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until 04.06. | #0499ARTatBerlin |Anna Jill Lüpertz Gallery shows from 23rd April 2016 the group exhibition WHEN THE CAT’S AWAY, ABSTRACTION.
With the artists Juliette Bonneviot (FR/DE), Manuel Fernández (ES), Philip Hausmeier (DE), Vince Mckelvie (US) and Cecilia Salama (UK/US).
The exhibition will be curated by Tina Sauerländer (peer to space).
The Internet has changed our lives profoundly—we all know that. But in addition to the cat videos and selfies we share online, many artists use more abstract ways of exploring our lives between analog and digital environments by using innovative tools, materials and visual languages.
Although we experience the transient zone between the physical and virtual world every day, it is still hard to grasp. What does it actually mean to go back and forth between both of them in our lives? To examine the “fluid space” of human interaction between the physical and the virtual in everyday life, artist Cecilia Salama applies Photoshop tools to physical objects and creates 3D rubber pieces that resemble towels or prints abstract digital paintings on door mats.
Every day we observe the physical and virtual merging into each other, for example when we communicate our actual identity on Facebook, whereas when we started to use the Internet some decades ago, we preferred to choose a pseudonym and create a fake character. Real and virtual layers also unite in visual images. The artist Vince Mckelvie embeds abstract animated (digital) objects in virtual real world settings and explores the transient zones of the real in physical and digital layers. Philip Hausmeier creates an abstract alternate world to traditional computer game landscapes that the user can explore via VR headsets and game controllers.
We perceive the Internet on our 2D screen surfaces. It is immaterial, yet it is real. We see it, and the conveyed information matters. Still it is hard to look behind the scenes and understand how the things we see there come into existence. The artist Manuel Fernández explores the conditions of digital image creation and abstract visual language. His BG Paintings resemble the aesthetics of algorithmically created digital art, but they are in fact “hand” painted in Photoshop. The visual surface does not necessarily reveal the method by which the works have been created.
In contrast to the immaterial nature of the Internet, artists experiment with physical materials from different (non-art) contexts. Juliette Bonneviot mixes natural and chemical substances like xenoestrogens (synthetic estrogens) that cannot be seen with the human eye but highly influence and transform the systemic body and well-being. By applying the emulsion to monumental monochrome PVC canvases, the artist underlines their power, force and impact on human life.
WHEN THE CAT’S AWAY, ABSTRACTION addresses the proceeding fusion of the real and virtual world and thereby also reveals how the aesthetics of both worlds merge. The artists in the show use abstract visual language as their tool to explore related consequences. They show how our living conditions and our perception of our surroundings changed with the Internet.
Vernissage: Friday, 22nd April 2016, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Exhibition period: Friday, 23rd April to Saturday, 4th June 2016
Special Opening during Gallery Weekend Berlin: Friday, 29th April, 12-9 p.m., Saturday, 30th April, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Sunday, 1st May 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
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Image caption: via Anna Jill Lüpertz Gallery
When the Cat’s away, Abstraction – Anna Jill Lüpertz Gallery – Kunst in Berlin ART at Berlin
