Between Realities is a dual exhibition presenting new and recent works of Japanese-French design duo, Aki+Arnaud Cooren, in dialogue with the works of German-born contemporary artist Thomas Demand. The exhibition develops the themes underpinning both artist’s creative oeuvres that lean into the visual play between “what is real” and “what is illusion”.
In their minimalist Tiss-Tiss series, Aki+Arnaud succinctly combine the harshness of metal with the fragile poetry of fabric. They developed a special manufacturing process which incorporates the process of sand-casting to achieve the appearance of intricate, handmade detail on the object’s surface. They mould a silicone duplicate of an original cardboard and linen master model, which is then sand-cast in aluminium, and dyed in colour. The duo experimented with this technique already in 2017 when their first Tiss-Tiss low chair which was awarded the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for l’intelligence de la main (the intelligence of the hand). It took them almost four years to develop the process, further resulting in a large amount of works which complete the Tiss-Tiss collection.
The Tiss-Tiss artworks display a relief of fabric on the surface and sewn stitch imprints on the edges of each sand-cast colourfully patinated aluminium component. The artists capture a moment in time during which the linen fabric is carefully laid out and emphasize the beauty of traditional hand-weaving techniques and the resulting irregularities in the cloth. The fluid impression of the textile imprint is juxtaposed with the architectonic, self-supporting structure of the rigid aluminium plates.
The Buddhist philosophy of Impermanence is an important influence on the collection, as is the art of Keisuke Serizawa (1895-1984), a textiles master and previously a Living National Treasure of Japan, of whom Aki’s father was a student for some time. Serizawa’s Waterfall (1962), a depiction of a narrow waterfall silk-screen printed onto blue-dyed cloth, is exemplary of their shared philosophy; the linear flow of the waterfall equates to that of time, of which Serizawa takes a snapshot, creating stillness from fluidity. So too do Aki+Arnaud fix an arrangement of fluid fabric into metal as a means of preservation, contrasting rigidity with perceived softness.
Such a level of detail achieved by their masterful casting process, that the metal exhibits an illusory trompe-l’oeil effect. This visual dissonance between form and surface immediately questions the nature of the work, and more importantly its use. For Aki+Arnaud design is a matter of context and harmony, and of sharing an idea, so it is paramount that their works’ functional relationship with its surroundings is questioned. They appreciate that the relationship between any two objects or concepts is transient, as shifting as the strands of fabric on which their forms are modelled.
In a similar manner Thomas Demand suspends disbelief; meticulously captures ephemeral models through a camera. Demand’s photographs may seem objective and innocuous, but each scene is in fact handmade sculptural environment, rather than the real world they appear to capture. The artists are also linked via an appreciation of architectural forms, as well as an interest in ephemerality. Demand’s sculptures live on in his photographs.
The French philosopher, Jean Baudrillard, has an immense impact on the practice of both Aki+Arnaud Cooren and Thomas Demand. The duplicity inherent in this exhibition parallels French philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s thesis, ‘Simulacra and Simulation’. Whereas in Aki+Arnaud’s works, aluminium becomes a simulacrum of fabric, in Thomas’s art, paper becomes a simulacrum of reality – both stimulate viewers to question the reality of the world that surrounds them.
