Artist: Indrikis Gelzis
Exhibition title: Bingo Gaze
Venue: Polina Berlin Gallery, New York, US
Date: September 17 – October 19, 2024
Photography: Images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Polina Berlin Gallery, New York
Polina Berlin Gallery is pleased to present Bingo Gaze, an exhibition of new sculptures by Latvian artist Indrikis Gelzis, on view from September 17 through October 19, 2024. Comprising four sculptures and a spatial intervention with a narrative sound and timed-light component, the exhibition invites a contemplation of human perception.
Voice assistant:
R) A Wind caused by a yellow paper butterfly
E) The maze of your gaze.
D) A lottery machine full of sleeping eyeballs. Which will be the lucky ones?
B) Two long eyes trapped in the nest
L) Geese that flew away from the skin
U) Standing ovation, seated ovation, sleeping ovation
E) Cave after cave after cave how should I behave?
G) If only you saw through the eyes grown in my garden
R) How I yellow, is how I blue is where I green
E) Barber of a hairy tongue
E) Seasonal confidence
N) Exit strategy from propeller roots
G) A word moving like a balloon losing air
R) Eight peeled eyeballs
E) A wave won’t harm itself
Y) A cold breeze of benzodiazepine
The works included approximate the height of a person; though static, their sinuous steel limbs appear as though they may be functional. Their voluminous cores unfold outward, opening up and peering out onto the world. In turns, the exhibition space is washed in red, green, and blue light, respectively; the primary colors of the RGB spectrum that, when combined, reproduce an infinite array of colors. The light abruptly changes with a click, like a game show moving on to its next segment. Concurrently, the space is bathed in sound; words and phrases that tease the listener into parsing out meaning. As when watching a television program or gazing at a computer screen, the wavelengths of light are mediated through the human eye to construct our reality. Gelzis’ reference to the eye and its perceptual powers reveal its role as a mediator between the self and the world. Indeed, reality is a construct that is tied to randomness, to chance.
Through his practice, Gelzis explores the relationship between biological and mechanical bodies. He mines the dichotomy of the linear and the spatial, and the system as it relates to its parts. Interested in imagery that is based on an inquiry into object-oriented ontology, his work offers a glimpse into the ever-shifting relationship between humans, nature, and technology.
Light Choreography:
Red Sector
Phase 1. White bulbs lit daylight for 3 minutes
Phase 2. Red bulbs lit for 00m50s accompanied by an audio narrative
Blue Sector
Phase 1. White bulbs lit daylight for 3 minutes
Phase 2. Blue bulbs lit for 01m03s accompanied by an audio narrative
Green Sector
Phase 1. White bulbs lit daylight for 3 minutes
Phase 2. Green bulbs lit for 01m07s accompanied by an audio narrative
Grey Sector
Phase 1. White bulbs lit daylight for 3 minutes
Phase 2. Red, blue and green bulbs lit for 00m56s accompanied by an audio narrative
Indrikis Gelzis (b. 1988, Riga, Latvia) lives and works in Rīga, Latvia. He earned an MA in Visual Communication from the Art Academy of Latvia (2014 – 2016) and a Postgraduate degree from HISK – Higher Institute for Fine Arts, Ghent, Belgium. Gelzis has presented recent solo and two-person exhibitions at Jenny’s (New York), Tatjana Pieters Gallery (Ghent, Belgium), Castor (London), CINNAMON (Rotterdam, the Netherlands), and ASHES/ASHES (New York). He has participated in group exhibitions at Tatjana Pieters (Ghent, Belgium), Union Pacific (London), and Joshua Liner Gallery (New York). Gelzis’ works are included in the collections of the Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga, Latvia; Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest, Romania; S.M.A.K. The Municipal Museum of Contemporary, Ghent, Belgium; The Lewben Art Foundation, Vilnius, Lithuania; and CELINE ART PROJECT, Paris.
>Indrikis Gelzis, Bingo Gaze, 2024, audio from exhibition, Polina Berlin Gallery, New York
