In ‘Future Tense of the Past’ Ellen Pil, Nokukhanya Langa and Almudena Lobera illustrate in an intriguing way the possibility of imagining and creating a new reality with building blocks from the past and present. With works that linger in the folds of time and connect the analogue with the digital, figuration with abstraction, the artists travel through space and time, postulating ever evolving possible and probable pasts, presents and futures.
EXHIBITION TEXT
Future Tense of the Past revolves around time. Revolve as in ‘to move around something in a path that is similar to a circle’. For time seems to flow perpetually. “Panta rhei”, as Heraclitus put it. Is there such a thing as ‘past’, ‘present’ and ‘future’? Or do things in the past and things yet to come exist eternally? What is the nature of the relationship between time and temporal entities? Should we think of objects as fixed entities...that are completely developed and no longer subject to essential modifications, or is it more accurate to look at them as being in a continuous process of becoming and therefore potentially open to a shear infinite number of possible developments? The artworks in Future Tense of the Past occupy the folds of time. They transcend every epoch by taking a concept or object from the past and transporting it into the future or present, or vice versa, thus altering the meaning of a once accepted idea. A limitless number of possibilities open up, as the boundaries between past and present blur and possible and probable futures are postulated.
The paintings by Ellen Pil (1982, BE) are as much the result of the interaction between a digital archive and its analogue elaboration as they are the expression of a process of scanning, breaking down and rebuilding. Each work inherently holds different scenarios, like a decor in which props can be adjusted endlessly. The mechanical look Pil creates by using materials such as acrylic and spray paint exposes her fascination with the theme of mass production. In Future Tense of the Past, the artist introduces—for the first time—a machine in a more literal form: a sculptural reworking of the four-part painting Mundaine and routine tasks (2020) that resembles a printer and different sheets reprinting themselves, as if striving for perfection and—in this case—self-preservation. Pil thus sketches how we seem to strive for a perfect world through repetitive reproduction and manipulation.
Nokukhanya Langa’s (1991, USA/ZA) work also leaves room for different possibilities, opportunities and (time) perspectives. In her art practice she reconciles the pluralities of her personal story with political and cultural history. Curious to know if there are other ways to take hold of it, her work is an exploration of figuration and abstraction, an inquiry into the loss of the image, and by extension, of reality in general.
Intuitively the artist balances these abstractions with more figuratively recognizable motifs: text, signs and drawings that are midway between cavemen drawings, sketches, scribbles, grafitti tags, signal signs and signatures. Constantly shifting back and forth between figuration and abstraction, Langa’s work is never simply unambiguous, finished or determined. On the contrary, by fading in and out, blurring, dismantling and building up, it is in a constant process of becoming.
In her oeuvre Almudena Lobera (1984, ES) reflects on the making of images and connects three important periods in the history of representation: that of the Renaissance, analogue photography and virtual reality. She investigates how we perceive images and studies the relationship between the subject, the object and the space and time in which both exist. The artist translates her findings into a unique narrative with its own context and language, a system of codes that attempts to reveal the relationship between reality and the image produced. The Technical Images series originated during a residency in Japan and was influenced by Lobera’s reading of Vilém Flusser’s Into the Universe of Technical Images. The philosopher predicted a drastic change in our perception and understanding of the environment through the creation of technical images.
By transcribing language through different media and technologies and conversely translating the mechanical and digital into traditional and analogue actions, the artist travels from the physical to the digital, through space and time. For instance, the vase-like sculptures remind us of objects from traditional Japanese domestic altars, but they were made using technical drawings (as is shown in their deconstruction). In another work as well, Lobera unites the present with the past, the virtual with the analogue. Non-volatile memory is a fragment of a Greek sculpture, a female face wearing lenses used by the artist. In this way the artist imposes her contemporary perception of reality on an ancient sculpture.
In ‘Future Tense of the Past’ Ellen Pil, Nokukhanya Langa and Almudena Lobera illustrate in an intriguing way the possibility of imagining and creating a new reality with building blocks from the past and present. Or how time, space and object become infinitely flowing entities.
Imágenes de la Exposición
Almudena Lobera 'Beauty Filter Masks (Stories #11)', 2020 — Cortesía de la artista
Entrada actualizada el el 25 ene de 2021
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