Artist: Zsófia Keresztes
Exhibition title: Sticky Fragility
Venue: Gianni Manhattan, Vienna, Austria
Date: November 16 – December 21, 2018
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Gianni Manhattan, Vienna
Gianni Manhattan is pleased to announce “Sticky Fragility”, Zsófia Keresztes’ first solo show with the gallery.
“In the same way the need of society drives the human porcupines together, only to be mutually repelled by the many prickly and disagreeable qualities of their nature. The moderate distance which they at last discover to be the only tolerable condition of intercourse, is the code of politeness and fine manners; and those who transgress it are roughly told—in the English phrase—to keep their distance. By this arrangement the mutual need of warmth is only very moderately satisfied; but then people do not get pricked. A man who has some heat in himself prefers to remain outside, where he will neither prick other people nor get pricked himself.”
– Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga und Paralipomena, Volume II, Chapter XXXI, Section 396
Continuing her interest in how the digital world and the body meet, Keresztes utilises the metaphor of a venomous sting as a means to express empathy in times of the capitalisation of affect.
Keresztes’ new mosaic monuments borrow from the colour scheme of anatomical models developed in the 18th and 19th century which made the functionalities of organs graspable by removing layer after layer of artificial tissue. While the illness in these anatomical models became handheld, manageable and explainable, Keresztes’ larger than life figures extrapolate a form of ailment that refuses to be understood, that is present and shared throughout the exhibition space.
The visual motif running throughout the works is a self-damming act of protection. Keresztes’ sculptures are caught in their monumental inter-dependencies, damned to their desires and bound by rope. The tear shaped sting motif threaded on dyed rope acts as a symbol for pain, compassion and empathy simultaneously. The latter are never singled out phenomena, they are being reciprocated, since neurologically, the distinction between what one feels and what others feel is not a clear one. (1)
Her reading of the venomous sting can be understood as a 21st century update for Schopenhauer’s porcupine dilemma: A group of porcupines are exposed to the cold; huddle too close and the porcupines injure each other but move too far away and they will freeze. Finding the balance between proximity and distance is crucial to the survival of the group. Schopenhauer uses this metaphor to describe the challenges of human intimacy and the state of the individual in relation to a society. Despite the good intentions, intimacy cannot occur without substantial mutual (self-) harm.
(1) Emma Young, „I Feel Your Pain“, New Scientist
Zsófia Keresztes, born 1985 in Budapest; lives and works in Budapest.
Recent and upcoming exhibitions include Éntomos: Hulacová – Keresztes – Janoušek, ghmp, Prague; Orient, Riga, Brussels, Krakow; L’Esprit Souterrain, Domaine Pommery, Reims; Haptic House, Horse and Pony, Berlin; Facing Enemies, Melting Opposites, Karlin Studios, Prague; (2018) Occupations of Uninhabited Space, Gianni Manhattan, Vienna; Abstract Hungary, Künstlerhaus – Halle für Kunst und Medien, Graz; Afterbirth of a Dream, Meetfactory, Prague; Letting Go, Trafó Gallery, Budapest; Endless Backup, Futurdome, Milan; Textour, Künstlerforum, Bonn (2017); HOLYLAND, Labor, Budapest; The existential space of virtuality, Erika Deák Gallery, Budapest (2016).
Zsófia Keresztes is the winner of the Esterhazy Art Prize 2017.
Zsófia Keresztes, Sticky Fragility, installation view (2018), photo: Simon Veres, courtesy GIANNI MANHATTAN and the artist
Zsófia Keresztes, Sticky Fragility, installation view (2018), photo: Simon Veres, courtesy GIANNI MANHATTAN and the artist
Zsófia Keresztes, Sticky Fragility, installation view (2018), photo: Simon Veres, courtesy GIANNI MANHATTAN and the artist
Zsófia Keresztes, The Punishment (2018), photo: Simon Veres, courtesy GIANNI MANHATTAN and the artist
Zsófia Keresztes, Limits of Capacity (2018), photo: Simon Veres, courtesy GIANNI MANHATTAN and the artist
Zsófia Keresztes, Sticky Fragility, installation view (2018), photo: Simon Veres, courtesy GIANNI MANHATTAN and the artist
Zsófia Keresztes, Initiation, installation view (2018), photo: Simon Veres, courtesy GIANNI MANHATTAN and the artist
Zsófia Keresztes, Belongings (2018), photo: Simon Veres, courtesy GIANNI MANHATTAN and the artist
Zsófia Keresztes, Belongings (detail)(2018), photo: Simon Veres, courtesy GIANNI MANHATTAN and the artist
Zsófia Keresztes, Belongings (detail)(2018), photo: Simon Veres, courtesy GIANNI MANHATTAN and the artist
Zsófia Keresztes, Sticky Fragility, installation view (2018), photo: Simon Veres, courtesy GIANNI MANHATTAN and the artist
Zsófia Keresztes, Sticky Fragility, installation view (2018), photo: Simon Veres, courtesy GIANNI MANHATTAN and the artist
Zsófia Keresztes, Selfless Other (2018), photo: Simon Veres, courtesy GIANNI MANHATTAN and the artist
Zsófia Keresztes, Last Loss (2018), photo: Simon Veres, courtesy GIANNI MANHATTAN and the artist
Zsófia Keresztes, Sticky Fragility, installation view (2018), photo: Simon Veres, courtesy GIANNI MANHATTAN and the artist
