The exhibition title under the sun guides both metaphorically and literally through the work of artists Liz Deschenes, Rindon Johnson, and the collective Troika. On one hand the English idiom refers to our collective existence on planet Earth, which is currently confronted with numerous challenges. In the artists' works, this is reflected through an interest in socio-economic structures and their effects on nature. On the other hand, the title under the sun can also be taken literally: The sun generates light and energy, which the artists use as instruments and formative elements. The artists also share a common interest in physical processes and formal changes through exposure, heat, solar radiation or material resources that shape the environment of our existence under the sun. 

This Viewing Room foregrounds the three individual artistic positions and offers an insight into the artists' work beyond the works in the exhibition. Please click on the works for further informations, texts and photos.

Liz Deschenes (*1966) was born in Boston and lives and works in New York. She attended the Rhode Island School of Art and Design, where she initially enrolled in painting, but eventually switched to photography and graduated in 1988. In her artistic work, Deschenes confronts the assumptions surrounding photography as fixed image and extends this traditional view by experimenting with the medium’s properties and possibilities. Her unique photograms are camera-less, long-term exposures on light-sensitive paper. Deschenes also creates sculptural and architectural objects that incorporate both their surroundings and the viewer through reflections.

Installation view Luogo e Segni, Pinault Collection, Punta della Dogana, Venice (2019) | © Palazzo Grassi | Photo: Delfino Sisto Legnani, Marco Cappelletti

In 2019, parallel to the 58th Venice Biennale, Deschenes’s works were part of the exhibition ‘Luogo e segni’ at the Pinault Collection – Punta della Dogana. Major solo exhibitions have been presented at the ICA, Boston (2016); MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts (2015); the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2015); and Secession, Vienna (2012). Deschenes has been included in group exhibitions at the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris (2016); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2015); the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014); Sprengel Museum Hannover, Germany (2021); and the Whitney Biennial, New York (2012).

→ further information about the artist

Installation view Institute of Contemporary Art ICA, Boston (2016) | Photo: Charles Mayer

"Since we started working together we have been observing and reflecting on how technological advancement is influencing our life, peoples lives. This is broad but if one starts to look closer most of our everyday actions, interactions or decisions are in one way or other governed, altered, streamlined, aided, assisted by some form of technology."

– Troika

Photo: Studio Troika

Terminal Beach is an animated film depicting a futuristic end-time scenario in which an ape-like creature fells the supposedly last tree on Earth. With the help of motion capture, the movements of a person swinging an axe were recorded and transferred to a production robot arm with long dark hair. As a result, the robot generates an animalistic or humanoid appearance, conveying a strangely enraptured feeling.
In this scenery, the robot ends what humanity began a long time ago – the progressive destruction of our planet. The title Terminal Beach is a reference to J.G. Ballard's collection of science fiction short stories, which focuses on the bitter paradox that the extraordinary creative power of the human imagination is surpassed only by its ruthless destructive instinct.

→ video excerpt 1 and video excerpt 2

Selected solo exhibitions have been presented at Espacio Arte Abierto in Mexico City (2021), Barbican Gallery in London (2019), NC Arte in Bogota (2015) und Daelim Museum in Seoul (2014). Troika’s cross-media works are part of the collections of the Center Pompidou, Paris; M+, Hong Kong; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Jumex Collection, Mexico City; and the Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv. Troika realized three site-specific installations for the British Pavilion at World Exhibition 2010 Shanghai.

→ further information about the artists

Installation view Walk the Line: New Paths in Drawing, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (2015)