Various Others: Zuza Golińska, Spiros Hadjidjanos, Anna Vogel

The first edition of Various Others, a cooperative project between galleries, off spaces and museums, will be launched on 14 September. During the opening weekend, numerous events of the extensive program will take place, which will last until 21 October 2018. The participants will create an exchange between galleries, institutions and curatorial projects at an international level, with the aim of implementing new strategies for collaborations between cultural institutions.

Participating Galleries and project spaces will each have international partner galleries as guests to realize an exhibition project, while the participating museums will offer an extensive contextual program - also hosting international guests.

SPERLING is pleased to cooperate with Future Gallery (Berlin/Mexico City) and piktogram (Warsaw) as part of Various Others and to show works by Zuza Golinńska, Spiros Hadjidjanos and Anna Vogel in a group exhibition that were created especially for this occasion and this constellation.

Anna Vogel born 1982, lives and works in Düsseldorf

Anna Vogel visualizes memories in her photography. Excerpts from the past meet abstract fragments of thought in order to generate new, highly individual motifs. Anna Vogel's works are hybrid images that transcend the boundaries of photography and yet remain rooted in their medium. She uses photographs as raw material, but "dissects" the photographic image in a digital and manual way. She erases, shifts and emphasizes pictorial elements or draws on the photographs, sprays them over and scratches off pigment.

The works shown in the Temples series are unique pieces based on the technique of drawing fine ink lines on photomontages. The photographic images are subject to a process of multi-layered post-processing. On the last pigment print, a series of fine lines is inscribed until the motif begins to oscillate in a kind of floating animation.

Spiros Hadjidjanos, born 1978, lives and works in Berlin

Hadjidjanos has scanned a number of plant images from the first edition of Karl Blossfeldt's Urformen der Kunst . With the help of computer algorithms he converted the black and white shades that give depth to the flat surface of Blossfeldt’s photos into data outli- ning depth. He then printed these depth maps in 3D. The darker areas of the original images recede and the lighter areas are brought forward. In his hands, the original photos become objects built of hundreds of needle-like alumide spikes that can be read as the pixels of a digital image. Hadjidjanos also used carbon fibre to create a series of two-dimensional versions of the Blossfeldt images. With the help of UV light, a colour image is printed onto the material. Seen from the side, the plant motif, now flat again, has a holographic quality.

Both the connection between technological innovations from the past and present and the relationship between the manmade and the organic are important themes in Hadjidjanos’ art. Like Blossfeldt, he attempts to give shape to information that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Where Blossfeldt deployed a magnifying lens, Hadjidjanos uses cutting-edge technology that depicts invisible data generated in virtual networks. The result is an intriguing and philosophically complex oeuvre in which Blossfeldt’s botanical portraits are transformed into thoroughly contemporary, indeed futuristic, objects. (Text: Kim Knoppers/Foam Magazine, Issue 49)

Zuza Golińska, born 1990, lives and works in Warsaw

In her new series of works, Zuza Golinńska investigates the visual and emotional associations of so-called hostile architecture, the intrusive elements of urban design aimed at regulating undesirable behaviours in the public space. Made entirely from stainless steel, Piercers consist of interlocked rings that loosely hang from a rail firmly attached to the wall. Their aggressive, “perforating” form resembles pieces of hostile architecture – like anti-homeless studs embedded in the floors to prevent people from sleeping – but also brings to mind other metal-made artefacts designed to penetrate surfaces, be it a wall, concrete floor, or sensitive human body: railings, bathroom grab bars, mobility handles, body jewel- ry, as well as sex toys made from polished metal. This time, however, it is the artist who pierces the surrounding space, as if to take vengeance upon its endless prohibitions and surveillance. On the other hand, the sexual appeal of these objects and their high-polished shine seem to evoke a pleasure of touch as well as fierce and ecstatic intimacy.

Nothing seems lightweight or ephemeral about these pieces, let alone the walls to which they are so securely attached. A deliberate choice of stainless steel, material both hefty and durable, conveys an impression of one’s burden having been chained to the wall and left here to be gazed upon. Just as if some unpleasant memory or past trauma, immovable curse imbuing our everyday doings with weight, took form of metal shackles for everyone to see. However, a tangled and powerful form of Piercers also indicates a yearning for so- mething quite contrary – a strong, enduring bond that would introduce balance and struc- ture to one’s existence. These “engagement” rings embody opposing connotations of the word: „engagement” understood as a close and fruitful relationship with someone – but not without all the trouble that comes with it (no diamonds on these rings). Piercers are heavyweight figures of deadlock, of being caught in a double bind; sometimes you can’t break out of it, but at least it’s solid enough to lean on. (Text: Adam Repucha)