Devo(lu)tion is a duo show by Malaysian textile artist Marcos Kueh and Dutch glass artist Emmy van de Grift. It is a dramatic interplay between the eastern gods infected by capitalism encapsulated in Kueh’s intricate tapestries and the western deities being digested by fungi in can de Grift’s delicate glassworks. The tension between the two worlds questions the politics of the ever-shifting ideologies of our devotions and the duality of it all – from the nuanced connotations and the intricate power plays.
“Our blight is ideologies – they are the long-expected antichrist” – Carl Jung
See also our side program.
What is it about the sound of waterfalls that paints the imagination of the overworked hustler who grew up in the city? What is it about the idea of living in a penthouse that strikes a chord of the heartstrings of the jungle dwellers living below the poverty line?
Once I was told to look deeply into the mycelium of a mushroom and meditate on it. For a split second, I could see the universe – I saw how we are all interconnected as one, how we all go through cycles of life and death, how naturally our bodies and lives destruct and rejuvenate as an integral part of growth. The next second, I saw my personal yacht floating in Santorini when I manage to save the world and earn big bucks by campaigning my new age religion and market my mycelium might pills.
Sometimes it is scary what I am willing to do to shed this skin of poverty and shame, to devolve into a disgusting city dweller in exchange for their ascension to a higher state of conscious; maybe I will always be the scavenger, preying on the surrendered possession on the predators just to feel what it is like to be in their skin.
We can exchange our devotions, you can go back to being the enlightened one, and I can return to be the other one.
(L) Under God’s Eye, 2023 by Marcos Kueh (Courtesy of Galerie Ron Mandos) - (R) Schemer, 2023 by Emmy van de Grift
“Our blight is ideologies – they are the long-expected antichrist” – Carl Jung
See also our side program.
What is it about the sound of waterfalls that paints the imagination of the overworked hustler who grew up in the city? What is it about the idea of living in a penthouse that strikes a chord of the heartstrings of the jungle dwellers living below the poverty line?
Once I was told to look deeply into the mycelium of a mushroom and meditate on it. For a split second, I could see the universe – I saw how we are all interconnected as one, how we all go through cycles of life and death, how naturally our bodies and lives destruct and rejuvenate as an integral part of growth. The next second, I saw my personal yacht floating in Santorini when I manage to save the world and earn big bucks by campaigning my new age religion and market my mycelium might pills.
Sometimes it is scary what I am willing to do to shed this skin of poverty and shame, to devolve into a disgusting city dweller in exchange for their ascension to a higher state of conscious; maybe I will always be the scavenger, preying on the surrendered possession on the predators just to feel what it is like to be in their skin.
We can exchange our devotions, you can go back to being the enlightened one, and I can return to be the other one.
Text by Marcos Kueh
(L) Under God’s Eye, 2023 by Marcos Kueh (Courtesy of Galerie Ron Mandos) - (R) Schemer, 2023 by Emmy van de Grift
