Anna Vasof’s first exhibition in a real space for over a year shines light on the “new normal” and how society was altered by the prolonged pandemic. Everyday objects are at the centre of the exhibition: human actions and interactions are uncovered by the detachment from their original purpose. Anna Vasof’s joyful way to work with everyday life invites the spectator to engage with both objects and videos – which is existential to the way they are meant to be experienced: in interaction. Nevertheless, at second glance, Anna Vasof’s works spark a feeling of melancholy as they hyper-realistically visualise the dull life we got used to. 

Zoom Party can be experienced both in a real as well as in a virtual space. A life-sized clone of the artists sits in front of a computer, attending a zoom meeting. It slowly turns around in a circle, it’s head a disco ball. Even though it’s a party taking place in a real space it is still unfamiliar and boring.
Vis-à-vis to Zoom Party, another clone is stuck in reminiscence of better times: Happy Birthday shows a glooming look down at a birthday cake with a burnt down sparkler – the reflection of the sparkly candle and better times still mirroring in the visor.
Unmanned football is playing soccer all by its own. The kinetic object enables the experience of a fun game without any human interaction and through this raises the question of our need of existence as human beings. 

The looped videoclips on the three parallel screens show everyday objects, completely detached from their usual context they deal with social paradoxes, inviting the viewer to see a familiar world from a different perspective. In these artworks Vasof creates an alternative reality where nothing behaves like expected. In Popcorn Free Throws popcorn is put into an unexpected situation where it acts in an unfamiliar role: as a basketball. Tipsy Glasses shows two wine glasses faltering on balls like they consumed their content themselves and Farfalla Chase is a constant pursuit of a farfalla noodle by its natural enemy: a fork.

Missing Piece depicts a real sized puzzle on a touch screen tablet, constantly missing one single piece even though the hole is filled all the time. The Rhythm of Disorientation combines everyday objects, still serving their original purposes, but blocked to work in their foreseen manner by their own interaction. 

With Coming Closer the artist puts an astronaut in a desperate situation: unable to move and get forward he sees his reflection walking in space, fulfilling his desire. The visitor is invited to look upon this work while interacting with it by standing on the artwork Space Scale. This altered everyday objects does not fulfil its purpose, as it cannot show a person’s weight, which allows us to feel weightless like the astronaut in space, we’re looking at. Both of these works originate from the artist’s fascination with space and Science Fiction. Being brought to everyday objects it creates a feeling of “Everyday Science Fiction”.

Existential Turbulences presents an arrow, an object entrusted with forward movement, being trapped in the constant attempt to answer the question of “to be” or “not to be”.

Help Machine needs the spectator to actively use it and play with it. It is a well-known machine, sparking happy childhood memories of amusement parks and gaming halls. Nevertheless, with this machine it is not possible to grab a funny price but only a single hand which seems to need help but cannot be rescued. 

When hearing the title of the film one of the first associations coming to mind is Wonder Woman, a strong female character fighting for justice and the realization of her dreams. In contemporary times however “Amazon woman” can also stand for a person constantly ordering things from Amazon.com, which over the course of time completely dominates her everyday life. Ordered objects and dependence on their arrival and existence becomes crucial and as a result these objects take over the tasks of the brain, which becomes a mere object itself, aimed at performing actions. 

The exhibited artwork Go Ahead is a clock constantly ticking but instead of the clock hands, a clone of the artist is moving along the ticking.

The second part of the exhibition presents a one-hour movie consisting of the Anna Vasof’s videos. The film serves as a guide for the exhibited artworks and can be seen as a catalogue of the artist’s oeuvre and artistic practice. It allows a deep insight into Vasof’s work which is accessible in a universal way via its wit and mischief. Her art is grounded in genuine experimentation of the core mechanisms of motion and time-based art. Anna Vasof goes to the heart of every question and starts from zero, reinventing core premises with her own experience. Her Non-Stop Stop-Motion works reinvent a contemporary expanded cinema and deal with the poetic mechanics of persistence of vision. 

 

JOIN THE ZOOM PARTY:
Meeting ID: 388 057 4551
Passcode: GeWa77

Tue - Fr. 11am -  6 pm