About LONE SWAN

“Caught up in a mass of abstractions, our attention hypnotized by a matrix of human made technologies that only reflect us back to ourselves, it is all too easy for us to forget our carnal inherence in a more-than-human matrix of sensations and sensibilities. Our bodies have formed themselves in delicate reciprocity with the manifold textures, sounds, and shapes of an animate earth - our eyes have evolved in subtle interaction with other eyes, as our ears are attuned by their very structure to the howling of wolves and the honking of geese. To shut ourselves off from these other voices, to continue by our lifestyles to condemn these other sensibilities to oblivion, is to rob our own senses of their integrity, and to rob our minds of their coherence." David Abram, in The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World, 1996.

Lone Swan is a solo exhibition by Swiss-born artist Dorian Büchi, presenting a new body of work that explores the complex, often fractured relationship between humans and the more-than-human world. Through painting, Büchi reflects on what it means to reconnect with nature - not as a distant ideal, but as a lived, embodied practice.

Drawing from animist thought; the belief that all things, human and non-human, hold spirit and agency - and his own direct experiences of foraging, hunting, growing food, and tuning into somatic (felt) experience, Büchi’s work offers a visual language of curiosity, vulnerability, and ecological inquiry. These paintings ask: What is alive in me? How can I participate more fully and authentically in the sensuous world around me with my particular skill set/gifts?

Only recently has Büchi begun to find language for these embodied experiences - a result of slowing down, paying closer attention, and learning to align what he says, what he does, and what he wants. This new awareness opens the door to clearer, more authentic communication - with himself, with others, and with the land.

While the works lean into the sensuous natural world, it also holds space for contradiction: fragments of consumer culture and past conditioning surface in the imagery, tracing the artist’s own journey through contemporary capitalist complexity.

The show quietly poses a final question: Do I have to be a lone swan?

Dorian Büchi is an artist whose work is rooted in ecological inquiry, embodied experience, and somatic awareness. Originally from Switzerland and currently based in Zurich, Büchi’s paintings explore themes of disconnection, reconnection, and inner alignment through a deeply personal yet universal lens. His practice extends beyond the studio into tactile, land-based rituals - foraging, hunting, cooking, and growing food - all of which inform his creative process and philosophical worldview.