Agnieszka Kurant’s Post-Fordite draws from old automotive paint build-up – known as Fordite, or Detroit Agate – that, over the years, has congealed into stones. The dynamic liquid-crystal painting, Conversions #1, transforms according to the algorithmic sentiment analysis of social media accounts belonging to protest groups. For her other ‘speculative’ works, Kurant used bezoar stones, sank fruit flies that have undergone scientific DNA mutation in amber, or simulated fictional nuclear disasters, species mutations and extinctions in a lab. These works are accompanied by a sculpture, produced with melted sculptural multiples by different artists along with a print featuring evolution of memes from an online social experiment on Reddit platform.
Agnieszka Kurant (b. 1978, Łódź, Poland) is based in New York. Kurant explores how complex social and economic systems can operate in ways that confuse distinctions between fiction and reality or nature and culture. Probing collective intelligence, AI and crowdsourcing, her works, often behaving like living organisms, investigate the evolution of culture and labor under cognitive capitalism. Solo exhibitions and projects include The End of Signature, Guggenheim Museum, New York (2015); Exformation, Sculpture Center, New York (2013); and Assembly Line, CCA, Tel Aviv (2017). Group shows include Milano Triennale (2019); Guggenheim Bilbao (2017); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2014); Witte de With, Rotterdam (2011).
EXHIBITED WORKS
Post-Fordite 3, 2019
Fossilized automotive paint,
powdered rock, foam, metal alloy
30 × 29 × 31 cm
Courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles.
Commissioned by the 16th Istanbul Biennial.
Produced with the support of Füsun & Faruk Eczacıbaşı and Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Still Life 1, 2014
Synthetic rock containing synthetic DNA (xeno-nucleic acids), trinitite, bacteria digesting plastic (Ideonella sakaiensis), coltan, cassiterite, gold, wolframite, plastiglomerate; electron microscope photographs (C-prints)
Sculpture: 5 × 11 cm
Framed C-prints: 40 × 70 cm
In collaboration with Dr Heather Watson, researcher, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy,
New York and Dr Leah Kelly, neuroscientist, Rockefeller University, New York.
Courtesy the artist and Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel Gallery (São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro).
Presented with the support of Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Alien Archaeology 2, 2019
Bezoar stones, resin
7 × 7 × 5 cm
Courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles.
Presented with the support of Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Fossilized Future 2, 2019
Synthetic amber, mutated fruit flies (drosophila)
Diameters: 15 cm; 10 cm; 9.5 cm
297 Exhibited Works
In collaboration with Alexander Tarakhovsky M.D., Ph. D., professor of immunology, microbiology and virology at Rockefeller University, New York.
Courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles.
Presented with the support of Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Mutations and Liquids Assets 1, 2014
Sculpture (silver, bronze, brass and steel alloy) and certificates
Certificates: 71.8 × 56.5 cm (framed)
Sculpture: 23.5 × 27.3 × 3.8 cm
Courtesy the artist, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles and Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel Gallery (São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro).
Presented with the support of Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Collective Rorschach Test, 2019
Lenticular print
44 × 80 cm
Courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles.
Presented with the support of Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Conversions #1, 2019
Liquid crystal ink on copper plate, Peltier elements, Arduino, custom programming, transistors
125 × 94 cm
Artificial society engineering: Agnes Cameron, researcher,
MIT, Cambridge
Fabrication and engineering: Jonathan Sparks
Courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles.
Produced with the support of Science Gallery, London and Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
