Andrea Zucchini. Foresight by Earth

About

Through the process of pairing inherited rituals, historical artifacts of ancient societies with our era of space exploration and digital reproduction, Zucchini reveals objects as carriers of human knowledge throughout history. In Foresight by Earth, objects have become vessels for various temporalities and signification; their ancestral powers and related craftsmanship have been commonly accumulated and are tightly linked to us and our future. 

Zucchini’s distinctive approach in experimenting with materials is central in this new body of work. Creating a specific atmosphere, a total environment through the use of sound and sand stretching across the gallery, the experimental installation guides visitors through a rather zen setting referencing eastern architecture. The textural element of sand extends from the floor, through the flow of virtual data to a wall panel depicting the surface of Mars, while a wide variety of cast bronze nuts, seed pods, mushrooms and leafs populate the space and repeat throughout the exhibition. The replicas of Aztec mushroom stones engage with the central theme of authorship, further explored in the video. Zucchini’s work draws parallels in between the contemporary approach to digital reproduction and a past where the object-maker could be forever unknown, unrecognised. Depicting an abandoned post-human landscape, both familiar and strange, a mirage of a digital replica of an artifact dominates the experience: like the other objects created for this exhibition, it is launched into future, defying time and space restrictions to reframe human’s role and position in relation to Earth.

Andrea Zucchini (b 1987 Brescia IT), lives and works in London UK.He graduated from the MA Sculpture course at the Royal College of Art, London UK in 2015, and received his BA in Fine Art and History of Art from Goldsmiths University of London UK in 2013. Solo exhibitions include, Alchemical Studies, Tenderpixel, London UK (2014). Recent selected group exhibitions are Some Astronomers Kept a Distance, with David Ferrando Giraut at Salon, Madrid ES (2016); Cosmic Morsel, F2 Gallery, Madrid ES (2016); Visual Cultures TEN, Goldsmiths University of London UK and The Showroom, London UK (2015); New Contemporaries, various locations across Nottingham and ICA London (2015); Pause Patina, Camden Arts Centre, London UK (2015); Small bird’s nest with blue eggs inside, MMX Gallery, London UK (2015); Thank you, Jupiter Woods, London UK (2014); biotic/abiotic, The Gallery Apart, Rome IT (2014); before breakfast we talked about the furthest possible point before it all disappeared, Tenderpixel, London UK (2014); A Sense of Things, Zabludowicz Collection, London UK (2014); Woon Art Prize, Gallery North, Newcastle UK (2013); Gold in the Crucible, Hoxton Arches Gallery, London UK (2012); trans:form, curated by Hanna Laura Kaljo, London UK (2012) and I Wish I Was a Circle, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, Alekano Club, London UK (2011).  Upcoming exhibitions include solo show at Tenderpixel in June-July 2016, and duo show with Sam Smith at Assembly Point, London, autumn 2016.