Alicja Kwade
Principium, 2024
Artwork
Alicja Kwade
Principium, 2024
Patinated bronze, Brenna stone
182 x 16 x 16 cm (71 5/8 x 6 1/4 x 6 1/4 in.) Socle / Plinth: 8 x 50 x 90 cm (3 1/8 x 19 3/4 x 35 3/8 in.)

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The sculpture’s height is always specifically connected to a human(s) body size, it started (for example) with a self-portrait of Alicja - she’s 164 cm (64 1/2 inch) tall. So, each „Principium“ is unique, as each one is reflecting a real, individual human size. The twisted shape of the sculptures is reminiscent of the DNA double helix structure in which the human genome is arranged. The shape was created by stacking smartphone casts in a rotated way on top of each other. Conceptually, it could be argued that nowadays a phone discloses much more intimate information about a person than their own DNA. That’s what makes the works a bit haunting, while formally elegant.
 

This work humorously refers to the world we create ourselves through the information we constantly send and receive with our cellphones that creates something like our DNA. The size of the piece always corresponds to the height of a person the artist knows, becoming the portrait of someone.