↳ Exhibitions

Jan Vorisek at Arcadia Missa

July 6, 2022

Artist: Jan Vorisek

Exhibition title: Music for shipping containers

Venue: Arcadia Missa, London, UK

Date: June 25 – September 9, 2022

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Arcadia Missa

Arcadia Missa is proud to present Music for shipping containers, a solo exhibition by Jan Vorisek.

The work of Jan Vorisek brings together a repurposing of materials, systems and symbols that serve to highlight the codes in which power, control and subversion operate, as well as the various channels through which (commodity) fetishism inserts itself.

While Vorisek’s work spans sculpture, installation, performance and sound, Music for shipping containers functions as a framework through which a new body of sculptures is unveiled, interconnected through their shared materials, motifs and a musical score.

An extension of Vorisek’s studio practice, the works comprise found materials, made and altered objects and surfaces, to create assemblages on modular components.

These reference architectural models, furniture, city planning as well as global systems of consumption — through which objects travel. Packing items become the objects themselves, painted and framed into Perspex. The act of looking down gives the viewer a sense of control, as do the nods to controlled subversion within the accumulated and contained items. Above, a drone sound permeates the space, implying surveillance and signalling the birdseye view implanted onto the floor of the gallery.

Jan Vorisek (b. 1987, Basel, CH) lives and works in Zürich, CH. Recent solo exhibitions include No Sun, Swiss Institute, New York, US (2021); Song For Dead Time, Galerie Bernhard, Zürich, CH (2020); Collapse Poem, Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus, CH (2020); and Crisis Instrument, Observation Society presented by Bottom Space, Guangzhou, CN (2018). Recent group exhibitions include Crowd Control, High Art with Arcadia Missa, Arles, FR (2022); Techno, Museion, Bolzano, IT (2021); Blind Date, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, CH (2019); and Its Urgent, Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Luma Westbau, Zürich, CH (2019).

Installation view of Jan Vorisek, Music for shipping containers at Arcadia Missa, London. Photography: Josef Konczak; Courtesy: The Artist and Arcadia Missa, London

Jan Vorisek, Thousand Years of Poor Connection, 2022, Steel, wires, paper, filter, wood, prints, plastic, fabric 139 × 301 × 5 cm (54 3/4 × 118 1/2 × 2 inches)

Jan Vorisek, Thousand Years of Poor Connection (detail), 2022 Steel, wires, paper, filter, wood, prints, plastic, fabric 139 × 301 × 5 cm (54 3/4 × 118 1/2 × 2 inches)

Jan Vorisek, The Bugged Inducer, 2022, Resin glazed styrofoam, steel, paint, mesh, 51 × 57 × 14 cm (20 1/8 × 22 1/2 × 5 1/2 inches), 20 cm ø 21.5 cm (7 7/8 inches ø 8 1/2 inches)

Jan Vorisek, Untitled (Vein), 2022, Wood, cardboard, paint, lacquer, 32 × 43.5 × 40.5 cm (12 5/8 × 17 1/8 × 16 inches)

Jan Vorisek, The Incomplete Interior, 2022, Plywood plinth, Perspex, styrofoam, resin, PVA, paint, latex, paper, cardboard, 132 × 47.5 × 36 cm (52 × 18 3/4 × 14 1/8 inches)

Jan Vorisek, Propaganda of Passion, 2022, Plywood, paint, polylactic acid, latex milk, paint, lacquer 26.5 × 200 × 100 cm (10 3/8 × 78 3/4 × 39 3/8 inches)

Jan Vorisek, Propaganda of Passion (detail), 2022, Plywood, paint, polylactic acid, latex milk, paint, lacquer 26.5 × 200 × 100 cm (10 3/8 × 78 3/4 × 39 3/8 inches)