Artist: Cosima von Bonin
Exhibition title: Who’s Exploiting Who in the Deep Sea?
Venue: Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Canada
Date: March 26 – May 28, 2017
Photography: Toni Hafkenscheid, all images copyright and courtesy of the artist, Oakville Galleries and Galerie Neu, Berlin
(Oakville, ON) – Oakville Galleries is pleased to present Who’s Exploiting Who in the Deep Sea?, the first solo museum exhibition in Canada by influential German artist Cosima von Bonin.
Cosima von Bonin: Who’s Exploiting Who in the Deep Sea?
Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens
26 March – 28 May 2017
Bringing together a selection of works made over the past ten years, Who’s Exploiting Who in the Deep Sea? explores Cosima von Bonin’s ongoing fascination with the ocean, a theme that is commonly evoked in her works but rarely made explicit.
The opposing forces of the sea—both a mysterious underworld and a site of sun-seeking vacationers—operate as a metaphor throughout much of von Bonin’s practice, manifested here through a collection of works from the past ten years. Ranging from sculptures of creatures like crabs and sharks to a largerthan-life bikini—viewed here against the backdrop of Gairloch Gardens’ lakeside setting—von Bonin’s cast of characters present a host of contradictions, at once approachable and not quite what they seem.
This motley crew echoes von Bonin’s own band of collaborators. For more than twenty years, von Bonin has worked with a handful of good friends, all of them experts in their own fields, masters of their own terrains. Resisting the “creativity” mindsets of contemporary capitalism, she has cultivated an art of delegation, becoming an expert at erasing her own creative role. She often calls this way of working I AM MANY, sometimes WE ARE MANY, and recently also THEY’LL FIX THE REST.
In Toronto von Bonin will make ample use of this collaborative principle: the exhibition will open on March 26th with performances by a number of von Bonin’s friends, an assortment of collaborators who form performance groups under new names and thus confuse their audiences—and often von Bonin, too. She can promise at least these names: Mary Messhausen, Produzentin, Simone Junker, Oliver Husain, and, for the first time and with immense pleasure, Diviniti.
Cosima von Bonin: Who’s Exploiting Who in the Deep Sea? is co-curated by SculptureCenter Curator Ruba Katrib and Glasgow International Director Sarah McCrory. The exhibition is organized by Glasgow International and SculptureCenter, New York.
Cosima von Bonin, Who’s Exploiting Who in the Deep Sea?, 2017, installation view, Oakville Galleries
Cosima von Bonin, THE BONIN/OSWALD EMPIRE’S NOTHING #05 (CVB’S SANS CLOTHING. MOST RISQUÉ. I’D BE DELIGHTED & MVO’S ORANGE HERMIT CRAB ON OFF-WHITE TABLE), 2010, Mohair velour, polyfill, styroplast, brass
Cosima von Bonin, Who’s Exploiting Who in the Deep Sea?, 2017, installation view, Oakville Galleries
Cosima von Bonin, Who’s Exploiting Who in the Deep Sea?, 2017, installation view, Oakville Galleries
Cosima von Bonin, Who’s Exploiting Who in the Deep Sea?, 2017, installation view, Oakville Galleries
Cosima von Bonin, TOTAL PRODUCE (MORALITY), 2010, various fabrics, polyfill, rubber, foam, wood, fluorescent lights
Cosima von Bonin, Who’s Exploiting Who in the Deep Sea?, 2017, installation view, Oakville Galleries
Cosima von Bonin, SMOKE, 2008, acrylic, LED, neon, steel
Cosima von Bonin, HAI AM TISCH 1, 2014, iron, blockboard, lacquer, rubber, cotton, terry, foam material, polyfill, bulb with fitting, cable, galvanized steel
Cosima von Bonin, SCALLOPS (DARK VERSION), ROCKING, 2014, mohair velour, polyfill, foam, satin, felt, wood, lacquer, hemp rope, glittering garland
Cosima von Bonin, Who’s Exploiting Who in the Deep Sea?, 2017, installation view, Oakville Galleries