SWAP #45: Yuka Oyama and Axel Ruoff
YUKA OYAMA AXEL RUOFF FACES TO HIDE: STRATEGIES TO TRANSFORM IDENTITY: November 15, 2013-January 17, 2014. In the Greek myths Greia are three sisters, who share one eye and one tooth. When one of them wants to see, she has to ask for the eye, when she wants to eat something, she has to ask for the tooth. The tooth and eye, are they parts of their bodies, signs of their identity, or are they tools? And what is the difference between these and other objects that they use? In their works Oyama and Ruoff question the construction of subjectivity and the transformation of identity/subjectivity by the individual. While Oyama is most interested in the boundaries between people and their objects, and the kind of relationships where distinct boundries between the two no longer apply. Ruoff questions and explores ideas of (self)representation through images and symbols. Oyama sought to portraits of people through collected objects. She undertook individual interviews with collectors of diverse objects. For some of them, Oyama built masks and produced photographic portraits of the collectors wearing the masks in locations that are dedicated to their collections. After conversations with a collector of moonshelves Ruoff became interested in these modest, wooden wall-decorations for their aesthetic, ideological and spiritual implications. In this installation of paintings, drawings, video and sculpture he creates an imaginary mythical place "Moonshelve City," which is full of ambiguity, it could be hell or utopia, rise or decline of the subject. for more information: http://www.spacesgallery.org/project/faces-to-hide
YUKA OYAMA AXEL RUOFF FACES TO HIDE: STRATEGIES TO TRANSFORM IDENTITY: November 15, 2013-January 17, 2014. In the Greek myths Greia are three sisters, who share one eye and one tooth. When one of them wants to see, she has to ask for the eye, when she wants to eat something, she has to ask for the tooth. The tooth and eye, are they parts of their bodies, signs of their identity, or are they tools? And what is the difference between these and other objects that they use? In their works Oyama and Ruoff question the construction of subjectivity and the transformation of identity/subjectivity by the individual. While Oyama is most interested in the boundaries between people and their objects, and the kind of relationships where distinct boundries between the two no longer apply. Ruoff questions and explores ideas of (self)representation through images and symbols. Oyama sought to portraits of people through collected objects. She undertook individual interviews with collectors of diverse objects. For some of them, Oyama built masks and produced photographic portraits of the collectors wearing the masks in locations that are dedicated to their collections. After conversations with a collector of moonshelves Ruoff became interested in these modest, wooden wall-decorations for their aesthetic, ideological and spiritual implications. In this installation of paintings, drawings, video and sculpture he creates an imaginary mythical place "Moonshelve City," which is full of ambiguity, it could be hell or utopia, rise or decline of the subject. for more information: http://www.spacesgallery.org/project/faces-to-hide