Welcome to the opening Wednesday 28.2
18:00-21:00
Prints from two new series, The Platonic Solids and Cybermortality (Digitized) are on view in Print Matters at Helsinki Urban Art’s Pasila Urban Art Center.
featuring works by:
ALEX MARKWITH, ANETTA LUKJANOVA, ANTTI MÄNNYNVÄLI, HELP (GRAFFITI PROFESSORS), JOONAS REIJONEN, MUSTA SAPPI, OTTO MAJA, PLAN B, PUNISH, SCOTT CARIS, SHEPARD FAIREY, SUPERFLINDA, TEME TOIVAINEN
Exhibition on view February 29th - April 6th
WED 12-8 PM
THU 12-6 PM
FRI 12-6 PM
SAT 1-5 PM
Helsinki Urban Art / Pasila Urban Art Center
Opastinsilta 6AB, pedestrian level
00520 Helsinki, Finland
Alex Markwith, from the series The Platonic Solids
digital prints of original photographs, framed dimensions 15x15cm each
The Platonic Solids
There are only five regular polyhedra in three-dimensional space, also known as the Platonic solids. While these forms naturally occur in the microscopic structure of crystals, they are more familiar to us from the plastic dice of tabletop games.This is a purpose to which the shapes are well-suited; because all of their sides and angles are identical, they will always land with one side up, with equal probability.
In The Platonic Solids, Markwith photographs the dice individually from different angles against a white background, and then inverts the color in Photoshop. Isolated on black, each die appears like a planet in space. Markwith is interested in the dichotomies of natural and artificial, familiar and unknown.
The dice refer to ideas of chance, probability, randomness and decision-making. Plato theorized that each shape corresponded to one of the five classical elements. While there are only five Platonic solids, there are many ways of looking at them.
Alex Markwith, Cybermortality (Digitized) II, digital print, framed dimensions 40x30cm
Cybermortality (Digitized)
In the Cybermortality (Digitized) series, Markwith manipulates photos of his own mixed media paintings to produce an effect like cybernetic stained glass. The already complex texture and color relationships of the paintings are further complicated by layering, rotating and filtering. At the same time, they become symmetrical. The mirror nature of the images alludes to the ideas of life and death, mind and body.
The central skull is a recurring theme in Markwith’s work, representing both mortality and human consciousness contrasted with the digital image-making techniques. As much as these images represent the physical structure of the human face via the skull, they also become psychological, digital spaces. One of the prints in this series, Cybermortality (Digitized) II can be displayed as either a portrait or a landscape, with any side up.
Alex Markwith, Cybermortality (Digitized) I
digital print, framed dimensions 60x50cm