Alicja Kwade: In Between Glances

Production | Exhibition Grant

Resulting from a series of site visits to MIT’s research labs and centers, Berlin-based Polish artist Alicja Kwade has created a new body of work that deepens her longstanding engagement with astronomy and natural science. This cross-pollination of art and science forms the centerpiece of her solo exhibition at the List Center, which will be anchored by an ambitious, newly commissioned sculpture. The sculpture sets a series of massive stainless steel rings in dynamic tension with one another. Forming circuits reminiscent of orbital paths, the rings form an armature for another system of measurement used to describe the world: the abacus. Small wooden abacus beads printed with numbers and letters are strung on the steel structure, draping the interlocking rings with the latent power of rational quantification. The exhibition also features several works that explore the structural properties of everyday materials subjected to alchemical mutations. Kwade’s sculptural works such as Trans-For-Men 8 (Fibonacci) transform glass, rocks, wood, and copper into philosophical propositions about time and space. Others, such as iPhone (2017) or Computer (PowerMac) (2017) explore transformation, grinding down mundane contemporary objects and re-casting them into prized artifacts of antiquity displayed in glass vitrines.