Niko Abramidis &NE, Cryptic Machine Prototype Ω1, 2020

2020

Medium

Steel, pinpad, LED tubes, LCD screen and video loop (00:56 min)

Dimensions

125 × 230 cm

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-155999

As if from some kind of strategic corporate management plan, large, machine-like works from Niko Abramidis &NE's series of Cryptic Machine Prototypes, initiated in 2018, hang on the walls. The raw steel surfaces, from the openings of which colored light emerges, as well as symbols, screens and pinpads, indicate possible functions as machines or control elements, the functionality of which has disappeared or at least is no longer understandable. The integrated videos play with the aesthetics of image films from banks and companies that have long gone insolvent. The images of nature, broken by fading in a code, are reminiscent of greenwashing campaigns by large companies. In the Cryptic Machine Prototypes, symbols and technologies from different times seem to collide, creating an archeology of the future that can no longer be deciphered. With an ironic eye, Niko Abramidis &NE designs prototypes of machines from other times and places them in the present with an archaeological patina. With these works, the artist distorts comprehensible time horizons and thus refers to the economic processes of our time that have become impenetrable due to their complexity. The letter Omega is engraved on the steel surface of Cryptic Machine Prototype Ω1 (2020). The last character of the Greek alphabet is universally symbolic for The End. Like an machine from the future, this work gives an outlook on the coming times of our capitalist world and its downfall. In contrast to the precisely lasered symbols, there is a hand-welded sign in the upper left corner, which can be seen on the one hand as a marking that has become incomprehensible with time, on the other hand as a note or a comment. This sign is inspired by New York construction workers, who leave drawings on steel plates while repairing road damage.