“DADDY, WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION?
I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY TO MY FRIENDS AT SCHOOL,” ASKED HIS DAUGHTER, ANNA. “YOU CAN TELL THEM THAT I AM A CHANGER,” REPLIED UDO.
In February of 2015, happenstance brought me in touch with Michael Jardine, a Canadian, and one of the largest private collectors of eyewear in the world. He commissioned me to research a brand of eyewear that he had been collecting for many years, with the idea that he may one day like to revive it and tell its story. The brand was ‘“Serge Kirchhofer,” designed by a Mr Udo Proksch.
Google search “Udo Proksch” and you will find the Wikipedia entry:
“Udo Proksch was an Austrian businessman and industrialist. In 1991, he was convicted of the murder of six people as part of a major insurance fraud.”
And that was how, it seemed, his ‘contribution’ to the world had been recorded for posterity. In fact, it was quite difficult to get past the 1000s of articles relating to the Lucona affair. Intrigued, even a little dismayed, I continued my research until I found a thread which led me right to the source. I travelled to Vienna, Austria meet a man named Peter Coeln who owned the archive of Udo Proksch.
Staring at the contents of his archive—35,000 articles, 6,000 eyewear drawings, 100 artworks, 1000s of eyeglasses and other design models, prototypes, documents and personal effects—I asked myself two questions:
Why had this part of Udo’s story never been unearthed?
I could never have imagined what would transpire. I had expected, at most, to see some photography, a handful of drawings, eyewear samples, and other artefacts that could help me with the eyewear story. Instead, an entire body of work, an entire life documented, lay before me, inviting my exploration. In this dark store room, as I sifted through its contents, it felt like I was in a scene of an animated movie, when at midnight, suddenly the books and artefacts come alive all at once.
When Udo decided to archive his life, did the 23-year-old have some kind of prophetic vision that this would one day happen?
After countless days in the archive, I realised that dissecting the archive to use the eyewear alone would never tell the full story of Udo’s capacity as a designer and artist, or reveal why he had archived his life. The answers to my questions had to lie in the broader context of his story, and corresponding to the duality that permeated Udo’s life, one side could not be told without the other.
“In a country, the long history of which is studded with brilliant, unconventional men and women in the field of art and culture, it could be said that Udo, polarised as he was, was not a rarity. What set him apart, however, was that at the end of it, he was consigned to history more as a criminal, and much less as a creative genius.
Here we celebrate Udo Proksch—creative genius.”
Five years in a single image. 2 Dec 2019 📸 @michelepauty (Die Presse) captured this image of me preparing display materials for the exhibition and launch at the Westlicht Photography Museum in Vienna. Surreal. It perfectly depicts how I felt in the last hours, reflecting and appreciating how this book came together.
UDOTOPIA was envisioned with the intention to focus on Udo’s career as an eyewear designer and as one who revolutionised an industry.
The first such comprehensive examination of Udo’ Proksch’s life and work revealed to the public offers unprecedented insights into the utopian world of Udo Proksch. Spanning his childhood, education, WW2, NAPOLA, freemasonry, to Austrian art and design history; a selection from 1000 eyeglass frames, 6000 drawings, 100 artworks, and over 10,000 photographs were edited to showcase his fascinating artistic legacy of eyewear, art, jewellery and his groundbreaking and totally bizarre ideas.
I created the book with a dream team of designers Lindy Ma and Sophie Proops and an Austrian researcher, translating from German and writing the narrative in English, then working with my amazing editor Nirad Grover on the other side of the world in India, where I also spent weeks writing and editing between chai teas and palace visits. The publication is represented as a luxurious 456 page volume with signature fuscia pink silk moire hardcover 26.5 x 36 cm, foiled title embossing, stored in a matching cover box.
To purchase your copy click here.
The launch of UDOTOPIA book and exhibition was held on 2 Dec 2019, at the world renown Westlicht Museum of Photography, Vienna.
Hosted by Westlicht founder and photography connoisseur Peter Coeln, the panel comprised of the former wife of Udo Proksch, actress and author, Erika Pluhar in conversation with Robert Dornhelm, renown Austrian director of the movie Out Of Control, politician Peter Pilz and Peter Noever, former artistic director and CEO of the MAK; Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna.
