Thibault Aedy, Dilara Koz

Caressed and Polished and Drained and Washed

★★★☆☆

On until 26 May 2024

What does it mean to put on an exhibition? In a culture where AI can fake installation shots of any object in any interior faster than one can scroll the feed, to bring material substance and human minds together is to enter a competition for permanence. 

Koz’s miniature sticker snapshot records of life, though, and other detritus are printed on unstable thermal transfer paper. The artist shows them off, however, in frames and folders reminiscent of the once powerful institutions of memory such as the archive, the court, or maybe the temple. But these structures are long forgotten. Koz’s images too will fade without further notice.

Aedy’s bodily manifestations place equal faith in technology but hope to avoid such decay. A delicate crystal resin skeleton and a hefty rubber wedge allude to human sex and the messy stuff of reproduction. These objects will outlast the flesh, the tale of Oedipus, and any sepia family portrait. But their synthetic structure forecloses the possibility of life beyond the pop-up show’s closing date.


notes and notices are short and curt exhibition reviews. Read more:

Robert Rauschenberg, ROCI at Thaddeus Ropac ★★★☆☆

Robert Rauschenberg

ROCI

★★★☆☆

This project outs Rauschenberg as a propagandist if not an outright Fed.

Abel Auer, The shadow of tomorrow draws an ancient silhouette at Corvi-Mora ★★★☆☆

Abel Auer

The shadow of tomorrow draws an ancient silhouette

★★★☆☆

Auer is more interested in the fate of painting than humanity and thus stands apart from the army of zealots who make eco art today.

Francesca DiMattio, Wedgwood at Pippy Houldsworth ★★★☆☆

Francesca DiMattio

Wedgwood

★★★☆☆

In DiMattio’s giant ceramics kiln, everyday motifs like sneakers and knickers clash into the ornate Rococo stove and the Victorian China snuff box.

Helen Johnson, Opening at Pilar Corrias ★☆☆☆☆

Helen Johnson

Opening

★☆☆☆☆

This is the work of a mind that, having needlessly spent years in therapy, became hooked on ennui or of an artist who wasted time misreading Lacan.

Joseph Awuah-Darko, How is your day going? at Ed Cross ★★☆☆☆

Joseph Awuah-Darko

How is your day going?

★★☆☆☆

This project relies on layers of gimmicks and, sadly, they show through Awuah-Darko’s thick palette knife impasto.

Justin Caguiat, Dreampop at Modern Art ★★★★☆

Justin Caguiat

Dreampop

★★★★☆

This is the sort of exhibition that makes a critic question the quality of their judgment.

×