The Untamed
AMVK (Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven)
Sidsel Meineche Hansen
Aurel Haize Odogbo
Jacolby Satterwhite
Will Sheldon
Cajsa von Zeipel
Curated by Taylor Trabulus
To tame is to subdue, control and to discipline. It occurs, insidiously, on both conscious and subconscious levels. In the age of techno-capitalism, our bodies undergo this as daily routine – we are invariably tracked, monitored and conditioned. The Untamed aims to reclaim power and control over the evasive techniques made to domesticate us into sanitised oblivion.
In order to deconstruct and subvert these systems, the artists in this exhibition explore new configurations between artificial plasticity and physically embodied desire. They push the limitations of the body, relying on forbidden modifications - mutating, layering, stretching, cutting, splitting, splicing, marking, glitching, invading - to escape social expectations and create new complex identities. Celebrating, rather than shaming, a hunger to dismantle normative and essentialist constraints, they lean towards an alien anatomy that is beyond human flesh and bone. The result is a carnal revolution predicated on the limitless possibilities of what our bodies can achieve when freed.
The Untamed features works by AMVK (Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven), Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Aurel Haize Odogbo, Jacolby Satterwhite, Will Sheldon and Cajsa von Zeipel and is curated by Taylor Trabulus. The exhibition is on view at Karma International, Zurich from August 30 through October 12, 2019 with an opening reception on August 29.
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AMVK (Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven) creates techno-fetishistic portraits loaded with philosophical meaning. Working simultaneously in both analogue and digital platforms, she establishes connections between scientific progress and intrinsic human development. Her work, Im Keller der Seele, is a computer-generated image printed on plexiglass that illustrates three dancers performing a choreography by Rudolf von Laban (1879–1958) in a German forest. A selection of pastels is also on view. Since the early eighties AMVK has been prolific in her output of drawings, paintings, collages, video and digital works. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Fridericianum, Kassel; Kunstverein Hannover’ Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach; Kunstverein München, Munich’ Kunsthalle Bern; The Renaissance Society, Chicago’ FRAC Pays de la Loire, Carquefou; Mu.ZEE, Ostend; WIELS, Brussels; Kunsthalle Nürnberg; M HKA, Antwerp; DAAD, Berlin; Kunstmuseum Luzern, amongst others and numerous group shows including those at ICA London; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Yale Union, Portland; S.M.A.K., Ghent; Marta Herford, Herford; Bozar, Brussels; MAS, Antwerp; ICA Philadelphia; The Art institute, New York; Shangai Art Museum’ Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Buenos Aires; San Francisco Art Institute; Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort and Neuer Aachener Kunstverein. AMVK and her husband Danny Devos are key figures in Antwerp’s experimental music scene under the band name Club Moral. She was born in 1951 in Antwerp, Belgium where she currently lives and works.
Sidsel Meineche Hansen investigates the cunning and deceptive ways in which capitalism - particularly related to the pornography and cultural industries - manipulates our bodies. Collaborating with filmmaker Thesrese Henningson, Hansen created two films - Love Doll Resurrect (2019) and Maintenancer (2018) – that play together in this exhibition on a continuous loop. The first is a stop-motion animation of a zombie reassembling itself. The latter documents a German brothel that offers sex dolls as alternatives to living sex workers. As the physiological and psychological overtones of labor and sex transfer onto these highly fetishized and gendered objects, we become witness to a system where digital bodies – i.e. robots – are receptacles for human emotion and longing. A watercolor diptych by Hansen titled, Real Doll Skulls, is also on view. Hansen was born in 1981 in Denmark and she currently lives and works in London, UK. Her solo exhibitions include those at Chisenhale Gallery, London (forthcoming); Kurzur, Prague (forthcoming); SMK, Copenhagen; Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Kunsthal Aarhus; Index, Stockholm; Ludlow 38, New York; Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Trondheim; Transmission Gallery, Glasgow; Gasworks, London; Künstlerhaus Bremen and CUBITT, London. Group exhibitions include those at Museum Folkwang, Essen (forthcoming); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (forthcoming); Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis; Kunsthal Charlotenborg, Copenhagen; Kunsthalle Wien; Kunsthalle Vienna; Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 57th Venice Biennale, Venice; HMKV, Dortmund; Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge and Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo.
Aurel Haize Odogbo’s multi-media works on paper deal with the abstraction and mythologizing of her lived experiences expressed through sci-fi or high-fantasy contexts. Occasionally, her work incorporates elements from Greek mythology and Yoruba religion while also including myths, sigils, and symbols she’s created for herself. Other times she relies on her own features to tell a metaphysical narrative of becoming. Odogbo is a Nigerian-American multimedia and performance artist who was born in 1996 in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work has been presented at MoMA PS1, New York; Karma International, Los Angeles; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and Links Hall, Chicago. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Jacolby Satterwhiterenders futuristic microcosms - at times dystopic and at others harmonious – populated with malleable bodies that sinuously travel in and out of their sublime environments. These bodies perform in production lines of repetitive and primal motion. Twisting through an abundance of glowing detail and dizzying perspective, they are exploited and transformed into industrial, humanoid machines destined to build a modern, queer world. Satterhwite’s two-channel work, Avenue B, on view here, is the second installment in a series of videos that mixes animation with live action. Satterwhite was born in 1986 in Columbia, South Carolina and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Recent group and solo exhibitions include those the Fabric Workshop & Museum, Philadelphia (forthcoming); Pioneer Works, New York (forthcoming); Whitechapel Gallery, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; New Museum, New York; Public Art Fund, New York; San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2017).
Will Sheldon’s fantastical compositions are manifested through dreamlike abstraction. Somewhere between a divine intervention and a macabre story filled with vampires and witches we are thrown into a world where the real and the subconscious are indistinguishable. Embellished in punk attire, Sheldon’s characters are unapologetically spirited - oozing attitude, style and rebellious liberation. Sheldon was born in 1990 in Hong Kong, China and currently lives and works in New York, NY. Recent solo and group exhibitions include those at Arcadia Missa, London; Company, New York; White Columns, New York; Karma International, Los Angeles; LOVAAS projects, Munich; SCHLOSS, Oslo; Marti Ceramics, Los Angeles; Cleopatras, New York; Romeo, New York and Shoot the Lobster, New York.
Cajsa von Zeipeldelves into identity, gender and queerness while interrogating ideals of classicism through sculpture. Culling from sci-fi and fantasy aesthetics, she constructs her figures in brightly colored silicone and adorns them with dollar store accoutrement turned glistening treasure. In resolute assertion of femme visibility and sex positive provocation, these beings celebrate a world of their own creation. Recent exhibitions featuring von Zeipel’s work include those at Konstmuseum, Kristinehamn; Arcadia Missa, London; Company, New York; Andrehn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm; Nordic Heritage Museum, Seattle; The Scandinavian Institute, New York; Artipelag, Stockholm; Sven Harrys konstmuseum, Stockholm; Borås Konstmuseum, Borås; Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall, Arendal; Bontelabo Kunsthall, Bergen; Kunsthalle Andratx, Mallorca and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Von Zeipel was born in 1983 in Gothenburg and currently lives and works in New York, NY.