For her first gallery exhibition in Paris, Annika Larrson created the video Pink Ball, showing a recurring theme in her work. In the middle of a meticulously controlled setting (a smooth and sterilized beach), three impassive protagonists seem to be absorbed by minimal, ritualized and enigmatic actions. Haluk Akakce's work explores the relationships between human and technology using wall paintings and digitally animated video projections.
Haluk AKAKÇE - Annika LARSSON
Annika LARSSON's video installations represent slightly altered universes
obeying to autonomous rules. The artist stages only men and deals with primarily
male themes and their symbolic language, playing with concepts such as
expressions of power, submission or violence.
For her first gallery exhibition in Paris, Annika LARSSON created the video
Pink Ball, showing a recurring theme in her work. In the middle of a
meticulously controlled setting (a smooth and sterilized beach), three impassive
protagonists seem to be absorbed by minimal, ritualized and enigmatic actions.
The sharp-edged precision of the framings reinforces the singularity emerging
from the icy settings and the use of the sound as an autonomous element
exacerbates the tension pre-existing in the video.
The ambiguity of the relations of strength between the different characters
lies in the fact that the only expression of power is the one established by the
real "queen of the game", Annika LARSSON. "The people I use in my works, rather
then creating characters, become figures lacking individual history or depth;
they are mere ciphers. I do not mean to just represent Everyman, rather each one
of them is the carrier of a wider dialogue strictly related to myself and my
intimate being".
Rather than developing an analytical discourse or a simple narrative, she
submerges us into a peculiar world where perfection, elegance and the power of
details - a hand on a rose bath cap, a pink ball in a man's mouth - confront us
with our distress facing the power which emerges from her images.
Annika Larsson was born in Stockholm in 1972. She lives and works in New York.
In 2002 Annika LARSSON showed her work, between others, at the Centre for
Contemporary Image (Geneva), at the Institute for Contemporary Art (London), at
Fragfabriken (Stockholm) and at Andrea Rosen Gallery (New York). In 2001 she won
the prize of the Bâloise and took part in the 49th Venice Biennial.
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Haluk AKAKÇE's work explores the relationships between human and technology
using wall paintings and digitally animated video projections. In these latter,
the artist imagines science-fiction like landscapes where enigmatic androgynous
human entities evolve.
The wall paintings spread over the walls from floor to ceiling to unveil
mysterious inner landscapes.
The artist creates these futuristic images using craftsman's techniques,
borrowing from Art Nouveau for the ornamentation and from Islamic aesthetic for
the movement and rhythms of the whole.
The association of the different techniques and the multiplications of the
viewpoints create 3D spaces in which the viewer is invited to enter.
For his first solo show in France, the artist presents a new wall painting and
two original video works,
Birth of Art and The Fiction of an Isolated Object. Whereas the first piece
offers a world made of transparency and colours, the second one possesses a
palette limited to black and white where forms converge in an environment that
can be entered by following the elegant flow of lines.
Haluk AKAKÇE was born in 1970 in Ankara. He lives and works between New York
and London.
In 2002, Haluk AKAKÇE had several solo-shows such as at The Whitney Museum at
Philip Morris (New York), at the Centro Nazionale per le Arti Contemporanee
(Rome) ; he also participates, among others, to the Shangai and São Paulo
Biennales. In 2001, his work was shown at Centre d'Art Contemporain (Geneva), at
The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art (Connecticut), at PS1 (New York) and at
Deitch Projects (New York).
Image:
Haluk AKAKÇE, The Birth of Art, 2002, single channel digital video, 4' loop
Next exhibition: Vanessa BEECROFT, March 14 - April 30, 2003
Cosmic Galerie
76 Rue de Turenne
Paris
331 42717273