Andrej Lamut & Maruša Uhan: Drastic Measures [curated by ETC. Magazine]

The exhibition Drastic Measures brings together the work of Maruša Uhan and Andrej Lamut. Each in their own way, the artists delve into phenomena and situations that are, for the most part, a completely invisible part of our everyday lives, until they reach such extremes that they begin to affect us. Thus, phenomena that was initially quite ordinary become the focus of our interest or that which directly influences our experience of the world. It is then that their dark sides, their sinister images and our human smallness come to the surface.

 

In his project Invasive Alien Species (2021), photographer Andrej Lamut turns his focus to invasive plant species that infiltrate foreign ecosystems and start displacing indigenous species. Because he started working on the project during the epidemic, when public life grinded to a halt, he directed his gaze towards the immediate surroundings of his home, where he discovered a surprisingly large number of plant invaders. He removed these intruders from their environment, meticulously documented them and visually presented them as true “aliens”. In abstract and hermetic forms on paper, they assume unusual shapes that seem foreign and unrecognizable, as well as evidently organic. The effect is further intensified by the direct application of emulsion onto paper. The images are captured on paper made from Japanese knotweed, an invasive species – whereby the medium – in addressing the issues of discarded paper and our general disdainful attitude towards plants – complements the content of the work. The series Invasive Alien Species is a commentary on the environmental disaster and the gradual destruction of ecosystems, as well as our understanding of invasiveness and alienness, and of the threat they represent.

 

Maruša Uhan's project High-maintenance (2022–) is an ode to weather and an abstract attempt to track and understand this omnipresent phenomenon. Through a collage of different facts about weather and weather-related changes, the video essay’s focus is predominantly on the human desire to observe, get to know and predict the weather. Despite weather forecasting technology being rather advanced, weather forecasts often turn out to be never-ending games of chance, more akin to gambling than science. In fact, meteorological forecasting has given rise to a special kind of gambling – betting on the weather. By researching this type of (illegal) betting in Cambodia and on the internet, Maruša Uhan explores the paradox of our urge to understand the weather in combination with our absolute inability to control it. Instead of the expected images of the weather, the video consists of shots of foamy soap cyclones and storms created by revolving carwash brushes. The artist understands these as microsimulations of weather – the only spaces where humans have the local climate under complete control. The artificial environment, with its atmosphere and cyclicality, resembles a small storm that can not only be accurately predicted but also mechanically controlled down to the tiniest detail. The romantic slow-motion scenes of the scrubbing carwash brushes spinning carry a sentiment of melancholy that evokes intimate memories of rainy days, while the choreography of endless spins immerses us in the monotony of controlled chaos.

Mastering the unmanageable is an endeavour that Maruša Uhan and Andrej Lamut address in their works. In doing so, they do not document the actual human effort of subjugating forces that are stronger than us, but show us everyday phenomena in a new light. They visualise the untamability of ecosystems and the elusiveness of weather through objects and concepts that testify to the invisibility of the omnipresent, until its revelation in a moment of discomfort or threat that creates a desire for understanding and control.

 

Curated by: ETC. Magazine

 

 

Andrej Lamut (1991) is a photographer exploring a variety of different analogue and digital photographic techniques in his work. He considers photographs to be physical objects that are meant to be seen, felt and experienced. In 2016, he graduated with honours from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. He has received several awards for his work, including the Prešeren Award for Students and the award for the best designed monograph at the 33^rd Slovenian Book Fair. As an emerging artist, he represented Slovenia in the first series of exhibitions organised by the international photo platform Parallel Photo in 2018 and exhibited his work at the FORMAT festival in Great Britain and the Organ Vida Festival in Croatia. He is represented by Galerija Fotografija in Ljubljana.

 

Maruša Uhan (1994) is a graduate of the Minerva Art Academy in Groningen in the Netherlands. Her art practice is characterised by themes related to naivety, its gradual loss in the process of growing up and the eventual transformation into a socially desirable individual. Her works can be understood as a commentary on society’s stance and our everyday actions. She has exhibited her work in a variety of different exhibitions in the past years, among others in High-maintenance at the P74 gallery (2022), the online exhibition The Wrong Biennale (2022), at Galerija Nočna izložba Pešak (2022), and Kamera in Kino Šiška in Ljubljana (2021), IG Bildende Kunst in Vienna (2019), Simulaker in Novo mesto (2019), Art on the Edge in Leeuwarden (2018), Kolla festival, Steinfort Mirador in Luxembourg (2017) and Y2 in Groningen (2017). She was a resident of Rucka Artist Residency in Latvia in 2021, Open Studio, DobraVaga in Ljubljana in 2018, and Antropical in Luxembourg in 2017. Starting last year, she took over part of the organisation and curatorial work in the new gallery space Portal 2-7-7-7-8 in Ljubljana.