VOLTA NY 20137.-10.3.2013 / 82Mercer
Galleria Heino will present works by the following artists:
IC-98
IC-98 (originally 'Iconoclast', founded in 1998) are Patrik Söderlund (b. 1974) and Visa Suonpää (b. 1968). IC-98 has received, the Finnish State Prize for Visual Arts in 2009.
IC-98 is interested in events that did not take place, fantastic connections between things, heresies and pure systems of thought, the presence of history in everyday life, the body politic, social formations and architectural constructions, control mechanisms and techniques for escaping from them.
Recently, IC-98 has concentrated on artist publications, installations and especially animated films, which combine classical draughtsmanship and digital effects. Often these media are merged to produce thematic chains or context-specific sculptural installations.
These new works build on the themes of their animated film A View from the Other Side (2011) and the sculptural real-time video installation Oikoumene (2012). Arkhipelagos (Navigating the Tides of Time) is an animation triptych, whilst The Island of Atlas a sculptural installation.
In Arkhipelagos (Navigating the Tides of Time), the material debris present in the classical riverside building in A View from the Other Side has broken free from the spatiotemporal gravity of history. What remains is open water and rafts built from the debris — the remains of a sunken world. The rafts no longer navigate the treacherous waters of the archipelago — they are the archipelago, a loose community without roots. The rafts create temporary groups, gravitating towards each other only to part again, carried by the winds and currents.
If we look at this scene in the framework of Oikoumene, the same rafts could just as well be sailing in the Mediterranean, off the Australian coast, in the Caribbean — aiming for the Promised Land. Climate, economy, social and political struggle — these are all present in this reimagining of the Raft of Medusa, simple at first glance but complex in its references.
The Island of Atlas looks familiar to those who have seen Oikoumene: an island built of steel walls. This time, instead of a circular form, there are two rectangular islands — or to be exact, an island looking at its mirror image in the future: one shiny steel city descends into the depths of the ocean, another ascends on the other side, badly oxidized. We are looking at Oikoumene, or Atlantis, the unfortunate sea power in different phases of its history: a gleaming city, a sunken city, a city reborn — or redeveloped.
Visa Suonpää & Patrik Söderlund
Updated information, documentation of all projects, animations and pdf-versions of the IC-98 publications (1998-2011 at: www.socialtoolbox.com