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:

Herman Chong, The Book of Equators at Amanda Wilkinson ★★☆☆☆

Herman Chong

The Book of Equators

★★☆☆☆

Chong was probably reading some epic while painting his Equator pictures.

Claire Fontaine: Show Less at Mimosa House ★★☆☆☆

Claire Fontaine

Show Less

★★☆☆☆

Repeat these mantras enough, and the lie becomes art.

Matthew Barney, SECONDARY at Sadie Coles HQ ★★★☆☆

Matthew Barney

SECONDARY: light lens parallax

★★★☆☆

Secondary turns the gallery into an American Football stadium. But all the seats in the house are the cheap seats and the game lacks a cheerleader.

Abdullah Al Saadi, Sites of Memory, Sites of Amnesia, UAE pavilion in Venice ★★★☆☆

Abdullah Al Saadi

Sites of Memory, Sites of Amnesia

★★★☆☆

The exhibition’s user experience rivals that of the Apple Store.

Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, Bad Luck Rock at Josh Lilley ★★☆☆☆

Sula Bermúdez-Silverman

Bad Luck Rock

★★☆☆☆

This is a poor man’s version of history or a philistine collector’s absolution.

Dryland, the Greek pavilion in Venice ★★★★☆

Thanasis Deligiannis, Yannis Michalopoulos

Xirómero/Dryland

★★★★☆

It’s Sunday in the village. And the main square is deserted.

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