Galerie Andreas Schmidt and frontviews present
Alana Lake & Marianna Ignataki / PLEASURE DRIVE
30 Apr – 21 May 2021
wed – sat 2 – 6 pm
only on reservations at
Frontviews at HAUNT, Kluckstraße 23 A / yard D – 10785 Berlin
Recent
artworks by artists Alana Lake and Marianna Ignataki.
Although
both artist’s choice of materiality and style are very different, they share a
fascination with investigating the psychological effects of sexual fetish and
the creation of seemingly unresolvable opposites within their artworks.
Influenced
by motorcycle and car culture, Alana Lake makes highly aestheticised sculptures
and paintings which simultaneously seem like ancient archeological finds and/or
alien objects from the future. Made predominantly from glass, the items her
sculptures are based on have ceased to function and their ordinary use is
denied. Their functionality may be obsolete but their implicit usage is still
inherent, now rendered absurd and almost comical.
Lake’s
sculptures are both sex objects and objects of sexual fetish. BLACK & BLUE and Smokin’, for
example, are highly charged, transformed objects of pure desire. The motorcycle
helmet’s surface is so seductive and so shiny, you want to instantly lick it
but never wear it for protection as, in case of an impact, the shattered glass
would instantly penetrate your brain and would kill you. You want to touch and
caress the fragile flames coming out of the stainless steel exhaust system,
knowing the flames are made of cool glass and aren’t hot fumes anymore. And
yet, although Lake’s sculptures are visual and tactile candy of the highest
quality and made to seduce you, the idea of death is still always prevalent – a
motorcycle helmet always pointing towards a fatal crash and exhaust fumes
causing cancer and global warming. The drive for pleasure always precedes but
also always incorporates the drive for death.
Sourced
from fashion magazines and online image searches, Marianna Ignataki’s drawings
take you on a journey of psychedelic colours and phantasmagorical, dreamlike
scenarios where everything seems well only for a very short while. There is
trouble in this beautiful paradise as her fairy tales are of adult nature.
Snake’s tongues, like umbilical cords, connect characters and protrude from
singular mouths and one wonders – are the figures in a state of expectant
strangulation, consumption of each other or poisoning? Are they purposeful
lovers or are they random enemies? Are we looking at ghosts from the past or
manifestations from a parallel universe? Are we passive onlookers or
participants in this alternate reality? Do Ignataki’s ethnographic black hair
and fabric sculptures represent floating Demons or Gods? Which era and which country
are they from?
Both
artists are united against a
uniformity of thought and by development of various kinds of fetishisms.
Maybe
the best way to experience this exhibition is to just sit back and to enjoy the
ride.
–Andreas
Schmidt