Alembic Growl

Nina Wiesnagrotzki & Maximilian Schmoetzer
Curated by Florian Fischer

Komplot
Chaussée de Forest 90 Vorstesteenweg
1060 Brussels

Nina Wiesnagrotzki and Maximilian Schmoetzer live and work in Berlin. For their show at Komplot "Alembic Growl" they confront a piece that the two artists created in a collaborative praxis with two videos and a number of sculptures of each of their individual practice.

Principle

So from the root
Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves
More aery, last the bright consummate flower
Spirits odorous breathes: flowers and their fruit,
Their nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed,
To vital spirits aspire, to animal,
To intellectual, give both life and sense,
Fancy and understanding, whence the Soul
Reason receives, and Reason is their being,
Discursive or intuitive: discourse
Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours
Differing but in degree, of kind the ’same.

Poem from Milton ‘Out Of Paradise Lost’ 

Ainsi de la racine 
S’élance plus légère la verte tige; de celle-ci sortent les feuilles 
Plus aériennes, enfin la fleur parfaite exhale 
Ses esprits odorants: Les fleurs et leur fruit, 
Nourriture de l’homme, volatilisés dans une échelle graduelle, 
Aspirent aux esprits vitaux, animaux, 
Intellectuels; ils donnent à la fois la vie et le sentiment, 
L’imagination et l’entendement, d’où l’âme 
Reçoit la raison. La raison discursive ou intuitive 
Est l’essence de l’âme: La raison discursive 
Vous appartient le plus souvent, l’intuitive appartient surtout à nous; 
Ne différant qu’en degrés, en espèces elles sont les mêmes.

The Alembic, an alchemistic apparatus that served the distillation of beverages/spirits. Nowadays, the alembic distills digital assets into application-independent sets of baked geometry. Whereas the Growl is a hostile sound made by an animal; perhaps a thrill of anticipation. A bird named after the ancient Queen of Palmyra, Zenobia. Only a few of her colony remained, last seen near the ruins of Palmyra before the invasion of Daesh. Zenobia possesses a limitless capacity to soak up our grief. An ancient Chinese seismograph, showcasing two mythological animals (the dragon and the toad), was said to detect the growling of the earth. Pedestrians falling into sinkholes, cavities in the ground that appear suddenly due to the corrosion of the earth, like open mouths. The earth devours us. Finally. A vest made of ​toad leather, finely preserved amphibian skin, relic/memento/reminder of an entity of worship. An Ibis, fragile and broken, upside down, its head conserved in burlap weavings, a found object and DHL-damaged victim of logistics. Fossilized toads with glass orbs/spheres in their mouths, like fortune tellers of a past plague, hand modeled. We can digitally resurrect/reinvent the bygone and the lost. The outcome can be replayed endlessly/again and again, finding access into the habits/banality of our everyday lives. Perspectives change, synthetic/false materials dismantle and unsettle. The replica migrates and disguises. The bird, the toad and the dragon mutter in a deep guttural tone with each other, radiating attraction rather than deterrence. A pendulum hangs motionless, visible from outside. Wired in the center of the space, it marks/claims its own territory. As an indicator of tremor it is loaded with an expectation to start swinging. Nina Wiesnagrotzki and Maximilian Schmoetzer live and work in Berlin. For their show "Alembic Growl“ at Komplot, they present two new videos, multiple sculptures of each of their individual practice, and a pendulum created in collaboration.

Text by Florian Fischer 

Nina Wiesnagrotzki and Maximilian Schmoetzer live and work in Berlin. For their show at Komplot "Alembic Growl" they confront a piece that the two artists created in a collaborative praxis with two new videos and a number of sculptures of each of their individual practice.

Titles: 

Pendulum (glass, copper, steel, iron, clay, plastic foil, 2017) Nina Wiesnagrotzki and Maximilian Schmoetzer

Zenobia in the heavens knows her seasons and keeps the time of her arrival (clay, burlap, 2017) Maximilian Schmoetzer

Salon of Clicks (video 7min, Komplot Edit, 2017) Maximilian Scmoetzer

Di Dong Yi (2),( 2nd part of a video series, 3min, 2017) Nina Wiesnagrotzki Credits: sinkhole footage filmed in Hanzhong, Shanxi Province, China by Yang Fan 

 Zhangs balls of eight, (8cm, 2 of 8 laser engraved glass balls, cardboardbox) Nina Wiesnagrotzki

Weskit, (toad leather, cotton, wire, 2017) Nina Wiesnagrotzkiπ