Artists Troika
Venue Galerie Ron Mandos
Images Courtesy of Galerie Ron Mandos – Amsterdam
Troika is a collaborative contemporary art practice formed in 2003 by Eva Rucki (b. 1976, Germany), Conny Freyer (b. 1976, Germany) and Sebastien Noel (b. 1977, France).
In Troika’s large-scale and site-specific installation Limits of a Known Territory (2015), for the first time to be seen in Europe, visitors are invited to navigate a space flooded with water. Streams of water drip from the ceiling, behaving in unfamiliar and illogical ways: some are frozen in time, others run slower, faster or in reverse. The unprecedented behaviour of the water-drops interrupt our conventionalised, linear engagement with time. By negating the natural and independent momentum of water, breaking streams into distinct, disparate instances, Limits of a Known Territory references the constructed, fragmentary authenticity which now defines our age.
Shown in series for the first time, Horizons (2017) are part of Troika’s progression of black ink works, in which water is applied to black ink, until the black disappears. Creating a tide-like division on the page, the point of departure for each of the two vertical horizons is a black line drawn on either side of the paper. Once immersed in water, each line stretches towards the centre, emerging as progressively vibrant colour spectrums. In their dualistic nature, the artworks are therefore not what they seem: they are both the various colours that constitute the absolute black and the separated colours of its intrinsic makeup.
All Colours White explores the relationship between what is natural and artificial and the plurality of seemingly indivisible entities and experiences. It consists of a mechanism projecting red, blue and green light onto a canvas sculpture. The specific combination of red, blue and green references the colours that mediate our digital experience, while the composite colour spectrum inherent in white light is intrinsically natural. The projection is a constant 12-minute loop. The colours gradually bleed into each other, creating an intricate spectrum until their collective merging results in a pure white light.
Troika’s work revolves around assumptions of knowledge and the processes for attaining it. With a particular interest in the subjective and objective readings of reality and the various relationships we form with technology, they investigate the coalescence of seemingly irreconcilable opposites — nature and technology, the virtual and the real, the human and the non-human. Through drawing, sculpture and immersive installations they merge digital, high-tech and natural processes and materials that range from high voltage electricity to evolutionary computer algorithms, industrial acid, optics, soot or 3D programs to form a coalition between the increasingly abstract landscape surrounding us and experiences on a human scale.
Troika’s work is part of the permanent collections of M+, Hong Kong, the Victoria & Albert Museum London, The Art Institute of Chicago, MoMA New York, Jumex Collection Mexico, and the Israel Museum. In 2014, Troika was selected to present their work Dark Matter at Unlimited, Art Basel. In 2010, Troika was commissioned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to produce three site-specific installations for the UK Pavilion, designed by Heatherwick, at the Shanghai Expo of that year.
