via the microphone cable. It is this hidden energy supply that enables certain types of microphones – so-called condenser microphones – to perform their function, allowing fleeting acoustic events such as speech or singing to be captured, transmitted, and made audible.
In the exhibition, this technical term becomes a metaphor for those hidden forces, structures and connections that, through their work in the background, make processes possible in the first place without themselves appearing directly. The term "Phantomspeisung" seems contradictory at first glance: while "Phantom" refers to something invisible or intangible, "Speisung" (engl. feeding) refers to something very concrete and physical. It is precisely this tension that forms the central starting point of the exhibition.
We, too, are surrounded by numerous forces that are invisible to us but influence and drive our actions. Much of what we hear, see or consume every day is based on the energy of electric current and the processing of digital signals: algorithmically curated music playlists, personalized video feeds and even AI-supported financial systems all have an impact on our lives. These forces are invisible, but their effects are real – emotionally experiential, physically tangible and existential. They open up new possibilities, create access and visibility, but at the same time they guide us, dictate patterns, limit us or create dependencies. Beyond technological infrastructures, social norms, cultural influences and historical inscriptions also shape our perceptions, decisions and scope for action.
This complex interplay of cause and effect is taken up and concretized in different ways by the three artists. Technical elements such as plugs and cables, organizing grids and fragments, as well as plant and organic forms refer to different ways of connecting, guiding and structuring. They make visible how deeply our lives – not only in technical terms – are permeated by such often hidden systems.
The exhibition flyer developed by the artists already visualizes this ambivalence and symbolically links the positions of the three artists: The USB symbol used there – a trident formed from a circle, triangle and square – exemplifies an everyday form of phantom power, in which energy and data are transmitted in parallel (analogous to the XLR cable in audio technology, which simultaneously conducts audio signals and supplies energy).
At the same time, it refers to Paul Schuseil's ceramic plug works. A small leaf sprouting from one of the three cable strands provides a contrasting accent – a tongue-in-cheek reference to Lukas Gartiser's drawings, which add an organic dimension to the concept of phantom power. The underlying grid, in turn, refers to the works of Paul Laakmann, in which the organizing structures that guide our gaze are questioned.
Lukas Gartiser engages with hidden supply and connection systems, but less in a technical sense than in an organic and metaphorical one. His works arise from an attempt to capture his environment as directly as possible through drawing. He is particularly interested in people, plants and animals. Several time levels, perspectives and states of movement intertwine within a single image without converging into a clear view. Phantom-like moments arise, especially in the portraits, in which he seeks to capture the essence of a person. The image becomes the scene of a fleeting presence, similar to a multiple exposure.
Gartiser's series of drawings of exotic potted plants, including widespread species such as Pilea and Monstera, also plays a central role. The pilea in particular functions here as a symbol of networked, open systems: its rhizome-like structures – characterized by runners and branches without a hierarchical centre – can be read as a rejection of linear orders. In the drawings of the monstera, on the other hand, its characteristic aerial roots stand out clearly. They are reminiscent of organic equivalents of conduits that reach into the pictorial space and refer to invisible supply systems.
Through delicate watercolour glazes and soft, contourless transitions, as well as a dense arrangement reminiscent of a Petersburg hanging, the works emphasize a network of relationships in which the individual image becomes a kind of node.
Paul Laakmann, on the other hand, focuses on social, perception-related and power-critical aspects. The starting point for his work is the recognition of a fundamentally limited perception that is always subjective, fragmentary and shaped by individual experience. Laakmann does not see this subjectivity as a deficit, but as a prerequisite for his artistic work.
In expansive installations such as "Soziale Arbeit" (2022), he addresses the everyday act of seeing by transforming it into a different order: the seemingly free view is deliberately directed by a shelf-like object, thus making it experienceable as structured and pre-determined. Laakmann takes a similar approach in "Heft290520" (2020), dissolving the familiar standardization of writing and contrasting it with drawing as the epitome of individuality.
Prescribed orders – whether spatial, social or cultural – act as invisible forces and determine what becomes visible and how perception is organized. His works thus refer to those standardizations and power relations that are usually internalized unconsciously and only become perceptible through minimal shifts or interventions.
In addition, Laakmann shows a series of frottages of shattered gravestones from abandoned graves. Here, the phantom-like lies in the inconspicuous, in the remnants and in the indexical imprint. The technique of rubbing functions as a kind of "conduit" that transfers information about absent bodies and erased biographies from the hidden into the visible. The works appear as material traces of the no longer visible, as temporal inscriptions imprinted directly onto the surface of the paper. His training as a stonemason, which he completed before studying fine arts in Mainz, Freiburg and Karlsruhe, and which was characterised by repetition and copying, forms an important foundation for his current critical engagment of the present and perception.
In this exhibition, Paul Schuseil presents new ceramic works in which a playful approach to the material meets a reflection on social processes. The series "Wie kürzt man 'first quarter of the 21st century' ab?" (engl. How do you abbreviate 'first quarter of the 21st century'?) shows oversized replicas of mobile phone chargers with Lightning connectors, which symbolize energy flow and data transmission. However, with the introduction of the uniform USB-C standard, these connectors are becoming increasingly obsolete. Each plug work has a different character and presumably says something about the personality of its fictional owner: The objects, whose cables are arranged in earthworm-like loops, reveal breaks or wrap themselves in tight coils around the power supplies, are covered with partly glossy, partly matt glazes in pink, black, grey, mint and white. Through the exaggeration in form and expression, whereby the cable with the Lightning plug is transformed from a flexible everyday object into a hard, immovable object, the ceramics become monuments to a dying connection or to the first quarter of the 21st century.
In another ceramic work, rats populate a construction that is difficult to define, consisting of angular, block-like forms reminiscent of an industrial support system or machine fragment. It is a grotesque scene in which the rats seem to move confidently on, beneath and through the filigree crafted, detail-rich construction, as if it had long been part of their own territory. The structure itself – a metaphor for hidden systems that enable processes without being visible themselves? – is literally undermined by the presence of the rodents. Its order seems to be hollowed out, its function called into question. The sculpture illustrates in a playful and humorous way how infrastructures can lose their original power through processes of appropriation.
By bringing together these diverse yet interconnected artistic positions, technical, organic and social systems are brought into focus in equal measure.
"Phantomspeisung" is part of the Schalttag (engl. leap day) exhibition series initiated by Lukas Gartiser, Paul Laakmann and Paul Schuseil in 2020, which has since been continued every four years at different locations. Temporary collectives and collaboratively developed exhibitions emerge in ever-changing spatial and social constellations. The exhibition at the Emde Gallery marks an interim period: it ends as a halfway point between the 2024 and 2028 editions.
OPENING: Friday, 23rd of January, 6 – 8:30 pm
Gallery Crawl PART MAINZ: Thursday, 26th of February 2026, 6 – 10 pm
CLOSING EVENT at the halfway point of the leap year: Saturday, 28th of February 2026, 12 – 4 pm, artist tours at 12:30 pm and 2:30 pm
Artists
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