Breaking from conventional seasonal collections, By Told brings you small drop collections throughout the year, each with one work of Art at center stage.
MICRO COLLECTIONS
010
MASSA CONFUSA
ballpoint pen on paper
Massa Confusa by Viktoria Strecker unfolds as an immersive encounter with chaos, intuition, and possibility. The work draws on the concept of prima materia — a state of original formlessness, often associated with confusion or fear, yet carrying an undeniable sense of allure. Within this chaos lies pure potential: a space where forms have not yet been named, and where meaning remains open to the imagination.
Strecker approaches this state not as something to avoid, but as something to enter fully. The artwork installation emerges through acts of translation — from drawing into three-dimensional form, from thought into material, and from emotion into space. Hand-drawn gestures in the air are transformed into 3D-printed structures that rise from a base of burned paper, a surface marked by heat, release, and change. Black, scorched tones echo the warmth of transformation, suggesting something still alive beneath what has been altered.
The work invites a way of seeing that feels deeply human. Faced with abstraction, the mind begins to search — for figures, for fragments of recognition. This instinct, rooted in both fear and imagination, becomes a quiet force within Masa Confusa, shaping the structures and rhythms that emerge. Chaos here is not emptiness, but a field rich with projection, memory, and possibility.
At its core, the work reflects a willingness to let go. What has been previously determined is undone, broken apart, or gently released. These fragments — however heavy or unresolved they may feel — remain material that can be gathered, reconfigured, and reshaped. In this process, destruction becomes a source of agency rather than loss, offering an empowering return to creation.
Masa Confusa ultimately speaks to an exchange of energy — between inner states and outward form, between immersion and renewal. It invites the viewer to linger, to get lost for a moment, and to sense how facing one’s own inner chaos can become a way of reconnecting with the world, with curiosity and presence.
009
GAUZE
ballpoint pen on paper
From the quiet depths of the night, Viktoria Strecker’s nocturnal artistic journey gave rise to Gauze-- a black- as-night canvas overlaid by a mysteriously floating intricately rendered white organic form. Painted during the obscurity of the pandemic, Gauze touches upon the imperceptible tendrils of a microscopic threat, a miniscule particle with omnipresence. Strecker delves deep within the realms of the unseen, each delicate stroke whispering secrets of the invisible, giving shape to the unknown world of the tiny, yet profound. As if capturing a fleeting moment in the delicate embrace of decay-- a finite moment suspended in time-- Strecker reminds us of transience, the fragility of existence and the inevitability of change.
Probing our understanding of the power latent within the invisible, Strecker also hints at the amalgamated strength in collectiveness. Gauze’s midnight landscape is spattered with interconnected neighborhoods that illuminate the path to strength through co-existence and collaboration. The work mysteriously levitates with power and vitality, ultimately born from the unity and coalition of countless individual strokes. Strecker beckons us to explore whether the intimate hamlets nestled within the vastness of her artwork hold an anthropic secret about collective consciousness and our future.
009
GAUZE
ballpoint pen on paper
From the quiet depths of the night, Viktoria Strecker’s nocturnal artistic journey gave rise to Gauze-- a black- as-night canvas overlaid by a mysteriously floating intricately rendered white organic form. Painted during the obscurity of the pandemic, Gauze touches upon the imperceptible tendrils of a microscopic threat, a miniscule particle with omnipresence. Strecker delves deep within the realms of the unseen, each delicate stroke whispering secrets of the invisible, giving shape to the unknown world of the tiny, yet profound. As if capturing a fleeting moment in the delicate embrace of decay-- a finite moment suspended in time-- Strecker reminds us of transience, the fragility of existence and the inevitability of change.
Probing our understanding of the power latent within the invisible, Strecker also hints at the amalgamated strength in collectiveness. Gauze’s midnight landscape is spattered with interconnected neighborhoods that illuminate the path to strength through co-existence and collaboration. The work mysteriously levitates with power and vitality, ultimately born from the unity and coalition of countless individual strokes. Strecker beckons us to explore whether the intimate hamlets nestled within the vastness of her artwork hold an anthropic secret about collective consciousness and our future.
MOLD
3D pen and filament on air
008
Viktoria Strecker's artistic journey into 3D drawing with a heat pen began with her striking monochromatic installation, Mold. This work marked a pivotal moment in her career, a passage that offers viewers the opportunity to step behind her drawings and immerse to experience her art from new perspectives. Mold’s sprawling, jet-black lattice-like structure stride across white-washed walls, effortlessly nestling around corners in modular clusters. These clusters, or "heads," form the foundational elements of Mold, allowing for dismantling and reassembly into fresh compositions that adapt to new spaces and evolve into novel architectural forms. Strecker’s innovative approach with Mold led to her debut solo exhibit in Düsseldorf and ignited her nearly decade-long exploration with the 3D pen, and her unceasing experimentation with evolving and innovative printing materials.
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Transitioning from paper to open-air drawing, Strecker embraced the exhilarating freedom of creating floating air sketches. The printing material, once liquid, swiftly solidifies, setting an accelerated tempo for her decisive air-strokes and radiating a sense of liberty and spontaneity. Her 3D pen, reminiscent of an alchemist’s wand, crystallizes Strecker’s rhythmic movements in time. Defying both time and gravity, Mold’s dynamic, lace-like formations conjure the weightlessness of an ethereal dimension.
Video © Felix Contzen
