Artist: Shelly Nadashi
Exhibition title: Nesting Box
Venue: Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund, Germany
Date: November 4 – December 11, 2016
Photography: Simon Vogel, all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Dortmunder Kunstverein
As a borrowed term from avian reproduction, NESTING BOX displays a forest within a corporate environment. Using the transformative qualities of papier-mâché as a metaphor for the artist’s process of producing, the arrangement in the Dortmunder Kunstverein imitates an incubator for eggs, birds and visitors. Scrambling the distinction between egg and art, this incubator explores the interactions between art work, art space and art lover. The objects are structured as mise en abyme, one glass cabinet within another, an exhibition inside an exhibition.
Shelly Nadashi’s work juxtaposes sculpture, writing, video and performance. It deals with the compromised position of the artist as a contemporary clown, as well as the relationship between a given content and its audience and the institutional mechanisms that bind them. Her most recent work was shown earlier this year as part of Manifesta 11 in Zurich. The work in this exhibition was developed as a continuation of this piece.
NESTING BOX is Shelly Nadashis (*1981 in Haifa) first institutional solo exhibition in Germany.
