Katja Novitskova

info

Invasion curves

Whitechapel Gallery

London

2018

Type

Solo

Whitechapel Gallery

Trawling through the digital sphere’s ‘ocean of signs’, Katja Novitskova creates immersive environments inhabited by a luminous bestiary. She is known for her dramatic, cutout images of animals at play with representations from financial and scientific sources. Her latest installation presents a landscape overcome by a ‘biotic crisis’, where imaging and technology are used in a process of mapping the exploitation of life.

Images captured by scanners, cameras and satellites – from the bodies of lab organisms to the flows generated by image processing algorithms – are rendered as vivid sculptures, and projections. Worms defy gravity and genetically modified life forms hatch from eggs among a tangled undergrowth of cables. At the heart of the exhibition, modified baby rockers gyrate eerily.

Surrounding this unsettling landscape, floating resin clouds are inscribed with phrases speculating on the impact of global data on our consciousness and the environment. Growth curves, derived from corporate culture, echoed in the forms of the worms and cables, offer a wry comment on humanity’s drive towards advancement in the name of profit.

The display brings together elements from Novitskova’s presentation at the Estonian Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennale, 2017.

Generously supported by: Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center as part of the Republic of Estonia Centenary celebrations

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index

Annual Report (Rate of Extinction) (IV)

Annual Report (Rate of Extinction) (III)

Annual Report (Alphabet) (III)

Annual Report (Alphabet) (I)

We are at an inflection point

Digital print, polyurethane resin, rotating ceiling hook 90 x 115 x 0.5 cm Courtesy of the artist; Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin

Mania Phase

Digital print, polyurethane resin, rotating ceiling hook 140 x 80 x 0.5 cm Unique Courtesy of the artist; Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin

Drunk with Power

Digital print, polyurethane resin, rotating ceiling hook 100 x 124 x 0.5 cm Courtesy of the artist; Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin

The right to harvest a resource

Digital print, polyurethane resin, rotating ceiling hook 80 × 140 0.5 cm Courtesy of the artist; Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin

If they were boulders they could run

Digital print, polyurethane resin, rotating ceiling hook

Annual Report (Shape Segmentation Algorithm)

UV printer ink, epoxy clay, nail polish 25 x 34 x 1 cm Unique Courtesy of the artist; private collection

Pattern of Activation (embryogenesis)

digital print on aluminum, cutout display, acrylic glass worm approx: 247 x134 cm eggs: 70 x 48 cm (each)

Pattern of Activation (Mamaroo nursery, dawn chorus)

This large installation features a group of six robotic-looking sculptures, a video projection and a sound installation. The sculptures gently move and buzz in front of what appears to be a simple PowerPoint slideshow, their bodies all connected to the power source through what look like long intestinal cords. They are, in fact, repurposed Mamaroo electronic baby swings from the popular brand 4Moms. Despite the fact that they hold things like ruptured birth sacks, the babies they were supposed to be carrying are nowhere to be found. Any elements that might signal their original function are missing: they are decorated in synthetic and organic materials like transparent polyurethane shapes with images of CTI brain scans and protein models, robotic crabs, silicon fish baits, tree fungi, etc. Some of their laser eyes are directed at the projection, whilw others look out into the exhinition space.

Approximation (C. Elegans, standing couple)

Digital print on aluminum, Cutout display, acrylic glass 214 x 108 x 60 cm Courtesy of the artist;

Approximation (C. Elegans, standing tall)

Digital print on aluminium, acrylic glass, cutout display 247 × 137 × 40 cm Courtesy of the artist;

Invasion curve

Digital print, polyurethane resin, rotating ceiling hook 120 x 80 cm 47 3/16 x 31 7/16 ins Unique Courtesy of the artist; Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin