Created By
Tillmann Lauterbach
Acrylic paint and fabric collage on aluminium disband and cardboard
Curator
Luke Chapman
RYANbow stands as a luminous testament to the power of memory, loss, and transformation. In Lauterbach’s hands, everyday materials are elevated into vessels of remembrance and resilience. The life vest, once a symbol of safety and survival, becomes here a poignant relic, its imprint a ghostly echo of a life lived on the edge. The sheer scale of the cardboard element, stretching 13 meters, evokes the vastness of the journeys we undertake-physical, emotional, and spiritual. What resonates most is the artist’s ability to fuse personal narrative with universal longing. The work is dedicated to Ryan, a figure emblematic of Ibiza’s transient community-searching for freedom, connection, and perhaps escape. Lauterbach’s collage is not just a memorial; it is an act of shining a light on those who flicker briefly but brightly in our lives. The interplay of vibrant acrylics and the rawness of the materials speaks to the contradictions of joy and fragility, presence and absence. RYANbow reminds us that art, at its most powerful, is a bridge-uniting the past and present, the lost and the living, through acts of creative remembrance.
RYANbow is a mixed media collage incorporating an old life vest and its imprint on cardboard, structured across two components: a 1.1m x 0.9m squared aluminium dibond frame and a 13m x 1m cardboard panel. The work serves as a memorial to Ryan, a figure I encountered during my time in Ibiza’s transient, freedom-seeking community. Though not a close friend, Ryan and I shared a brotherly bond rooted in humor and sensitivity. He embodied the island’s paradoxes-a soul chasing healing and connection, yet sustaining himself through selling ketamine. Unlike typical dealers, he carried an aura of generosity, often giving drugs freely, as if the transaction pained him. His death was a shock. After a fight with his girlfriend, he swam into the sea at Santa Eularia’s northern shore, disappearing into the horizon. Rescued briefly by a fishing boat, he screamed “NO” before vanishing forever. This work channels his luminous spirit-his joy, fragility, and the fleeting intensity of those who burn brightly but briefly. Through the life vest’s imprint, I seek to preserve his memory, transforming a symbol of survival into a testament to lives lived on the edge. The materials’ raw contrasts-industrial aluminium and weathered cardboard-mirror the tensions between resilience and impermanence that defined Ryan’s story. RYANbow is my act of remembrance: a plea to keep such souls shining.
Created By
Tillmann Lauterbach
240 x 120 cm | 94 x 47 in
2009
