'Assemble' at Prague National Gallery
ASSEMBLE was exhibited from 8-18 June 2023, at the Prague National Gallery, presented at the Prague Quadrennial, in the Performance Space exhibition, curated by Andrew Filmer.
– installation performance and activation by Suzon Fuks
– music by Bob Vanderbob
ASSEMBLE is about obsolescence and sustainability, beauty and horror of the advancement of our tools, a galaxy of junk!
The electronic waste, composing the installation, has been sourced locally. We teamed up with a Czech recycling organisation ASEKOL, which lent us the parts that we gave back when the exhibition ended.
I brought 5 miniatures – 5 mini galaxies: ‘Sim’, ‘WeavilLED’, ‘KeyCaps’, ‘TekTonik’ and ‘Spinwheel’ – as well as the artist books ‘Human‘ and the entire ‘Phone That Smarts‘ series.
The public was welcome to walk in the spiral labyrinth of e-waste, touch/take and read the books, as well as interact with me during lunch time – meditating on obsolescence, exchanging their thoughts, dismantling old devices, and read the poem DUST by Annie Abrahams.
Three and a half year ago, I started dismantling my own obsolete devices. I discovered a hidden beauty: how many thousands of people and thousands of years it took to create / invent / design these amazing parts. Condensation of minds, they are like a summery of ancient civilisations powering our contemporary lives, undercover in our ever changing devices… When creating these, we never imagined they would become so quickly obsolete and form a sea of trash. How, now, can we act, re-think and integrate designs in our creations to be sustainable, durable, or re-purposable? I have this feel of urgency to address the difference between our tools / technology and our body / senses, digging inside, be aware and mindful, exploring the layers. Technology is just our tools, we need to have a holistic vision, defragment our thoughts, to assemble our skills and use them according the needs.
REVIEW – […]”the same crises could also provoke more dynamic responses. Coming from Australia, climate artivist – also involved in refugee rights issues – Suzon Fuks initiated the first versions of Assemble during the pandemic. Here, the installation included objects formed from components of obsolete digital tools, dissected (books based on keyboard underlays, unfolded smartphones, delicate galaxy sculptures made of printed circuits, keyboard keys or other connectors, or even jewelry made from metal or plastic elements, etc.), located in an environment also based on electronic waste, collected thanks to a local association, more simply dismembered and arranged in lines, a bit like Tony Cragg. Finally a video where, through a game of green key inlay, the artist circulates and dances within the galaxies that we were able to see in miniature. Aesthetically remarkable, the work induces a real reflection on the production of computer waste by revealing the content of these objects which remain closed and mysterious to us most of the time, and also opened up exchanges in the form of workshops allowing awareness of the public regarding this obsolescence. Perhaps now this work could extend to the question of the sources of production of all these elements, to the impact that this production has from the extraction of the ores used, and to the labor force mobilized for them. achieve (in often undignified employment conditions).”
From the article “A mirror transforming the world: scenography in 2023” by Antoine Pickels
