The Space for Freedom is Getting Smaller and Less Transparent, Solo exhibition, Overgaden, Copenhagen, 07.09.2013 – 27.10.2013
For her show at Overgaden, Ashery has created a site-specific participatory installation piece titled The Space for Freedom is Getting Smaller and Less Transparent. Visitors to Overgaden are invited to enter a built structure and paint its transparent plastic walls. As the walls get covered in paint, the outside world becomes opaque.
Every other week an additional transparent structure has been constructed within the previous one. The first, larger structure provided black, white, yellow, blue and red paints. The second structure provided black and white paints and the last structure offered white pain only. 1st structure : 880cm/665cm, 2nd: 660cm/445cm, 3rd: 440cm/225cm.
The work was conceived in relation to the rhetoric of Freedom of Speech in Europe and in Denmark in particular. What is the value of freedom of speech when it is used to block others, such as in anti immigration policies ? The more one expressed themselves freely on the transparent walls – the less transparency there is, the outside world is blocked out, and the inside world is getting smaller and white only.
to watch a short video on the piece
to view the whole solo exhibition
Screenshot
Axolotlism, group exhibition, performance during the opening titled Cómo matar a un cerdo, (How to Kill A pig), Noguerasblanchard Gallery, Madrid, 2015, curated by Sabel Gavaldon
A single panel of framed PVC was installed and five participants, some professional painters, some not, have been asked to copy a famous Art Nouveau poster of a pig factory (Joan tore fabric salchichon) by the Catalan artist Alexandre de Riquer, 1899. The image depicts a young shepherdess with pigs in the meadow. However, the current reality of industrial animal farming is cruel and working condition for both humans and animals can be traumatising. As the PVC gets painted, the labour and process of the participants gets less transparent.
To read a review of the group exhibition in Contemporary Art Daily
To read a review of the group exhibition in This is Tomorrow