highlike

Eugenia Bakurin

La trahison des tapis
The title is a reference to the famous work by René Magritte “The Treachery of Images”. Even though the video installation alludes to it, the viewer is immediately aware that this is not a real carpet. What you see is an animation, a digital carpet, its contemporary variant. However, the patterns of the replica show that it could have been made in the west of Iran. The movements, which appear surreal, are reminiscent of a state of intoxication. Whether this was triggered by drugs, or only arose from the lively imagination of a tired child, is left to the speculation of the viewer. The work reflects the importance of traditional arts and crafts in the modern digital world. It is the first of a series of digital carpets.
The animation has a realistic resolution of 4k, is 03:55 minutes, and runs in an infinite loop on a 65-inch display.

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.

ZNera

The Smog Project
Dubai-based architecture firm Znera Space have released “The Smog Project,” a design to clean the air in Delhi, one of the world’s most polluted cities. Shortlisted in the World Architecture Festival’s Experimental Project Category, the Smog Project hopes to address Delhi’s noxious air quality by adding a network of smog filtering towers throughout the entire city. India’s capital has become known for toxic smog levels from overcrowding and industrial waste. Znera’s proposal hopes to cleanse the smog chamber and generate smog free air.

Sara Ludy

cloud pond

“Ludy’s toxic cloud shapes are featured more predominantly in this room, morphing into figures that look bacterial. They are both meditative and threatening as they swell and heave with no identifiable pattern. Ludy’s works are also surrounded by digital frames adding a classical sophistication to her contemporary digital pictures.” Shauna Jean Doherty

Marguerite Humeau

High Tide
For her show High Tide, which was most recently exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, Humeau sculptured a collection of futuristic marine mammals and set about imagining what they might sound like if they could recount complex narratives. With mechanical clicks and whistles, similar to those made by whales and dolphins, Humeau’s creations tell of a great flood – an apocalyptic deluge that sparked the birth of their culture. “These floods”, she explains, “might be the consequence of climate change and rising oceans and the air becoming toxic. Maybe the great flood is actually us. As humans, we are the flood.”

SHIPING TOOHEY

Cinderella Intoxication
Cinderella Intoxication is an interactive art piece bridging sensory technologies with traditional garment design.

DOMINIQUE PETRIN

Pazzazz
Dominique Pétrin brings the image to its highest degree of saturation and develops an intense dialogue between images, their support, and their configuration. Pazzazz is a Greco-Roman fresco that recalls the music-hall of the 70s. Excess, wealth, and decadence are represented in an ornamental style that is almost threatening. Between dreams and apparitions, the optical illusion is lost in a maze of pleasure and abuse, enjoyment and intoxication.