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Stine Deja

Cryptic Ruins
It’s the year 21020 and a mysterious archaeological site has been uncovered in what was central London. A large communal structure seemingly dedicated to unproductive expending of energy from human bodies. Whilst we might easily identify it as a gym, our descendants are concerned with why it exists at all. By framing the 21st century compulsion towards physical fitness as a mysterious practice of the past that requires decoding, Deja’s playful film reveals something of the absurdity of contemporary urban life and questions the rationality of our obsessions.

TZUSOO

SCHRÖDINGER’S BABY
Schrödinger’s Baby(2019/20), TZUSOO alludes to the popular thought experiment devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. Schrödinger proposed a scenario in which a cat is locked in a box with an unstable radioactive atom that could potentially begin to emit radiation and release a toxic gas. However, there is no way to say with certainty when or indeed whether this will happen without opening the box. The result is a paradox, with Schrödinger asserting that the cat enters a state of superposition that makes it impossible to say whether it is alive or dead.The South Korean artist translates this famous paradox into the reality of her own life, creating a digital baby in virtual space. Based on her inner grappling with potential motherhood, TZUSOO bought the digital model of a developing embryo, refining it according to her own ideas. She is free to determine the sex, skin colour and other characteristics or to dispense with all specifications so as to avoid stereotyping. In Schrödinger’s Baby, TZUSOO thus discuss core aspects of her work including reflection on gender and origin for which she also draws on her personal experience as a South Korean artist in Europe.

Raphaela Vogel

Isolator
“A further characteristic of Vogel’s practice is the way she uses the camera: she dispenses with a crew completely, she is always both protagonist and cameraperson. Vogel guides the camera using drones and thereby controls what we see and is not just an object. The camera itself becomes thus a protagonist of sorts, a counterpart or, as in the aforementioned scene, a playmate and a stalker: Vogel wears a controller to which the drone – an “airdog” equipped with a GPS tracker – responds and automatically follows her”. Kristina Scepanski

Genesis Belanger

Acquiesce
Genesis Belanger twists and stretches familiar objects into surreal scenarios with her stoneware, porcelain, and concrete sculptures. The Brooklyn-based artist frequently depicts detached limbs, misplaced teeth, and unusually located food in her work. One sculpture shows a mustard-topped hot dog disappearing into a handbag with a mouth-like zipper; another series dispenses rocks from dysfunctional quarter candy machines. This spring, a stoneware desk topped with flaccid pens, a tape-like tongue dispenser, and a drawer full of coping mechanisms was on view in the New Museum’s store window gallery.

RACHEL PERRY WELTY

雷切尔·佩里韦尔蒂
Lost In My Life
American artist Rachel Perry Welty makes use of the scads of everyday items we tend to throw away in her new ‘Lost in my Life’ series. She layers the often overlooked items to create a whole new textured landscape. “Most of us don’t pay much attention to the mundane objects we use everyday,” explains Welty, “like the twist ties that hold the plastic wrap on our bread and the broccoli together or the little paper cups that we pull out of a water dispenser.”

DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFRO

Olfactory architecture
Twelve identical dimples set seamlessly into the walls have space for one visitor’s head, which triggers the release of a dry version of each perfume, dispensed by hidden, high-spec technology so far only found at trade shows.