Installation View (Detail): HilbertRaum Gallery, Berlin, Germany | Exhibition: PORTRAIT OF A PLANET ON THE VERGE OF CATASTROPHE (2019)

PORTRAIT OF A PLANET ON THE VERGE OF CATASTROPHE


Format: glass cube / aquarium (30cm x 30cm x 30cm), water, salt, Artemia salina / Sea Monkeys, shrimp food, eggs, pedestal (120cm x 30cm x30cm)
Date: 2019


Comprising familiar minimalist forms, the installation features a gallery plinth and a glass cube aquarium filled with salt water. Thousands of tiny red shrimp, or Sea Monkeys, inhabit the aquarium, creating a visual lifecycle of birth, life, and death within the gallery. The aquarium is precariously placed on the edge of the plinth, where, through human intervention or by accident, it could easily be knocked over, endangering the large community of Sea Monkeys.

 

Exhibited: PORTRAIT OF A PLANET ON THE VERGE OF CATASTROPHE, HilbertRaum Gallery, Berlin, Germany, 2019

Installation View: HilbertRaum Gallery, Berlin, Germany | Exhibition: PORTRAIT OF A PLANET ON THE VERGE OF CATASTROPHE (2019)

Detail View 1: PORTRAIT OF A PLANET ON THE VERGE OF CATASTROPHE (2019)

Detail View 2: PORTRAIT OF A PLANET ON THE VERGE OF CATASTROPHE (2019)

Detail View 3: PORTRAIT OF A PLANET ON THE VERGE OF CATASTROPHE (2019)

“Doherty uses a cross-disciplinary approach that highlights ethical quandaries of human progress and resilience. His artworks routinely question the legitimacy of different modern day power structures, oftentimes setting up parameters that allow for viewer engagement. One of his new sculptural pieces which inspired the title of the exhibition – „Portrait Of A Planet On The Verge Of Catastrophe“ – consists of a biosemiotic environment that seeks to critically address notions of our ecological future, our interrelationships with different ecosystems and how the natural world can often appear immutable until it suddenly collapses. Passive bystanders usually act as the social pillars of human catastrophe: the masses fail to evaluate appropriately their own position in the given situation, and their role as agents and accomplices. Doherty’s new work addresses this diffuse sense of responsibility, without offering apologies or solutions. His artworks for this exhibition are direct, double-edged and pretty unforgiving.”


Press Release:
PORTRAIT OF A PLANET ON THE VERGE OF CATASTROPHE, Maurice Doherty & David Sherry | HilbertRaum Berlin, Germany (2019)