Toni Brell

The characters that inhabit Toni Brell’s studio are creatures of another world. Despite being made of ceramic, the spiders and frogs that populate the installation teem with life. Even the inanimate objects – a​ ceramic teapot and teacups, a sharp metallic knife with a thick wooden handle, a pair of wooden clogs, a delicate ceramic chainmail, and coiled musical horns – seem to be in waiting. The moment you close the door behind you, sit on the floor to join them, pour yourself an imaginary cup of tea, and blow into one of the instruments, the whole thing might just start moving on its own. Safety is not guaranteed.

Brell thinks of their objects as collaborators. For this in-process project during their residency at Est-Nord-Est, they work with darker themes, which contrast with the “cute, nice things” that are presented to the audience when they first encounter the different elements of the installation. Like a dramaturge or another type of worldbuilder, Brell makes complex universes that are meant to be approached from different angles. Finding magic in the everyday and employing the strategy of a mirror-world in which the flip side of things reveals new perspectives, these sculptural objects embody multiple meanings depending on how they are used and deployed. Brell’s placement of them as a grouping creates an affect or a mood, but these entities also stand individually as intricate and thought-out pieces and beings.

Sound is an important aspect of Brell’s work, another layer that contributes to the overall placemaking that they generate with their practice. That these objects can be played, making their own strange yet inviting organic noises, means that they call upon a certain activation. If Brell’s work is about entering a world, it’s also about contributing to the outcome of this newfound environment through a collaborative and inviting imaginary.