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Alicja Kwade
Big Be-Hide
2018
Granite, aluminium, mirror, powder coated stainless steel
190 x 230 x 270 cm; 74 3/4 x 90 1/2 x 106 1/3 in
Alicja Kwade’s Be-Hide sculptures explore the question of “being”. A found natural stone is replicated several times over in different materials. The replicas are each separated by a mirror. In Kwade’s works, mirrors open up the vistas into seemingly endless parallel worlds, into theoretical multiple existences of the same object in different circumstances. The mirror serves merely as a tool for transforming real-world objects, and simultaneously reproducing and remodelling them as though in a prism. For the work to achieve its effect, the observer must move around it and constantly change perspective, causing them to question their own perception.
Her mixed-media works manipulate mental perceptions and physical experiences of how the body inhabits space and time. Primarily focused on sculpture but often straying into photography and video, Kwade’s practice centres on a compelling series of mind exercises: thought experiments with space and time, jumps into parallel worlds and infinite possibilities, and wildly imaginative explorations of what’s real and what’s not.