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
Made up of a familiar deployment of minimalist forms, the installation consists of a gallery plinth and a glass cube/aquarium filled with salt water. Thousands of tiny red shrimp/Sea Monkeys inhabit the aquarium, and what is created is a visual lifecycle of birth, life and death in the gallery. The aquarium was placed precariously on the edge of a plinth, where through human intervention or by accident, the sculpture could have been easily knocked over, killing the very 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)
