XENOREALISM

OPENING:
Friday, April 28, 2017, 6 pm

EXHIBITION DATA:
April 28 to May 24, 2017

1335MABINI proudly presents artist-in-residence Peter Moosgaard in a solo exhibition titled “Xenorealism” from April 28 to May 24, 2017.

Originating from the Greek word mekhos which means “means, expedient,” machines were primarily invented to assist people in various manual tasks and activities, most significantly in economic production typified during the Industrial Revolution. Innumerable cycles of advancement and obsolescence since then, developments in technology are now geared towards assisting people in their mental faculty that distinguish them as human: their reasoning.

This mediated state characterized by the ubiquity of technology and saturation of information is what Peter Moosgaard responds to with his production of wooden replicas of smartphones and tablets. The inherent patterns and texture of these objects – their basic qualities – invite the audience to look at them, as contrasted with how people look through the screens of actual devices, highlighting the sense of self and of the present usually lost in and between physical and virtual reality. Moreover, the bareness of the replicas serves to stimulate one's imagination, as opposed to being dictated upon by the capabilities of their counterparts.

To an extent, these “knock-offs” harness a certain meditational act of looking at our surroundings through the demystification of things that we are familiar with but at the same time do not understand completely. Exhibited as sculptures, the lie of art reveals truths of reality.