ARTIST PROFILE

martinka bobrikova  & oscar de carmen

  • Slovakia (b. 1981 in Bratislava)
  • artist duo
Superfluous Identity IV

Superfluous Identity IV

  • 2015

  • Sound, objects and visual elements intertwine to encapsulate the viewer into this strange, superfluous identity with “pictographed” heartbeats via the cardiogram-like black tape stripes at the floor and the filtered soundscape.

  • Img 3562 portfolio
  • Aol 1373 w329 h497
  • Aol 1400 w662 h438
  • Img 9354 mala
  • Superfluous Identity III - thumbnail Superfluous Identity IV - thumbnail superfluous identity I - thumbnail superfluous identity II - thumbnail

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    superfluous identity | 2015

In all editions the authors sensitively and metaphorically examined effects of the capitalist financial system and its impact on individuals and their social systems, particularly in relation to industrial production. Cacophonous heartbeat of industrial sounds, as well as positions and trajectories of the objects within the space of the gallery can be seen as a record of contradictory discontinuities between past and present currently in spasm, and the future we can not yet fully grasp. Although our position somewhere 'inbetween' is articulated through sounds referring to Czech industrial businesses, the interest of the artist duo is not limited to the local environment, but is linked to the above mentioned global situation. Sounds of factories, both the ones that are long gone and the ones that are still in operation, continuously appear in our work as an often overlooked layer of our social and economic environments. And while evoking a certain uneasiness, the show provokes an unknown joy of what can happen once the king is dead. With projects such as Superfluous Identity we have been questioning also the status — and potential — of waste and the superfluous that is generated by our consumerist capitalist society. In our often site specific and temporary installations we use a variety of materials that are normally regarded as waste and deprived of their original function. As to hint at their possible use — in turn a metaphor for possible identities — we displace them into new contexts along with humble everyday life materials.