Andreas Greiner exhibition in Berlin - Dittrich & Schlechtriem Gallery till the 23rd of June 2018.

I was invited to a talking event. When I arrived at the venue I barged into the room  in which I thought the event was taking place only to find that there was a film screening instead. I interrupted the film screening but instead of being kicked out by the organisers they asked me to stay and watch the film. The film director came forward with two other people on his team and said we need someone who is not part of the group to give an honest opinion about the film; if you see anything that doesn't look right, or sound right, please let us know, we are fed up with people telling us how wonderful our film is  and we just want an honest opinion before showing it to a wider audience. So I said ok as I was told the original event I was supposed to attend had been moved. I watched the entire film which actually was very good. At the end the film director and his team came forward and said: what did you think? I said it's very good, I enjoyed it but there is a scene towards the middle of the film that is not right, the sequence is not right. Great they said, Thanks for that, we will rectify it. They gave me some free tickets for another event, which was cool!

Photo By Andreas Greiner courtesy of Pinterest

Andreas Greiner is a Berlin based artist who works with bacteria, as for example in his work 'Roundabout' a gyroscope sculpture that when moved spins a cube containing bioluminescent bacteria to create a natural glow. The photographs entitled 'Entladung' are a series of explosions see pic above that took place in different parts of Berlin between 2012-2013; 'Flygate' depicts a machine that lets flies get out of the room through a motorised gate managed by a camera sensor. He takes photographs of chickens, making portraits of them, including radiography images of their skeletons, DNA sequencing from a liver sample, and portraits of living entities.

Photo by Andreas Greiner  courtesy of http://www.andreasgreiner.com

These are entitled Studie (Portrait) zur Singularitat des Tieres and include pictures that range from microscopic algae to a rooster called Heinrich see pic above. Chickens are ancient birds in terms of evolution; nowadays, sadly, one associates them with mass production and consumption and fattening of the birds for their commercial value. It took him some time to find someone who gave him a chicken that had died in an industrial plant due to its rapidly  acquired body weight which had led to the chicken's legs breaking. He cleaned the chicken, froze it, and took it to a laboratory for a precise CT scan, thereby producing a final 3D model. The dead chicken had turned into a digital archive.

The live element of the exhibition performs, it is about time and space and the process of living. The works defy traditional sculpture, movement is an intrinsic part of them showing the abnormal life span of the industrial chicken. He has a keen interest in the microscopic world; he grows his own bioluminescent algae for use in his work see pic below. We use algae in food, in gardening. He is also trying to show  organisms as individuals, seen as distinctive subjects and not just as what they bring in terms of consumption for humans.

Photo by Andreas Greiner courtesy of Pinterest

The portrait series highlights the unseen, making visible something that is usually overlooked and taken for granted. A close bond between humans and one of the oldest living beings on the planet is suggested. His work requires specialised technology and working at close contact with scientists and different institutions. He utilises scientific methods combined with aesthetic vision. Examples of this  are his canvases that include bacteria cultures see pic below which are left to develop under natural processes, creating living artworks, which are open to different futures including unanticipated accidents.

Photo by Andreas Greiner courtesy of Pinterest.

He seeks to see beauty in the unexpected, in the unnoticed everyday, and his works make you think about the relationship between humans and other lifeforms on the planet; what are the boundaries between man & other living creatures? The human footprint is everywhere and is the overpowering creative force on the planet, impacting on other living creatures. Humans are now recreating nature and taking over from natural processes. He said in an interview: My view is rather characterised by my generation's estrangement from nature,  the dissolving border that man is creating between technology and nature.

In the exhibition at Dittrich & Schelechtriem entitled Hybrid Matter, this specific work looks at how humans manipulate and reconstruct nature through genetic engineering while speculating on the future of mankind's own genetic code. What is the essence of 'nature' in an age of digitalisation and synthetic biology? Nature has been modified by man - an example is genetically modified crops this showing human manipulation of nature for the benefit of humans.

Photo by Andreas Greiner courtesy of Dittrich -Schlechtriem Gallery.

The first thing one sees in the exhibiton is Replicating Seed which shows cell division. This is followed by Edit Yourself KIT. Also in the main room is: The Molecular Ordering of Computational Plants created in collaboration with Tyler Friedman, who worked on the music and text.

Along the walls are a new series of photographs showing magnified microscopic cellular clusters, cancer tumour cells, and syntethic bacteria created by the Craig Venter Institute. As with the pictures of chickens these are considered to be portraits in their own right.
http://www.dittrich-schlechtriem.com/exhibitions/hybrid-matter/