Niko Abramidis &NE, Cryptic Machine Prototype A, 2018

2018

Medium

Steel, pinpad, LED tubes, LCD screen and HD video loop (33'')

Dimensions

125 × 231 cm

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-156205

The wall sculpture Cryptic Machine Prototype A (2018) by the Munich artist Niko Abramidis &NE reflects his constant preoccupation with economic structures. The work is inspired by massive steel plates that New York construction workers use to quickly repair the metropolis' road damage. The hot-rolled steel surface, out of which which blue light emerges through meticulously cut openings, as well as an embedded pinpad and a screen, provide clues to its function as an ATM in which past and future time merge: the gloomy "machine" seems to come from an apocalyptic future in which the former functionality has disappeared and is no longer comprehensible. Carved emblems, such as Ω and ∑ above the slits give possible clues as to its purpose: the pinpad could activate the machine and the screen above it could show an image film of a long since insolvent bank. The engraved initials NE stand above it like a company logo and are at the same time the signature of the artist. Cryptic Machine Prototype A was part of the exhibition “ars viva. MYST ECON“ im Kai 10 Arthena Foundation, Düsseldorf in 2019. Abramidis &NE presented an installation reminiscent of office spaces in which the artist creates fictitious corporate identities and appropriates forms of expression from the financial economy. In a language game of signs, symbols and ciphers, he creates parallel universes in his art that draw a picture of our present.