Goshka Macuga: Natural Transformation
Goshka Macuga, From Gondwana to Endangered, Who is the Devil Now? 2020 is the latest iteration of Goshka Macuga’s large-scale 3D tapestry series, which deals with environmental problems we are currently facing as part of the Anthropocene. The work shows a piece of forest on fire, which recalls the multitude of devastating forest fires the world have had to endure in recent years. The fabric’s perspectival 3D effect virtually pulls us into the scene, making us part of the inferno. Protesting animals dressed as humans try to escape the fire that would constitute their certain death and their species’ possible extinction. The animal protesters are reminiscent of both the furry fandom subculture of the 1980s and nineteenth-century political animal caricatures. They humorously and critically denounce today’s fire-and-brimstone politics as if we were already knee-deep in purgatory.
Goshka Macuga, From Gondwana to Endangered, Who is the Devil Now? 2020 is the latest iteration of Goshka Macuga’s large-scale 3D tapestry series, which deals with environmental problems we are currently facing as part of the Anthropocene. The work shows a piece of forest on fire, which recalls the multitude of devastating forest fires the world have had to endure in recent years. The fabric’s perspectival 3D effect virtually pulls us into the scene, making us part of the inferno. Protesting animals dressed as humans try to escape the fire that would constitute their certain death and their species’ possible extinction. The animal protesters are reminiscent of both the furry fandom subculture of the 1980s and nineteenth-century political animal caricatures. They humorously and critically denounce today’s fire-and-brimstone politics as if we were already knee-deep in purgatory.
"Natural Transformation" is the exhibition’s title—a warning signal of sorts, not only insinuating human-made climate change but also hinting at Category Theory, a mathematical branch in which “natural transformation” creates new possibilities: an approach that Goshka Macuga pursues both in the new tapestry series and in the collages from the series "Discrete Model", which she has been working on since 2018. In the collages, Macuga lets us peek at the history of humankind, technological advancement, and into a posthuman future. The visual sequences appearing as if woven behind graph-paper grid are representative of the environmental crisis confronting us today. This interest in systematizing different disciplines of knowledge and creating a method similar to computer programming that allows Macuga to reconstruct groups of visual references in recurring patterns, is also evident in a new cycle of small-format tapestry works. In an act of destruction and recontextualization, using the systemic process of silkscreen printing, the artist creates woven and printed one-of-a-kind works from fragments of previously woven tapestries.
Goshka Macuga was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1967; studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Design and Goldsmiths, University of London, from 1991 to 1996. She lives and works in London. She is well known for her large-format tapestry works, but also for her installations using media as varied as collage, sculpture, video and performance. Her works are exhibited in numerous international and national institutions, including: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2019), Neues Museum, Nuremberg (2018), Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2018), Witte de With, Rotterdam (2017), Fondazione Prada, Milan (2016), New Museum, New York (2016), Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2016), Documenta 13 (2012), Venice Biennale (2009). In 2008 Goshka Macuga was nominated for the Turner Prize.
