For Surf, Mimosa Echard’s second solo show at Martina Simeti, the
French artist presents a series of new works that have as their common thread electromagnetic
penetration, protection and other kinds of surface tension.
The exhibition is divided into three spaces. In the main gallery, the accelerated rhythm is dictated by a series of gridded canvases all of the same height (180cm). They are each covered with a layer of anti-radiation fabric, which is in turn covered with aluminium sheets. A bright, oxidised green bleeds out of the metallic surfaces.
In the lower room, a doll dressed as an astronaut peers out behind branches. Conceived as a ‘cover’ of the sculpture Untitled (Bébé Marie) by Joseph Cornell, currently exhibited at MoMA, Echard’s version houses the work within a microwave oven, placed inside a mirrored box.
Upstairs, photography re-emerges: money, a toy telephone, a Dan Graham postcard and various other partial objects are superimposed onto a self-portrait of the artist in a mirror, her body disappearing into the composition. This work is accompanied by the zine Bébé Marie (2023), made during a residency in New York, the artist combining images of 5G antennas, 80s Manhattan interiors and dolls in various evolutionary states.
The artist explains: “I wanted to explore the idea of interference and penetration (in the case of waves, which are permanent) and relate this overwhelming penetration to minimalism.”
The geometric, modular elements, recalling electrical and solar panels, doors, windows or even gates, are inherently contradictory, also promising to protect, block and shut out. Made with materials intrinsically linked to states of permanent paranoia (marketed to create “protective radiation-free bubbles” in the home) these works revise the minimalist desire to see “things as they are”, rather making “visible” our vulnerability (both psychic and physical) in the face of invisible forces.
