failed transcendence | group show

Posthuman ecologies (2023) is an installation composed of used everyday items and organic objects, such as bones, wasp nests and corals, which Nicolás Lamas relates to each other in a vitrified industrial refrigerator as a cabinet. This creates hybrid fossils fused from human objects and animals, with plastic as a synthetic material, resembling a new kind of bone, defying time and weather and inscribing itself in the geological history of the planet. Thus the used motorcycle helmet acts as a protective shell for the wasp nest, sneakers in various stages of decay combined with coral, uniting oceanic organisms with human consumer production. At first the various materialities appear to be at odds with one another, but upon closer examination they reveal similarities in form and context. In his works, the artist analyzes and deconstructs the relationship between human and non-human objects and the associated power structures that determine how we perceive, interpret, and interact with our environment. In his works, there is a constant dialogue between opposing forces that produce a hybrid body of work that cannot be defined or oriented in a single direction.

Rotational friction 1 (2022) and Rotational friction 2 (2023) are sculptures made of mechanical car parts connected to collected vessels, in which Nicolás Lamas addresses ideas about rotation, friction and fragility. Likewise, they reflect the artist's interest in archaeology and the interpenetration of temporal aspects. The works act as hybrid artifacts that unite different timelines and important milestones of human progress. "Technology evolves and looks to the future, while archaeology is a discipline that, by definition, constantly collects data from the past through the material traces left by our ancestors. Sometimes, however, we forget that both the past and the future are constantly evolving." The artist seeks to break down rigid concepts in his works, bringing together art, science, technology and everyday culture by drawing from a trove of collected objects. In this way, the collaged sculptures form a new perspective on their original contexts and offer the possibility of always drawing new conclusions from the past, which forms the basis for imagining possible futures.

Jeremy Shaw (*1977 in North Vancouver, CA) focuses on altered states of mind in his multimedia works by creating speculative worlds that reflect transcendental experiences. He is interested in human desire to approach things not only through a purely cognitive and quantifying way, but to encounter the world in a more holistic way – beyond the limit of what can be experienced through rationality. Shaw addresses these ideas through the study of ecstatic bodily practices, combining scientific knowledge and references to cultural practices. Using strategies from conceptual art, documentary film, music video and scientific research, the artist‘s work deals with a range of topics from the consumption of psychedelic drugs and time travel to scientific imaging procedures.

Shaw has most recently had solo exhibitions at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Julia Stoschek Collection in Düsseldorf. He was also represented at the 57th Venice Biennale (2015) and Manifesta 11 (2016).

Installation view Quantification Trilogy, Julia Stoschek Foundation, Düsseldorf (2021) | Photo Timo Ohler

In lluminated Amanita Harvest (2023) the light of the LEDs seems to illuminate the scenery like a halo, in which a person picks fly amanita growing on trees. The image is related as a storyboard to the video work The Ancients call it Ataraxia (2023), in which, in preparation for a shamanistic tea ceremony in nature, the mushrooms are gathered for a mind-expanding experience.