The Pursuit of Superhuman Randomness: How Emil Lukas Elevates the Everyday to the Otherworldly

Many artists work with studio assistants, but Emil Lukas's are a little smaller than most. To create some of his densely layered compositions, the artist actually collects larvae and allows their movement to dictate the work. This pursuit of superhuman randomness-a working method that allows the process to play perhaps even more of a role than the artist's hand-is apparent in much of his art, whether that means working with living creatures as collaborators or layering countless pieces of string to create the color variations seen in his sculptural thread paintings.