Art Cologne17.11.2022–20.11.2022Shahin Afrassiabi, Veronika Hilger, Anna McCarthy, Benja Sachau, Anna Vogel, Rachel Youn
Sperling at Art Cologne Collaborations, together with gallery Soy Capitán, Berlin.
Reflecting on the convergence of naturalness and artificiality is an ongoing theme in the oeuvre of the artists which Soy Capitán and Sperling present at Art Cologne Collaborations. The cross-generational group of artists recontextualizes as means for artistic production. This shared interest and multifaced concept leads to divergent and varied results that are united not by separating the natural from the artificial but rather the question of the appropriate handling of the existing and future artificially created in order to assign it a role within the framework of our naturalness. While Rachel Youn and Anna Vogel blur the boundaries between natural and faked natural phenomenon Benja Sachau and Anna McCarthy explore the limits of the human body and mind and possibilities created by artificial extensions and devices. In their painting Veronika Hilger and Shahin Afrassiabi invite the viewer to align and question their idea of naturalness with the obviously thought up and painted shapes.
Veronika Hilger’s (*1981) paintings create diverse associations: Microscopic depictions of cellular structures, otherworldly plant creatures, geological studies of earth layers, new life forms and deep sea worlds. These works are in a constant state of becoming. Abandoning all narrative, her practice suspends binary dualisms and promote the erosion of univocality that we can also find in current discourses on identity and biopolitics.
Anna Vogel’s (*1981) series Ignifer transports a peculiar analogy between “carrying fire” and “fighting fire”. We see images of aerial firefighting without the planes. There are just the fire-retardant chemicals in colors such as red, blue, and white inundating and spraying over deserted landscapes. Like in much of her work, Anna Vogel’s digital and manual intervention in found photographic footage is meticulous and unobvious.
In The Human Fountain (2021), Anna McCarthy (*1981) continues her research on hydromechanic sculptures that juxtapose the motif of the female alpinist with the aesthetics of decay, instability, and the ephemeral. She connects ideas of beauty with forces of nature and wilderness with consumerism. Where does the body end and nature begin?
Rachel Youn (*1994) repurposes existing elements in their introduction of playful mechanics to natural elements, connect the botanical to found objects, most prominently old massagers. In essence, through the personification of plants she recontextualizes the vivacity normally assigned to nature.
Benja Sachau’s (*1976) media-critical works are adept interpretations of current discourses on hierarchization, power, the control of knowledge, and the visual forms these take. His conceptually calculated objects are multimedia implementations of the impossible, such as parascientific belief constructs and myths. The results are abstract gridded wall pieces, intricate kinetic sculptures and multi-sensory installation pieces.
Shahin Afrassiabi’s (*1963) practice revolves around conceptual approaches, resulting in elusive works that shift in between mediums and are merged in ever-changing ways. Afrassiabi creates sculptures, paintings and installations, which are oftentimes informed by architectural and geometric forms. The artist’s works actively resist generalizations and homogeneity.
