OFLUXO

Cajsa von Zeipel began creating the nine silicone figures on view before the pandemic became a daily lived reality. As the world adjusted, the sculptures themselves began to embody those changes, taking on objects, feelings, and postures of a society in flux. The detritus of capitalism latches onto their bodies – rolling headlines become apparel, fast fashion stretches and expands to cover bulging bodies. The gaze of the figures makes it explicit that the audience is culpable. By meeting the eyes of those who view them, the figures ask for their bodies to be interpreted. Their existence blurs lines between art and viewer, see-ing and seen, gender and body. The imposing presence of the sculptures becomes a tease; these bodies cannot be attained.

The title for Nine Lives comes from the eponymous Ursula K. Le Guin story, which explores ideas of cloning in order to challenge notions of self. Likewise, von Zeipel’s figures are glitched simulacra of the human form. Von Zeipel uses silicone – a material that is common in implants, sex toys, and kitchen equipment – to bring her sculptures to life. Beneath the silicone there are parts of mannequins, objects that are typically used to construct desire in capitalist spaces. Sawing off limbs and reconnecting dis-parate pieces, von Zeipel destroys their normative bodies; rather than statically holding clothes, these reconfigured forms take on uncanny movements. Limbs shake, fingers bend, skin wrinkles, and mouths fall in a manner that mimics our own physicality. But each face contains a secret smile, a small gesture or a unique expression that illustrates an extraordinary kind of embodiment.

As we witness how these nine figures reimagine eroticism, we can manifest new ways of being with each other. We can make our own rules that refute systems of governmental control. Technology is no longer purely accelerationist; it is something to be altered for our own purposes. Stepping into Nine Lives, we recognize how capitalism has profoundly influenced our ability to produce self. But by existing at once within and outside of society, these nine figures offer an advanced approach to being. Futures are made out of the fragments.

Nine Lives will be on view at the gallery September 9 through October 17. This is Von Zeipel’s second solo show with Company Gallery. Other upcoming projects include a solo show at Cherish, Geneva. She was born in 1983 in Gothenburg, Sweden and currently lives and works in New York.