Serial Dilution

Tarik Hayward’s work starts with technical research, a form of primitive engineering, an architecture of necessity for which the materials, and structural principles that bind them, express a logic of their own. Hayward stages natural processes, resonating with a multitude of strong, culturally connoted images. The work "pure life", named after water sold by the multinational corporation Nestle, presented in banal PET bottles was inspired by Hayward’s dialogue with Ariana Reines. After reading his horoscope, Reines challenged Hayward to make a piece with water. The liquid inside the bottles, called H2O, is pure, but the filiation of its content (completely harmless and drinkable) leads us straight into the slaughterhouses. To frame the scenery, the artist draws a copper barrier called “drop shadow” whose dissolution -corroded by water- has already begun. Terms such as “dark” or “dystopian” might be called to mind. But this depends on the view taken of the world. Anyone disappointed by roses, growth, and wealth accumulation can also see Hayward's work as a form of release from that continuous stagnation called progress. -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Tarik Hayward (*1979 in Ibiza) Lives and works in La Vallée de Joux (CH) Recent solo shows include Archifossile at Cima Norma art Foundation in Ticino, 2021; Resolutions: Zero. Hopes: Zero. at the Centre Cultrel Suisse Paris; Neutral Density at the Musée cantonal des beaux-arts, Lausanne, 2017. Tarik Hayward’s works were awarded the Swiss Art Awards in 2018; the Swiss Award for Performance, Kunstraum, Baden in 2012; the Irène Reymond Award in 2014; and the Accrochage Vaud Award in 2016. He was also the 2019 Studio Resident of Pro Helvetia in Beijing.