Artists: Aaron Amar Bhamra, Billie Clarken, Alwin Lay, Lazar Lyutakov
Exhibition title: HICCUP
Curated by: MAUVE, Titania Seidl & Lukas Thaler
Venue: MAUVE, Vienna, Austria
Date: August 26 – September 30, 2023
Photography: ©Rudolf Strobl / all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and MAUVE, Vienna
My favorite Disaster
It sat in the middle of the room for a long time. The Thing is nice, I thought, the Thing is nearly perfect, if one can say that about a thing. I circled the Thing, keeping my distance, like a curious dog. I talked to the Thing from time to time, in careful whispers, soothingly, to get it on my side. I wanted to find out what it needed, what it wanted.
So I have to admit I did get distracted after a while, maybe I got carried away talking to myself, who knows, only the Thing and I were there to witness what happened.
Anyway I must have caught my big toe in the Thing, or maybe I bumped into the Thing with my elbow, maybe I dropped the Thing or I hadn’t switched it off properly the night before. Or maybe when I had got the Thing, it hadn’t been completely new, maybe there had been a little crack already, a dent, a little scratch, a change of its original condition I hadn’t even noticed.
I was shocked by how loud the crash was, or was it a boom and a sputter?
The slip, the glitch, the disaster, the oopsie-doopsie, whatever you want to call it, only lasted for a split second, and the split second felt like it lasted forever.
I was surprised by the Thing itself, still sitting there, somewhat changed.
Curiously, it didn’t appear broken to me, it appeared to me somehow content, satisfied with its new state. I swear, when I turned round, Out of the corner of my eye,
I caught a glimpse of the Thing grinning. Can a thing even grin?
