Iv Toshain (austria)

A cascade of chains echoes hierarchy, control, and exclusion. Nineteenth-century rusty Victorian barbs, iron-shaped thorns, glossy aluminum, and sharp plastic form a vexillological relic. The artwork overlaps pre-industrial manufactures and mass-produced elements, blending colours from various world emblems. It is a composite fragment—discontinuous, sutured, and rebuilt from the symbols of nations, influences and empires. It reveals scars inscribed onto landscapes and violence upon nations: stripped, reshaped, exploited, brought to their knees. It symbolically recalls a universal condition and represents the attitude of supremacy over the Other, meaning both human and nature. A continuous will of supremacy under changing flags.

Iv Toshain (Austria, 1980) is a Sofia-born, Vienna-based artist. Her works are part of the collection of the Belvedere Museum and the Lentos Art Museum. She realized solo exhibitions at MoMA Tbilisi and the National Gallery in Sofia. In 2025, she will participated in the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

https://iv.toshain.com