Niko Abramidis &NE, Cryptic Machine Prototype N6, 2020

2020

Medium

Steel and LED tubes

Dimensions

133 × 50 cm

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-156091

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. In contrast to other works from the series, Cryptic Machine Prototype N6 (2020) has neither controls nor screens. Only the characters N, € and rectangular incisions, from which mysterious blue light emerges, give indications of the function as an ATM. In addition to the precisely lasered symbols, a hand-drawn welding seam entices the eye of the viewer. On the one hand it seems like a no longer comprehensible sign of a repair job, on the other hand like a signature or some humorous comment on a relic of bygone times.