[Gallery Walk] Provoking Questions with Deep-Sea Creatures on the Climate Crisis

Solo Exhibition 'Fish & Chips' by Danish Trio Artist Group Superflex
Until July 28, Kukje Gallery

"I imagined what fish might aesthetically prefer. As sea levels rise due to climate change, humanity will gradually move vertically to higher grounds. In response to this situation, I created a sculpture for fish. This sculpture is currently for humans, but in the future, it can be used for fish."

Superflex posing in front of the sculpture made for fish, 'As Close As We Get.'
[Photo by Kukje Gallery]

An artist facing the rising sea levels caused by global warming is preparing works for the future. As seen in various ecological documentaries, naturally formed holes and spaces between stones are suitable places for fish to hide their bodies, the artist explains.

The solo exhibition "Fish & Chips" by the Danish trio artist group SUPERPLEX (Jakob Fenger-Bjornsterne Christiansen-Rasmus Nielsen), who have showcased various artistic attempts addressing the world's irrationalities such as capital imbalance, migration, copyright, ownership, and the apocalypse caused by climate change along with diverse future discourses, is being held at Seoul International Gallery K1 and K3 until July 28.

They participated in a project in 2018 exploring the ocean near volcanic islands in the South Pacific with scientists. They explained that during the day they observed numerous fish, and at night, marine organisms floating near the sea surface, which inspired this work.

These observations led to the creation of "Vertical Migration." This work, which depicts siphonophores similar to jellyfish rising close to the surface, is an interactive art video where the creature moves away when the viewer approaches and slowly comes closer if the viewer remains still and silent. The mysterious entity observing the viewer like an alien creature on a large LED screen soon reverses the perspectives of the artwork and the viewer, offering a new viewpoint to see the work and the world.

Named "As Close As We Get," the sculpture for fish is made from basalt and marble. The artist said, "I thought about how coral reefs become marble over billions of years, and how, through a cyclical process surpassing human time, they might one day become coral reefs again."

Installation view of Superflex's 'Save Your Skin' and 'Make a Killing'.
Photo by Kukje Gallery

In this exhibition, SUPERPLEX also presents works criticizing financial power dominating modern society alongside messages about marine life revealing the era of climate change.

Three pink LED signs glowing in the dark?"Save Your Skin," "Make a Killing," and "Hold Your Tongue"?captivate the audience's attention throughout.

The intense phrases evoke feelings of anxiety and urgency, serving as warnings about the impending economic crisis while maximizing human-centered desires behind market structures.

The monochrome painting series "Chips" uses microchips, symbolizing various communication networks from money transfers to data exchange, as an abstract motif. At first glance, it appears as a white painting, but "Chips" subtly depicts the pattern of a credit card microchip through seven layers of white, metaphorically representing the economic system that governs us, though invisible.

The exhibited "Investment Bank Planter" is a flowerpot modeled after the building of the global investment bank Citigroup, planted with oleander, a hallucinogenic plant.

SUPERPLEX stated, "Through works reflecting a critical view of transactions and market economy, we reconstruct monumental structures symbolizing power into everyday scale, envisioning the possibility of a social ecosystem characterized by organic and symbiotic relationships rather than vertical structures."

Superflex ‘Vertical Migration’ (2021), LED screen, Mac mini, sensor, Raspberry Pi 4, and speakers, 300 x 150 x 150 cm
[Photo by Kukje Gallery]

In this exhibition, they offer artistic attempts interpreting discourses on the "end" predicted due to catastrophic situations caused by climate change and the various "futures" related to it from multiple perspectives.

By fully shifting the focus from "end" to "future," the exhibition explores two main axes where the artists' imagination manifests regarding the diverse aspects of the emerging future in crisis situations: economic and climatological systems, and based on these, outlines the critical topography they envision.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.