Exhibition

Tapping, Dressing

12 Nov 2020 – 25 Nov 2020

Regular hours

Monday
13:00 – 22:00
Tuesday
13:00 – 22:00
Wednesday
13:00 – 22:00
Thursday
13:00 – 22:00
Friday
13:00 – 22:00
Saturday
13:00 – 22:00
Sunday
13:00 – 22:00

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Diskurs Berlin

Berlin
Berlin, Germany

Event map

TAPPING, DRESSING - Bethan Hughes & Laura Schawelka
Exhibition-Relay #Solidarity #FightBack #SunGoesUp / Nr. 10
curated by Anna Ratcliffe
12.11. - 25.11.2020

About

To tap on the dressed window that we look through, to ogle at the plush contents, being converted from passer-by to consumer. We tap, we tap harder, until the window breaks, tap until the devil’s milk is drawn, we extract, we industrialise, we devour, we cover it up, we window dress, we dress it up, we engulf, we consume, we leave.

No artificially produced rubber convincingly mimics the natural properties of its natural counterpart, hence it is still primarily ‘tapped’ from Hevea Brasiliensis or para rubber tree plantations. The latex rubber from these trees flows through and connects vast and violent histories of colonialism, extractivism and labour exploitation. However, there are an estimated 20,000 species of plant that also produce latex, 20,000 alternatives. Bethan Hughes’ ongoing project, Hevea, investigates the qualities, production and usage of natural latex rubber. The investigation into this substance speaks to the current moment, one in which transparent screens, face shields and latex gloves encapsulate the body, protecting it from the outside world and other bodies. In this way, humanity mimics the function of latex production in plants— understood as a biological defence mechanism.

Architects are now building ‘Instagram’ moments into their buildings, as photo opportunities have become a commodity in their own right. But this is not a new phenomenon, as architects have been building with the camera in mind since the invention of photography. Laura Schawelka examines this relationship between architecture and image-making, concentrating on retail interiors and exteriors. Here she presents a black and white image of Hans Hollein’s 1966 designed Retti candle shop in Vienna with its slick design created solely out of aluminium. Schawelka thinks about the presentation of goods and their architectural staging that seduces the passer-by into consumer. The shop front is presented in a dressed window of DISKURS, playing with the idea that ‘window dressing’ glosses over the psychological manipulation in the consumer experience.

Bethan Hughes (b. 1989, Wigan, UK) is an artist and researcher. She is currently based between Berlin and Braunschweig where she is taking part in the BS Projects Fellowship programme. In her work, 3D modelling and animation are translated into various modes of installation, print, soft sculpture and audiovisual installation as a way of exploring the political, social and cultural implications of screen-based representation. She is particularly interested in how biological and bodily matter - that which is sensual, unruly and decaying - is transformed through digitisation.

Laura Schawelka (b.1988, Munich, Germany) works with photography, sculpture and video to examine the visual representation of objects and the seductive power of photographs. Schawelka studied at the Städelschule, Frankfurt until 2013 and completed her Master of Fine Arts at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia near Los Angeles in 2015. In her latest works, developed during her two-month residency at the MuseumsQuartier Wien in 2020, the artist focuses on Vienna’s retail architecture and its relation to photography.

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Exhibition-Relay #Solidarity #FightBack #SunGoesUp
11 Shows, 16 Artists, 2 Guest Curators
curated by Jung Me Chai

DISKURS Berlin presents Exhibition-Relay: #Solidarity #FightBack #SunGoesUp every two weeks from July-December 2020, there is a new exhibition in the space as the baton gets passed.

Sixteen artists and two guest curators create eleven shows specifically designed to be viewed through the windows of DISKURS Berlin as our doors remain closed. This fast-paced exhibition program aims to support the artists, curators, and creative individuals to fight back against the COVID-19 crisis.

For more info: https://www.discursus.info/

CuratorsToggle

Anna Ratcliffe

Jung Me Chai

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Laura Schawelka

Bethan Hughes

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