Almine Rech Shanghai is pleased to present the fifth solo exhibition of Tursic & Mille with the gallery. The exhibition will be on view from January 15 to March 06, 2021.
Experiencing Tursic & Mille’s art is like swimming in a swamp of images. There is no hierarchy between the two; both of them call the shots, and the various elements in the pictures are results of conversations and mutual resistance. But there are more voices and exchanges than just their own. They also incorporate others’ visual languages: many of the paintings and sculptural works appropriate existing images (it was reported in Artforum that the duo has a collection of more than 140,000 images); besides using images found online, they also cut out pages from magazines, and allow these to collect paint and dust in the studio, effectively producing new traces and destroying the images. In turn and before long, the images cease to exist as fast moving consumer goods, and just as quickly become objects as such, living an afterlife, going in parallel with Tursic & Mille’s artistic practice that, based upon existing images, marks, unmarks and remarks traces in a language that is similar to Polke’s, Richter’s and Ruscha’s. As images come and go, consumed by viewers’ attention, capital and (religious, art history, scientific and cinematic) sign systems, whether the indigestible, the non consumable remains? Bruno Latour talks about the act of and motivation for Iconoclasm as destruction itself, but it is not as certain whether, on the other hand, Iconoclash is constructive or destructive. Just as uncertain and suspended is the creation of image. Defilement of sacred icons is a human act that sabotages the sacredness of icons, but in Iconoclash, defacing a face entails the birth of a new one.