Bird in Hand

Artist(s):
• Praneet Soi,Carlos Amorales

Following an old saying 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush', Carlos Amorales and Praneet Soi place together within the Project88 gallery space specific artwork in conversation with each other, and create a new work as a wallpaper installation. Soi places ten identical fiberglass sculptures titled Bird, 125 cm diameter, on the floor of the gallery; three large portraits, acrylic on linen, 120 x 160 cm; and a series of miniature paintings, also acrylic on linen, alternating in sizes between 21.5 x 21.5 cm and 32 x 32 cm. Amorales shows pieces from the series Exotic Ravens, two fabric banners, 210 x 160 cm, one sculpture consisting of wood puzzles in the shape of ravens placed on a plinth, 4 x 4 m, and finally a series of seven cutout paper drawings, 60 x 40 cm. The wallpaper installation takes the shape of one hundred A0 silkscreened posters, plastered across one of the gallery's walls. Soi's work is rooted in the documentary genre. The spherical, black 'Bird' sculptures allude to modernist sculpture as well as artillery, while a series of 3 portraits comment on human form. A new series of miniatures in color, slightly bigger in size, is added to the ongoing monochrome miniatures on war. Amorale' fantastic world emerges from his Liquid Archive, a compilation of more than one thousand images contained in a visual archive that forms the base for his imagery. The birds as well as the spider webs that shape their plumage, are elements from the archive that have been juxtaposed. For the sculptures, the birds are constructed as ten jigsaw puzzles that can be taken apart. The series of seven collages depict mythical creatures featuring bird heads.