thank you, thank you

A structure of mounds holds a twig within a net. It protects it, yet keeps it captive. An ambivalence resides in this gesture; it appears uncharged, yet harbors both the negative and the positive. Like branches, its extensions reach outward, offered with intention and vulnerability. They give, yet what is taken from them again and again leaves them corrupted. These seemingly open figures move within a field of shifting states, and it is precisely within emptiness that an opening appears. A passage through which the world may be perceived without fixed contours. Fragmentary and fleeting, just as alive as it truly is. Like a formless entity, it folds itself into the world as a creature. Observing, imitating, absorbing. What we take in returns transformed, and what is offered never leaves us in the same form in which it arrived. At the end of 2023, June Fischer traveled to Shigaraki, one of Japan’s “Six Ancient Kilns,” to further develop her ceramic practice. In her work, she reflects on processes of observation and transformation, letting material, process, and environment merge. Central to her practice is the exploration of (ritual) offerings and gifts: what cultural differences shape the meaning and purpose of offerings and gifts in different societies? Margaux Koch works with metal, sound, balance, and found objects. Her work oscillates between art and jewelry. Through an ahistorical approach to time and memory, she develops a discourse that breaks away from patriarchal narratives, in which the body of the viewer functions as a resonant witness. In “thank you, thank you”, the artists investigate different forms of preservation, transformation, and giving.