“How Far Away Is Mars”

Despite the otherworldly title of this show, there are no unearthly fantasies here. The six featured artists share a concern for everyday life, expressed through ordinary objects and materials juxtaposed in unusual ways so that they take on meanings that are different from those traditionally ascribed to them. For instance, David Douard’s two assemblages here, together titled 5ICK S4LIVA, 2013, are made with plaster, resin, ink, wood, metal, faux flowers, and audiovisual systems. They are similar to microecosystems in which each element performs a vital function. Yet behind their appearance as petrified plants, they hide only the wreckage of the consumer society from which they originate.

The other artists in the show develop the intriguing ideas that Douard introduces. Anicka Yi’s Cyber Bully, 2013, is a still life made from two glycerin and resin blocks into which the artist has inserted quotidian objects—silica gel beads, vinyl tubing, acrylic rods, and moisturizer—while Andrea Magnani’s Sistema S (S System), 2012, is a complex installation that recalls an alchemist’s laboratory and is composed of countless materials (organic and synthetic), inspired by the inception of the solar system. Magnani’s piece is developed over seven phases, the first of which is represented by a cylinder used for making soap bubbles, and the last by clay plates stained by the black bubbles. See also Daniel Keller’s Amazon Global Priority Cairn Unit 2, 2013, an installation that consists of five readymades composed of Ancient Graffiti brand river stones, handmade in Honduras using river stones and wire and acquired via Amazon.com, as well as their shipping materials.

Mel Nguyen’s two untitled cyanotypes from 2012 offer abstract compositions of surreal, mutable images. Similarly, for Composition W, 2012, Sunah Choi has placed Ping-Pong balls and other plastic objects on the surface of an overhead projector: As two fans blow the items around, their changing contours are projected on a screen.

Translated from Italian by Marguerite Shore.