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”Creatures of the Mud” @ Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster

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“Creatures of the Mud” by no means refers to zombies or other creatures, but is meant as a metaphor for all living beings. “I’m a creature of the mud not the sky”, stated Donna J. Haraway in her introduction to “When Species Meet”, published in 2008. As a biologist and historian of science, Haraway opposes the religiously underpinned idea of humankind as an exceptional phenomenon earmarked for supremacy on Earth.

“To be one is always to become with many”, explains Haraway, duly evincing her fascination for the genomes of bacteria, fungi, protists and symbionts, as well as other species that serve as a prerequisite for materiality and vitality, as well as our very existence. Human beings are not singled in this scenario by virtue of their given reason (or lack of it) but inhabit a dynamic entanglement constituted by both intra- and interaction for those “who are to be in the world”.

The question regarding the degree of how integrated we are in intra-actions and reciprocal relationships is a key concern in the exhibition. “Creatures of the Mud” is interested in the ways we know what we know and how our research situates us in the world. Thus, this particular configuration of artworks is motivated by the idea of an ecology of cohabitation in the exhibition space, in which the stories the works tell and the sensual world they generate create a communal cosmos. This site is populated by all manner of creatures – fictional figures, mythical entities, bacteria, marine organisms, synthetic materials, insects, fruit and vegetables, as well as living individuals in the true sense of the word.

 

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Creatures of the Mud, exhibition view, photo: Thorsten Arendt
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Creatures of the Mud, exhibition view, photo: Thorsten Arendt
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Creatures of the Mud, exhibition view with Madison Bycroft’s Fulcrum (2016) and Liza Dieckwisch’s Digitaldruck (2016), photo: Thorsten Arendt
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Creatures of the Mud, exhibition view with Madison Bycroft’s Lines (2016) and Liza Dieckwisch’s Silikon, PVC, Folie, Latex, Acryl, Glitter, Acrylglas, Kordel (2016), photo: Thorsten Arendt
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Creatures of the Mud, exhibition view with Liza Dieckwisch’s Acryl, Latex, Silikon, Lametta, Plastikfolie (2012-16), photo: Thorsten Arendt
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Creatures of the Mud, exhibition view with Madison Bycroft’s Taxonomy Table (2016) and Liza Dieckwisch’sPaillettenstoff, Stoff, Kunstleder, Stecknadel (2016), photo: Thorsten Arendt
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Creatures of the Mud, exhibition view witb a detial of Madison Bycroft’s Taxonomy Table (2016), photo: Thorsten Arendt
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Creatures of the Mud, exhibition view with Mehreen Murtaza’s … how will you conduct yourself in the company of trees (2015-16), photo: Thorsten Arendt
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Creatures of the Mud, exhibition view with Madison Bycroft’s Rag of Cloth: Ode to the Vampire Squid (2014-16), photo: Thorsten Arendt
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Creatures of the Mud, exhibition view with Gabó Bartha’s Untitled (excerpts of an archive) (2010-16), photo: Thorsten Arendt

 

Artist Talk with Madison Bycroft
Saturday, 21 May at 11am

Guided tours with Lena Johanna Reisner
Thursday, 2 June at 6pm
Sunday, 3 July at 2pm

plugin Talk with Dr Philipp Kleinmichel
“Über die finanziellen Realitäten der Kunst”
Wednesday, 22 June at 7pm

plugin Reading Group
“
 Über die finanziellen Realitäten der Kunst”
Wednesday, 1 June at 5pm

“Creatures of the Mud” is part of the INTERREG VA project plugin, based at Schloss Ringenberg. It is funded by the European Union and its associates. The exhibition is supported by the Embassy of the Islamic Republic
of Pakistan in Berlin.

Westfälischer Kunstverein
Gabó Bartha, Madison Bycroft, Liza Dieckwisch, Tue Greenfort and Mehreen Murtaza
Curated by Lena Johanna Reisner,
Guest curator, plugin Schloss Ringenberg
21 May – 3 July 2016
Rothenburg 30
48143 Münster

Opening Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 11am-7pm