Silvio Vujičić in Beijing Furnace for the Sublimation of Spirits is a device constructed as a hybrid between a medieval alchemical apparatus and elements used in present-day laboratories. An electrical heater warms up the psychoactive drug caffeine—under a vacuum-protected glass bell—which slowly sublimates, changing shape so as to create a fine sculpture of archetypal form (that of a phallus), which undergoes further transformations as long as the device is active. Vujičić’s Bodies (2012) are caffeine crystals, objects that evoke sculptures in manually blown borosilicate glass vessels, while his Saturations (2012) are hand-developed black and white photographs on cardboard paper: shots from above of various Petri dishes (plates), containing caffeine crystals—completely unexpectedly—as a microcosmic response to Galileo’s sketches of the lunar surface as published in his Siderius Nuncius (1610).
Posted on: Thu, 29 May 2014 16:30:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015