RECYCLE GROUP

Gazelli Art House is pleased to present a solo exhibition with Recycle Group, the award winning Russian art duo comprising of Andrey Blokhin and Georgy Kuznetsov.

The exhibition Keep Me Updated Your Holiness, introduces Recycle Group’s, two latest bodies of work including Conversion, recently exhibited at the 56th Venice Biennale within the Church of Sant’Antonin and Future Archaeology an on going body of work where the artists turn to history to address topical issues and aspects of contemporary lifestyle.

Inspired by the stream of virtual information that flows endlessly, Conversion compares the globalisation of information networks and our need for new technologies to the historic conversion of Christianity. Proposing the Internet as a new vehicle for faith, a belief system where advice on everyday problems, health and assistance with technical issues is sought online.

“This body of work side-steps religious connotations, as the heritage of knowledge and progression is fixed in the hands of technology and relied on it as the ultimate and efficient way of passing information from generation to generation”, Andrey Blokhin, Recycle Group.

Through the use of polyurethane, plastic mesh, rubber, polyethylene, wood recycled materials combined with new technologies the duo create sculptures that portray our culture’s adoration for new technologies. The artists seek to give their viewers an idea of the future traces to be left by the paradoxes of our own age, of what will be marked in history. Turning to history to illustrate relevant issues and shocking aspects of contemporary lifestyle, their sculptures take on the appearance of ancient monuments that display the ravages of time.

As an introduction to the series within a much larger body of work titled Future Archaeology, the duo have created an interactive robotic figure, which assists the viewer with the viewing of a set series of 15 photographs, individually selected by the robot. Depicting landscapes captured during the artists’ recent visit to Iceland, these rich, natural and historic landscapes appear to be of untouched sceneries, however at closer inspection, elements of our everyday life appear entrenched into these sceneries: a wifi or a bluetooth icon appear unassumingly, further questioning the advancement in technology and at what cost is this taking place. In a high-tech archival presentation, the robot serves both as an assistant to view the works and as a tool without which these works will be inaccessible. The robot is programmed by the artists to perform specific instructions involving picking up the photograph, holding it up for a period of time, and slotting it back to its position before going onto the next photograph.