This exhibition features the recent artwork of Joshua Curry, created since he moved to Berlin three years ago from San Jose, California. While his previous work included computer imaging, sound, and interactive sculpture, he has reconnected with traditional mediums like printmaking and drawing since moving to Germany.
Curry's work includes monotypes, photographs, backlit PVC prints, drawings, and acrylic mobiles. The monotypes were created in a temporary studio in his kitchen, using images from discarded German textbooks and magazines. He photographed these images, converted them to high-contrast black-and-white, and used them as printing plates in a resistance technique with acrylic paint.
The photographs in the show are also the result of a heavily layered process. Each image is a direct, in-camera output from ten separate exposures of the same scene, without the use of computer or AI manipulation. The backlit prints feature collaged images, primarily of statues from the Zitadelle in Spandau. These statues, considered problematic depictions of German history, are used by Curry to represent outdated ideologies given new life online. The mobiles also use these images, with the eyes of the faces covered to reference the unintended consequences of reactionary ideologies.
Finally, the drawings depict both the planners and victims of the Holocaust. Made at Auschwitz and Wansee, they are based on identification photos of prisoners at Auschwitz and official portraits of the planners on display at the Wansee conference memorial in Potsdam.