Wake Up With Me It Gets Lonely When You Are Sleeping, 2023
Metal, PU-Schaum, Charcoal, Faux Fur, Lenses, Wood, 2 Goat Jaws, Ramhorn, Lacquer Paint, Faux Feathers, Water, Plaster, Glass, Tubes, Latex, Paper Pulp, Images of Man-Made Objects, Deerhorns, Raw Wool, Acrylic Paint
Wake Up With Me It Gets Lonely When You Are Sleeping marks Lema Ahmadi’s first curatorial project, bringing together artists whose practices are deeply material-based, each exploring the intersection of subconscious experience and vulnerability. The exhibition, titled Wake up with me it gets lonely when you are sleeping, investigates intimate emotional landscapes, personal transformation, and the ways these are mediated through both physical and digital forms.
Participating artists interpret these themes through diverse approaches:
- Tommy Smits created a concrete work by printing photographic documentation of his three-day hospital stay for the removal of a traditionally ‘masculine’ organ, forming a heart shape—a deeply intimate piece confronting vulnerability and the fragility of masculinity
- Carolina Ovando contributed a tapestry inspired by the Tarot card The Star, accompanied by a video that constructs an imagined world inhabited by this figure, demonstrating a modern interpretation of traditional symbolism through digital media.
- Nefo Zhang designed a copper instrument that echoed the ambient sounds of the exhibition, translating the materiality of space into resonant auditory experience.
- Katya Quell produced a mobile from latex, textile, and bells, interacting with Ahmadi’s sculptural works to form a dialogue between opposing forces.
Within the exhibition, Ahmadi’s own sculptures, the Anima and Animus, engage in a subtle narrative: the Anima is integrated into Quell’s mobile, protected and suspended, while the Animus occupies a pedestal across the space. Together, these works unify the exhibition’s themes, creating a dynamic exploration the wounded feminine and wounded masculine aspects of the psyche.
Graphic Design by Nefo Zhang
Photographed by Gil Corujeira
