Tomás Saraceno, Avior 9 (2013)
Currently on view at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery is Hybrid solidarity… semi-social quintet… on cosmic webs…, Argentinian artist Tomás Saraceno’s new body of work in his fifth collaboration with the gallery. Before studying fine arts in Buenos Aires and Frankfurt, the Berlin-based artist completed a degree in architecture, a field that has profoundly influenced his artistic technique, in which various practices related to biology, geometry and space studies gently merge with his sociological and cultural observations, all the while bearing an alternatively-focused aesthetic.
Tomás Saraceno, Hybrid solitary semi-social musical instrument Horologium: built by Argiope anasuja – one month – and a small community of Cyrtophora citricola – two weeks (2014)
Aside form his sculptures and works on paper awaiting on the second floor of the gallery, a large scale installation is on display on the darkened first floor, including dramatically lit vitrines containing interwoven spider webs. Shimmering in the pitch-black room with their unique compositions and fragile presence, each web reflects Saraceno’s ongoing investigations on equilibrium in nature and the positioning of living beings within distinct frameworks and organizations.
Tomás Saraceno, Hybrid solitary semi-social musical instrument Ophiuchus: built by Parasteatoda lunata – two weeks – and a Cyrtophora citricola – two weeks (2015)
The long, measured titles of the works serve as informers on elements related to their creation, such as duration of their process, or types of spider used as collaborators. Requiring meticulous examination and enduring observation, each web structure unveils commonly overlooked phenomena within the harmony of nature, while also emphasizing their captivatingly surreal compositions.  Saraceno, on the other hand, draws his viewers into a more in depth and allegorical viewpoint, suggesting readings on netted social and natural dynamics within the universe.  In the center of this order is mankind, with its potential to build and destroy at the same time. Mankind and his constant urge to integrate the aspects surrounding him parallels the spider’s position within a tightly woven web of relations and interactions.
Tomás Saraceno (Installation View)
In a dialogue with the first floor is Space Elevator, installed upstairs, and also hosting a living spider along with a balloon. Inflatables have been a crucial part of Saraceno’s oeuvre, most famously his Cloud Cities project, in which he delivers an alternative realm mainly conceptualized by inflatable spheres as living habitats.  Positioning a living spider that will continue its interaction with the inflatable until the final day of the show defines Saraceno’s long term study of living forms, and their response to their surrounding territories.
Tomás Saraceno: Hybrid solidarity… semi-social quintet… on cosmic webs… is on view at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery through May 2, 2015.
Tomás Saraceno, Space Elevator (2004)
*All images are the Courtesy of Tanya Bonakdar Gallery and Tomás Saraceno
— O.C. Yerebakan
Related Link:
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery [Exhibition Page]
