Music for shipping containers

Jan Vorisek

25 June – 9 September 2022

Private view: 24 June 2022, 6-8pm

Arcadia Missa is proud to present Music for shipping containers, a solo exhibition by Jan Vorisek.

The work of Jan Vorisek brings together a repurposing of materials, systems and symbols that serve to highlight the codes in which power, control and subversion operate, as well as the various channels through which (commodity) fetishism inserts itself.

While Vorisek’s work spans sculpture, installation, performance and sound, Music for shipping containers functions as a framework through which a new body of sculptures is unveiled, interconnected through their shared materials, motifs and a musical score.

An extension of Vorisek’s studio practice, the works comprise found materials, made and altered objects and surfaces, to create assemblages on modular components. These reference architectural models, furniture, city planning as well as global systems of consumption — through which objects travel. Packing items become the objects themselves, painted and framed into Perspex. The act of looking down gives the viewer a sense of control, as do the nods to controlled subversion within the accumulated and contained items. Above, a drone sound permeates the space, implying surveillance and signalling the birdseye view implanted onto the floor of the gallery.

Jan Vorisek (b. 1987, Basel, CH) lives and works in Zürich, CH. Recent solo exhibitions include No Sun, Swiss Institute, New York, US (2021); Song For Dead Time, Galerie Bernhard, Zürich, CH (2020); Collapse Poem, Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus, CH (2020); and Crisis Instrument, Observation Society presented by Bottom Space, Guangzhou, CN (2018). Recent group exhibitions include Crowd Control, High Art with Arcadia Missa, Arles, FR (2022); Techno, Museion, Bolzano, IT (2021); Blind Date, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, CH (2019); and Its Urgent, Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Luma Westbau, Zürich, CH (2019).

List of works:

  1. False World, 2022
    PLA, latex milk, paint, lacquer 18 cm ø 21 cm (7 ⅛ inches ø 8 ¼ inches)
  2. Propaganda of Passion, 2022
    Plywood, paint, polylactic acid, latex milk, paint, lacquer
    26.5 × 200 × 100 cm (10 ⅜ × 78 ¾ × 39 ⅜ inches)
  3. In a protein sky, running protein fields, with my protein eye, 2022
    Mycelium, paint, shredded bills, glue, soil
    26 × 40.5 × 30 cm (10 ¼ × 16 × 11 ¾ inches)
  4. Untitled (City Life), 2022
    MDF, paint, latex, sim cards
    ø 51 cm (ø 20 ⅛ inches)
  5. Thousand Years of Poor Connection, 2022
    Steel, wires, paper, filter, wood, prints, plastic, fabric
    139 × 301 × 5 cm (54 ¾ × 118 ½ × 2 inches)
  6. The Bugged Inducer, 2022
    Resin glazed styrofoam, steel, paint, mesh
    51 × 57 × 14 cm (20 ⅛ × 22 ½ × 5 ½ inches) 20 cm ø 21.5 cm (7 ⅞ inches ø 8 ½ inches)
  7. Untitled (Containers), 2022
    Perspex, wood, paint, paper, photo, foil, resin, mesh, print, fabric, laminate
    54 × 66 × 5.5 cm (21 ¼ × 26 × 2 ⅛ inches)
  8. Untitled (Vein), 2022
    Wood, cardboard, paint, lacquer
    32 × 43.5 × 40.5 cm (12 ⅝ × 17 ⅛ × 16 inches)
  9. Strange World, 2022
    Resin glazed styrofoam, pin, paint
    22 × 57 × 25 cm (8 ⅝ × 22 ½ × 9 ⅞ inches)
  10. Ballad, 2022
    Cardboard, wood, polylactic acid, latex, paint
    48 × 30.5 × 30.5 cm (18 ⅞ × 12 × 12 inches)
  11. The Incomplete Interior, 2022
    Plywood plinth, Perspex, styrofoam,resin, PVA, paint, latex, paper, cardboard
    132 × 47.5 × 36 cm (52 × 18 ¾ × 14 ⅛ inches)
  12. Analytical Show Room Desire, 2022
    Steel, aluminium,PVA, rubber, paint, paper, rope, hooks, chains
    Approximate dimensions: 198 × 62 × 45 cm (78 × 24 ⅜× 17 ¾ inches)
  13. Untitled (Terminal), 2022
    Plywood, PVA, paint, varnish
    60 × 40 × 40 cm (23 ⅝ × 15 ¾ × 15 ¾ inches)
  14. Display Function, 2022
    Concrete, plastic, latex
    14 cm ø 45 cm (5 ½ inches ø 17 ¾ inches)
  15. Untitled, 2022
    Wood, two component paint
    20 × 28 cm (7 ⅞ × 11 inches)
  16. I-N-H-A-B-I-T-A-N-T-S, 2022
    Plywood, paint, latex
    46 × 35 × 40 cm (18 ⅛ × 13 ¾ × 15 ¾ inches)
  17. Untitled, 2022
    Plywood plinth, PLA, paint
    46 × 42 × 30 cm (18 ⅛ × 16 ½ × 11 ¾ inches)
  18. Untitled (Container), 2022
    Perspex, wood, paint, paper, latex, foil, resin, mesh, print, fabric
    35 × 55 × 4.5 cm (13 ¾ × 21 ⅝ × 1 ¾ inches)
  19. Untitled (Billboard), 2022
    Styrofoam, airbrush, prints, paper
    23 × 36 × 8 cm (9 × 14 ⅛ × 3 ⅛ inches)
  20. The real you, 2022
    Four broadcasting speakers, real time modular feedback loop