Excavation (050)

Andersen’s Contemporary is proud to present Theis Wendt’s first solo exhibition Excavation at the gallery. The word excavation refers to an archaeological dig. But unlike archaeology’s investigations into the ground, Wendt’s investigations take place within images. The exhibition consists of a series of six works, made from digital prints, glass plates, and oversized wooden frames. In three of the works, we see images of accumulations of fragmented spaces from various perspectives and with varying depths. The images are attached to the frames, but at the same time, they expand beyond the physical limits of the frames. Alongside the wooden frames, the exhibition’s three other works comment both on the physical experience of the exhibition and the subsequent virtual experience of its documentation. These works are virtually constructed and depict the image, the wooden frame, and the wall in a single two-dimensional print. As such, the works are not representations of physical objects, but rather representations of virtual objects attempting to take on a life of their own – by adapting to the surrounding material reality. By partially bypassing the materialization of some of the exhibition’s works, Wendt comments on the image condition of contemporary art, where vast amounts of digital “installation views” of art exhibitions are produced and consumed daily on the internet. Whether the virtual experience of the exhibition’s documentation is preferred over the physical experience of the exhibition itself is explored in Excavation.