follow me, “ok”
Kunsthaus Langenthal, Langenthal, Switzerland
curated by Eva-Maria Knüsel and Raffael Dörig
04.04.24 - 23.06.24
Gathered throughout the Kunsthaus galleries and corridors are several small groups of improvised ring lights, based on the typical ring light used by influencers whilst broadcasting – a tripod base, stem and diffused ring lamp. Each light is unique in material, scale and posture and is constructed from found materials such as scrap metal, branches, timber and old wiring tethered together with similarly improvised methods. As with much of bleed’s serial sculptural work, each piece has a different ‘character,’ with its own style, attitude and personality, lending each a distinctly anthropomorphic quality.
The lamps are lit, flooding the space with light and illuminating other art works in the group show. From each individual runs an electric cable, which snakes through other rooms and corridors, towards a central power hub, a mass of cables and multiplugs spilling from three overflowing boxes of defunct electrical gear.
The haphazard arrangement of material evokes the type of improvisation that might occur in the aftermath of societal collapse, yet it is hard to reason what use the lamps might serve in such a scenario. Instead, they seem to point to a habitual yet hopeless desire for a continuity of mode of production – perhaps a critique of the absurdity of mainstream solutions to our current end times that aim to maintain the status quo of capital. The lights themselves are almost blindingly bright making it difficult to look the figures in the face, lending them a certain authority that is dramatically undermined by their fragile bodies that show signs of repair - bandaged wounds, tourniquets, limbs tethered to splints.
The title, beyond the obvious social media reference, refers to the catchphrase of the main character in Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee - a 1997 PlayStation 1 video game in which the player aims to rescue enslaved workers from a dystopian industrial food plant.
follow me, “ok” was originally commissioned by Kunsthaus Langenthal for the group exhibition ‘Vom Körper im digitalen Leben’, curated by Eva-Maria Knüsel and Raffael Dörig.
