Crystal Readings • Mikkel Carl, Dominik Gohla, Pakui Hardware, Daniel Stempfer, Anna Zett • 01.05.–27.06.2015
Curated by Gislind Köhler
Fine cracks appear on the surface. The penetration of matter; new levels, techniques and structures swell out once again to dissolve. Meanings, attempts, codes are generated to explain processes. Layers of perception break apart. Forms become visible, they refer to something invisible, in the future? New combine to form a whole, vanish. Scepticism replaces reassurance, followed by speculation, then ambiguity.
Mikkel Carl (b. 1976 in Copenhagen, Denmark) transforms titanium though anodisation sheets into bright colour surfaces. Connected to electric circuit and in conjunction with sulphuric acid microscopic layers are produced onto the surface which refract, depending on their thickness a wide colour spectrum. Following his exploration of object inherent cultural structures and codes, Carl titanium works inspire to think about the structural conditions and factors that infl uence the aesthetics of art production, reception and mediation.
Solo exhibitions include We Are All Workers, Kunsthal Aalborg (upcoming), Calculated Optimism, Last Resort, Copenhagen (2014), Grey Water, PointB, New York (2014), R.I.P. curl, Henningsen Gallery, Copenhagen (2014). Group exhibitions include The Wrong – New Digital Art Biennale, Sliversurfer (upcoming), Searching for a, basis, Frankfurt (2015), Artissima 14, w/ Last Resort,Torino (2014), My Chemical Romance, curated by Lauren Christiansen, Retrospective gallery, Hudson NY (2014). His curatorial projects include Got Tortilla with Butter on Phone. Think it’s the End?, Rod Barton, London (2014), Absence of Evil is the Evil of Absence, Residency Unlimited, New York (2014). Mikkel Carl lives and works in Copenhagen.
In the piece by Dominik Gohla (b. 1985 in Braunau am Inn, Austria) organic fragments penetrate the mirrored glass. The artist avoids any references to basic geometrical shapes or figurative suggestions. And yet, describable elements – the surrounding the object is placed in, the approaching spectator – are reflected or absorbed in the curved, lens-like glass. A constantly evolving dimension finds its way into the image. The distorted refl ections conduct a continuous survey of perception and photographic representation.
Recent exhibitions include Linsenlese, Jenifer Nails, Frankfurt (2014), Über die Haut, Commerzbanktower, Frankfurt (2012), Encore, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Zollamt, Frankfurt (2011), My corridor is your workspace, Japantower, Frankfurt (2009). Dominik Gohla lives and works in Schwand im Innkreis. He graduated at Städelschule, Frankfurt (Meisterschüler, class Willem de Rooij, 2011).
Pakui Hardware is the name of the collaborative artist duo Neringa Černiauskaitė (b. 1984 in Klaipeda, Lithuania) and Ugnius Gelguda (b. 1977 in Vilnius, Lithuania) which began to work together in 2014. The duo explores relationships between materiality/body and reality structures generated through the development of new technologies. The presented work connects their research about synthetic biology which aims to create life by using exclusively synthetic materials and Prometheanism that tries to overcome the dualism between man-made and given. Through imagining a possible future situation where all kinds of life forms are created in laboratories, the seemingly natural boundaries disappear.
Recent solo exhibitions include Lost Heritage, kim? Contemporary Art Center, Riga (2015), Shapeshifter, Heartbreaker, Jenifer Nails, Frankfurt (2014), The Metaphysics of the Runner, Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius (2014), NADA New York (2014), Anything is Always Nearby or Next to Something Else, Microscope gallery, New York (2014). Group exhibitions include Time flies like an arrow, fruit fl ies like a banana, curated by Valentinas Klimasauskas, Tinos Island, Greece, (forthcoming), You will find me if you want me in the garden, curated by Domenico de Chirico, Valentin, Paris (2015), Society Acts, Moderna Museet, Malmo, Sweden (2014), Popcorn, Pepsi, Petabytes, CCS Bard / Hessel Museum of Art, New York (2014).
Neringa Černiauskaitė is an artist, curator and writer based in New York and Vilnius. She contributes texts for exhibition catalogues and international magazines like Artforum, Flash Art, or Mousse magazine. Ugnius Gelguda lives and works in New York and Vilnius.
In his recent works Daniel Stempfer (b. 1985 in Braunau, Austria) studies the construction of objective truths, especially the re-construction of a whole on the basis of incomplete parts. The title of the work refers to the Egyptian princess Ahmose Meritamun (about 1500 BC), who died rather prematurely and is considered to be the fi rst known person with atherosclerosis – the hardening of the arteries. By many this is regarded as the moment where biological evolution finally could no longer keep up with cultural evolution. Perhaps Ahmose suffered from this modern civilization disease earlier than others because her social status allowed her a „modern“ lifestyle. What is certain is that this social status has allowed her mummifi cation and therefore the investigation of her body 3500 years later. Which raises the question: Who is even able to and who is allowed to leave ones mark?
Exhibitions include Whatever man built could be taken apart, Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden (upcoming), Searching for Devices, basis, Frankfurt (2015), New Frankfurt Internationals, Projektraum, Frankfurt (2014), SEASON 1 EPOSODE 2, Jenifer Nails, Frankfurt (2014), say my name. say my name., Museum für Moderne Kunst, Zollamt, Frankfurt (2013), Infl uence, 1m3, Lausanne (2013), uni(psycho)acoustic, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2013). Recent performances include Neglected Grassland, Frankfurt (2014), Lange Nacht der Museen, Frankfurt (2014), Club Transmediale, HAU2, Berlin (2013). Daniel Stempfer lives and works in Frankfurt. He graduated at Städelschule, Frankfurt (Meisterschüler, class Willem de Rooij, 2013). In 2013 he received the Henkel Art Award Austria.
Anna Zett (b. 1983 in Leipzig) is an artist and writer, based in Berlin. After many years of theoretical research, she now practices her thinking at the threshold between screen and body, science and nonsense, tragedy and comedy.
Recent screenings and exhibitions include Essay Film Dissidents, Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles (2015), After the Eclipse, reading series, Atelierhaus am Flutgraben, Berlin (2015) Serpentine Cinema: Films by Rachel Rose and Anna Zett, curated by Serpentine Gallery, London (2015), Videonale.15, Festival for Contemporary Video Art, Bonn (2015). Her publications and lectures were featured in Fist to Brain, in: The New Inquiry (2015), The Ghost of Participation. in: PALE Journal, #1, London (2015), Sleeping in Public, in: How to Sleep Faster Issue 5, Tom Clark, Rozsa Farkas (Eds). London: Arcadia Missa Publications (2014), Marginal Modernities: On Queer Materiality. Panel with Jesse Darling, Jaako Pallasvuo, Maja Cule. The White Building, London (2013).
