Field Notes 6- From Fröis to Dandl

On heritage, a family emblem, and the making of Dandl-Studio

Some things begin long before we give them a name.

Dandl-Studio did not begin with a logo or with a clear idea of what the studio would eventually become. Its origins lie much further back — in my own family history.

On my father’s mother’s side is the Fröis family, a lineage that can be traced from the Bregenzerwald near Bezau to Krippau near Großreifling. It is a family history in which many women and daughters appear throughout the generations, and this has made me interested not only in genealogy, but also in questions of inheritance, continuity and belonging.

Part of this history is a family coat of arms.

A unicorn on the shield.
Another as the crest.
Oak leaves and acorns.
Red, gold, silver and earthy greens.

I began to look at these elements not simply as parts of an old coat of arms, but as visual traces.

What do these forms tell us?
Why were these particular symbols chosen?
What does it mean when an image is carried through generations?

From this exploration, my own visual language slowly began to develop.

The unicorn became a particularly important starting point. A creature somewhere between reality and imagination, between inherited symbolism and personal interpretation. The oak became an image of rootedness, growth and continuity.

Both found their way into my visual identity.

But the name itself changed.

Fröis belongs to my heritage.
Dandl belongs to my life today.

With the change of my name came the opportunity not simply to continue what I had inherited, but to reinterpret it.

And so, through the study of a family emblem, a part of the visual foundation of Dandl-Studio slowly emerged.

Perhaps this also describes what I want my work to do.

I work with ceramics, photography, painting, landscape, historical forms and material culture. I collect, observe, research and make connections.

I am interested not only in where something comes from, but in what happens when it moves through another time, another place, or another pair of hands.

An old vessel can become a new form.

A historical ornament can become a pattern.

A family story can become an artistic investigation.

An inherited symbol can take on a new meaning.

Dandl-Studio is therefore not an attempt to preserve the past.

It is a place to work with what remains of it.

Field Notes will follow these traces.

The things I find.
The stories I research.
The forms that stay with me.
The materials I experiment with.

And perhaps also the question beneath all of it:

What do we carry forward — and what do we make of it?

Fröis was a beginning.
Dandl is the next chapter.