“Necrophagomachy” is an arrangement where nature and humanity are brought together, an irreverent taxonomy of reject and rot in an age of exponential production and systematic replacement.
Adrian Hermanides presents on a custom made structure, stainless steel branches with refined bolts and articulations, an ensemble of discarded objects and organisms already dead, now decomposed: a destroyed shoe, a piece of human cranium, moss, mushrooms, plastic flowers, a rusted military flag pole, to name a few, gathered during a year long exploration of Berlin’s Sankt Thomas Cemetery refuse dump. The meander of the metallic virtual shelf occupies almost the entire gallery space through a labyrinthic itinerary, maintaining a delicate equilibrium between the strategic structural display and the object itself, a metaphor of perception in a consumerist society. The dissolution of the conventional separation between plinth and sculpture is emphasized by the epenthetic integration of the work within any given architectonic surrounding.
Art is not here a symptom but an examination of life form and afterlife through surface and texture, a literal elevation of the putrid by means of a presentational device that creates verticality, implying the enunciation of decay as an intrinsic part of existential development.
Adrian Hermanides was born 1972 in Harare, Zimbabwe. He lives and works in Berlin. Hermanides studied at Natal Technikon, Durban, South Africa and University of London, UK. Adrian Hermanides’ work was presented in several solo and group exhibitions, most recently at Cabinet Gallery, London (2014); xavierlaboulbenne, Berlin (2015 and 2012); Daniel Reich Gallery, New York (2008) and Bregenz kunstverein (2007), among others.
