Anna K.E.: REARMIRRORVIEW, Simulation is Simulation, is Simulation, is Simulation

23 September - 9 October, 2022

REARMIRRORVIEW, Simulation is Simulation, is Simulation, is Simulation… (2019) is a large-scale architectural environment by Artist Anna K.E. (b. 1986, Tbilisi, Georgia). Originally conceived for the Georgian Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia in 2019, the project has been newly reconfigured for the space 'TEC', and encompasses the artist’s work in video, sculpture, performance, and installation. Trained as a classical ballet dancer, K.E. has an acute sense of how the body moves through space, and her fluid architectural environments suggest a choreography, leading viewers to weave in and around her installations. Her whimsical videos feature her own body as protagonist, restricted, contorted, or isolated, often pointing toward an evolving interdependency between our corporeal and digital selves.

K.E.’s structure is equal parts public stage, ascending and descending tribunal platform, communal fountain, and sculptural object of observation. Her rising plateaus constructed of steel framework and brightly colored powder-coated tiles recalls a matrix of digital pixels at low resolution, transporting viewers into an environment that suggests a sleek synthetic model. As her title suggests, K.E. here creates a mirror whereby transitional processes are inverted and a flat simulation is crafted into a vibrant multi-dimensional landscape.

Interspersed throughout the installation are a compendium of K.E.’s videos as well as steel faucet-like sculptures that are based on the original Georgian alphabet, Asomtavruli. Water circulates through the letters in a continuous stream, suggesting a purifying and unifying substance that transverses the structures’ binary poles—each a negative image of the other. The letters phonetically spell the English word ‘deranged’, which refers to something that has become disturbed, irrational, or unstable—a mistranslation that may unhinge commonplace connections between language, form, and perception. As systems we once thought to be stable now reveal themselves to be mere facades, precariously balanced, or even on the verge of collapse, K.E.’s works remind us of the fundamental idiosyncrasies we share, and which keep us human.

Anna K.E. was born in 1986 in Tbilisi, Georgia. K.E. attended the famous Vakhtang Chabukiani classical ballet school from 1995-2000, and in 2000 K.E. moved to Germany. In 2002 at 15 years old K.E. became one of the youngest students ever to attend the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart. In 2004, she moved on to one of the most respected art schools in Germany – the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf – where she received her diploma degree as well as Meisterschülertitel with professors Georg Herold and Christopher Williams in 2010.

During and after her studies Anna K.E. received numerous awards and prizes including the Rotary Club Scholarship 2007; the Audi Art Award 2008 for progressive performance; the ISCP artist residency 2009, NYC; and the Herbert Zapp prize for young art 2012. In 2010 after finishing her studies in Germany K.E. moved to New York to attend the ISCP International Studio & Curatorial Program, with the financial support by the German government (DAAD Scholarship; NRW Travelscholarship; Kunststiftung NRW). Since completing the program, K.E. lives and works in both NYC and Berlin.

Anna K.E. is represented by the New York based Simone Subal Gallery, and has had solo shows there in 2013, 2015, 2018, 2020 and 2022 and by the Berlin based Galerie Barbara Thumm with solo shows in 2013, 2015 and 2020. The galleries regularly exhibit her work at local and international art fairs including Frieze New York, Art Basel Miami, Armory New York, ARCO Madrid, LISTE Basel, and ZONAMACO Mexico, among others.

Anna K.E. had her first institutional solo show at the Queens Museum in 2017, and has also shown at institutions such as The Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, De (2020); Kunstpalais Erlangen, Germany (2019); Queens Museum, New York, USA (2017-2018); Primary, Nottingham, UK (2017); The Kitchen, NYC (2015); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, CA (2015); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Atlanta, USA (2015); The Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL, USA (2012); and The III Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow, Russia (2012); Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Germany (2011); Museum K21, Düsseldorf (2010); Cobra Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2009); and Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, Germany (2009).

In 2012 Hatje Cantz published Anna K.E.’s first monograph entitled “A well-to-do man is cruising in his fancy car when a small hen runs out on the road in front…”.

Satellite Project of Georgian National Museum.

Sponsors: Adjara Group, D Block, Ernst & Young, SOLO, Goethe Institut.