Rubber Souls is an exhibition by Viennese artists Anny Wass and Wolfgang Obermair. The two come together in the Salzburg art space periscope to explore shared aspects of their work: materiality, surface, environment, and animism.
Rubber Souls
Artists: Wolfgang Obermair, Anny Wass
August 1–29, 2025
periscope , Salzburg
Their positions materialize the handling of things as physical and social presence, countering modern alienation with a “Parliament of Things” (Bruno Latour). The title “Rubber Souls” connects the flexibility of rubber—a stretchable, cartoon-like material—with the profoundly anti-modern concept of the soul. The secret subtitle of the exhibition is the cover image of the invitation, a work by Anny Wass, which depicts a plastic bottle with the inscription “Universal Solution.” The title and motif of the exhibition not only reference a dialogical principle but also formulate a positive claim that at least shows the journey continues.
Wass and Obermair work with materials including rubber and plastic, as these stand like no others for the hybrid and fast-moving creatures of our time. The nature of these materials can be both virtual and physical. Their ambivalence ranges from the internet through actual industrial landscapes to the dystopian narratives that define our present. But they can also stand for self-empowerment in a culture of do-it-yourself and recycling. The artists link traditional design practices with mass-compatible technologies (Photoshop, AI, 3D printing) and follow society's need to transfer original object animation into digital space. This media-driven “animization”—from Disney's “animated cartoons” through animal memes to talking unicorns—makes the internet a refuge for the useless, cultic, and mythological. This movement is more than compensatory. The so-called modern era felt superior to animism and believed it could achieve a final separation between object, subject, society, and nature. That this was not helpful at all is shown by the fact that many of our problems between environment and politics have their roots precisely in this dichotomy. Obermair and Wass, on the other hand, feel more at home in a world that can be described as a network of living and non-living actants.
periscope is an artist-run space by Elisabeth Schmirl, Stefan Heizinger, and Bernhard Lochmann and is kindly supported by Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport Austria, Land Salzburg Kultur, and Stadt Salzburg.
Photo: Wolfgang Obermair