Goshka Macuga
FIN, 2020
Woven tapestry, vinyl transfer
107 × 136 × 3 cm
Goshka Macuga
IT'S HOT IN HERE, 2020
Woven tapestry, screenprinted and foiled
110,5 × 140,5 × 3,3 cm
Installation view at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle
Photo: Wilfried Petzi
Installation view at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle
Photo: Wilfried Petzi
Goshka Macuga
Hidden Until Circumstances Are Suitable (Polar Bear and Wolf), 2020
Woven tapestry, screenprinted and foiled
132,5 × 142 × 3,3
Goshka Macuga
Discrete Model 005, 2019
Collage
59,4 × 42 cm
Goshka Macuga
Unapparent Woods, 2020
Woven tapestry, screenprinted and foiled
60 × 102 × 2,3 cm
Goshka Macuga
Latent Image (Vertical Silver), 2020
Woven tapestry, screenprinted and foiled
141,5 × 136,5 × 3,3 cm
Installation view at Galerie Schöttle
Photo: Wilfried Petzi
Goshka Macuga
Discrete Model 048, 2020
Collage
59,4 × 42 cm
Goshka Macuga
Discrete Model 007, 2020
Collage
59,4 × 42 cm
Goshka Macuga
Discrete Model 052, 2020
Collage
59,4 × 42 cm
Installation view at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle
Photo: Wilfried Petzi
Installation view at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle
Photo: Wilfried Petzi
Goshka Macuga
Details of "From Gondwana to Endangered, Who is the Devil Now?" 2020
3D tapestry, mixed yarns, woven
275 × 436 cm
Edition of 5 + AP
Goshka Macuga
Details of "From Gondwana to Endangered, Who is the Devil Now?" 2020
3D tapestry, mixed yarns, woven
275 × 436 cm
Edition of 5 + AP
Goshka Macuga
Details of "From Gondwana to Endangered, Who is the Devil Now?"
2020
3D tapestry, mixed yarns, woven
275 × 436 cm
Edition of 5 + AP
Goshka Macuga
From Gondwana to Endangered, Who is the Devil Now?, 2020
3D tapestry, mixed yarns, woven
275 × 436 cm
Edition von 5 + AP
Installation view at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle
Photo: Wilfried Petzi
"From Gondwana to Endangered, Who is the Devil Now?" is the latest iteration of Goshka Macuga’s large-scale 3D tapestry series, which deals with environmental problems we are currently facing as part of the Anthropocene. The work shows a piece of forest on fire, which recalls the multitude of devastating forest fires the world have had to endure in recent years. The fabric’s perspectival 3D effect virtually pulls us into the scene, making us part of the inferno. Protesting animals dressed as humans try to escape the fire that would constitute their certain death and their species’ possible extinction. The animal protesters are reminiscent of both the furry fandom subculture of the 1980s and nineteenth-century political animal caricatures. Theyhumorously and critically denounce today’s fire-and-brimstone politics as if we were already knee-deep in purgatory.
"Natural Transformation" is the exhibition’s title—a warning signal of sorts, not only insinuating human-made climate change but also hinting at Category Theory, a mathematical branch in which “natural transformation” creates new possibilities: an approach that Goshka Macuga pursues both in the new tapestry series and in the collages from the series "Discrete Model", which she has been working on since 2018. In the collages, Macuga lets us peek at the history of humankind, technological advancement, and into a posthuman future. The visualsequences appearing as if woven behind graph-paper grid are representative of the environmental crisis confronting us today. This interest in systematizing different disciplines of knowledge and creating a method similar to computer programming that allows Macuga to reconstruct groups of visual references in recurring patterns, is also evident in a new cycle of small-format tapestry works. In an act of destruction and recontextualization, using the systemic process of silkscreen printing, the artist creates woven and printed one-of-a-kind works from fragments of previously woven tapestries.
Goshka Macuga was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1967; studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Design and Goldsmiths, University of London, from 1991 to 1996. She lives and works in London. She is well known for her large-format tapestry works, but also for her installations using media as varied as collage, sculpture, video and performance. Her works are exhibited in numerous international and national institutions, including: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2019), Neues Museum, Nuremberg (2018), Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2018), Witte de With, Rotterdam (2017), Fondazione Prada, Milan (2016), New Museum, New York (2016), Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2016), Documenta 13 (2012), Venice Biennale (2009). In 2008 Goshka Macuga was nominated for the Turner Prize.
