IRRLÆUFER

“Annihilatio Dulcis” — the “sweet annihilation”—depicts the moment of mutual annihilation between the twin gods Thanatos and Ker, symbols of gentle and violent death. In this linocut, IRRLÆUFER unites two seemingly opposing forces: tranquility and destruction, devotion and violence, life and death. In the siblings’ encounter, death is portrayed not as an end, but as a transition—a balance between peace and chaos.

The composition is both powerful and unsettling. Two bodies merge in struggle and tenderness; their demise becomes a union. The moment of annihilation appears not brutal, but almost intimate. Above them, golden clouds spread—a delicate, shimmering element that symbolizes both beginning and end. They connect the earthly with the transcendent, the visible with the beyond.

IRRLÆUFER uses linocut printing to translate this contrast between heaviness and enlightenment into pure form and line. The deep black represents transience, the white revelation in destruction. The added gold tones lend the work a spiritual dimension—a hint of eternity in the moment of disappearance.

“Annihilatio Dulcis” is a work about the duality of death—about the indissoluble connection between violence and peace, darkness and light. It serves as a reminder that within every destruction lies a new beginning.

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