UNEARTH - In Between States of Matter

(2020)

the first chapter of the short film series UNEARTH. The film series presents a research into processes connected to resource extraction and the way this practice is embedded in an ecological, political and mythological context. In Between States of Matter zooms in on material transformations and mining machines. It weaves together fragments from conversations that were recorded in the Russian Ural Mountain region.
An author, who grew up in a mining town, speaks about her life long obsession with stones. Two geologists report the emergence of new, previously unknown minerals in regions that are shaped by large-scale resource extraction. Those minerals occur in slag heaps, which heat up internally and in this way become quasi artificial volcanoes. Mineral transformations, induced by human activity, cause mutational and generative processes in biological life: a cycle which inspires thoughts on mineral and human coevolution and contributes to a debate that redefines the separation between life and non-life.
Mining machines are portrayed as complex agents, with attention to their past, present and future states of aggregation and their existence in between the human and the mineral world.


Film by Anika Schwarzlose in collaboration with Brian McKenna Music: B. J. Nilsen
Production / translation: Anna Litovskikh
3D models and animations: Sam ten Thij, Ivan Zamorev
Text excerpts based on: 'Stone and Dark Carbon' by Elena Solowjowa
Excerpts from conversations with: Marat Safin & Alexander Eremeev, Tatiana Khamanova, Ivan Zamorev

Made possible with the generous support of:
Embassy of the Netherlands in Moscow 5th Ural Industrial Biennial
NCCA Yekaterinburg
Mondriaan Fonds

Seeing into Stone - publication

Publication Seeing into Stone

Texts Elena Solowjowa, Monika Brakke
Graphic design Felix Salut

Publisher Roma Publications

Dimensions 14 x 21 cm
Pages 136

ISBN 9789464460032
Available herehere



Seeing into Stone describes a technique applied by experienced stone carvers, when they work on sculptural objects: before they start cutting into a stone they contemplate its surface to anticipate the structure and natural growth beneath it. This ritual of looking into opaque matter describes a spiritual practice. At the same time it functions as a metaphor for a special kind of tunnel vision, focused on what lies invisible under a surface. Through the combination of images from very different archives, connections are made that speak about the complex relationships of humans and minerals. Resource extraction processes are embedded in ecological, political and mythological contexts. Images and texts contribute to a debate on mineral and human coevolution, that redefines the separation between life and non-life.

Seeing into Stone

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2019, collages, stone pigment prints on paper, plexiglass plates, screen printed with different pigments, coated steel frames, steel drills, slag, wood, glass

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“Seeing into Stone” limns a technique experienced stone carvers use when they work on sculptural objects:
the sculptor contemplates on the surface of a stone to anticipate the structure and natural growth beneath it.
The expression “Seeing into Stone” describes a spiritual practice, a metaphor for tunnel vision, focusing on what lies within, invisible.
The works of the project “Seeing into Stone” are the result of collecting research and archival materials from various sources. In collages, a series of photographs taken by Veniamin Metenkov are combined with images from archives and product catalogues of mining and machine building companies.

The project centers around the human relationship to rock and soil, and our shared reliance on resources contained in it. The depicted drills and digging devices are made of metals sourced from the mountains they excavate. When those machines cease to function, they rust and decay and return into the soil. Somewhere along the way
it can happen that they are put on pedestals and monumentalised for a few decades. This human-sized time span seems of little importance in relation to the long arc of geological time that has shaped the region. Yet, the images of machines, and their traces in the stones, mine workers, and mountain ranges speak of a close relationship between humans, machines, rocks, salt and metal.

For the series of collages silkscreening ink was developed by using pigments from the Ural Mountains. Ground up Jarosite, Volkonskoite and Malachite are used for tinting the Metenkov images and printing the tools on plexiglass.




The work was created with support by the Mondriaan Fonds and the Dutch Embassy in Russia.

SuperParliament

2018, silkscreen print on plexiglass, dimensions slightly variable - about 200cm x 200cm x 20cm

Superparliament is a reflection on the impact of architecture on negotiation and decision making. The internationally most widely used parliamentary sitting order is based on the Greek atrium - suggesting harmony and balance. This layout seems not to align anymore with our perception of current global politics. The work is a collage of fragments from existing parliaments, arranged in an exploded and chaotic way. It attempts to manifest an intuitive feeling about the current nature of parliamentary activity across the world. At the same time it forms a speculative suggestion for a new seating arrangement, multi layered and taking place on many levels simultaneously.

Agendas and Containers

2016 - 2017, UV print on plexiglass, print on carpet, dimensions variable

Peace can be established in many ways. The end of a bloody war may once have signified peace, but the well defined battlefields and treaties suggested by history would seem to provide flawed, even illusory sets of criteria for understanding the shape of contemporary conflicts. Despite our updated and sanitized image of modern warfare, brutality has not vanished; it has in fact flourished through new and elaborate methodologies in step with ever more sophisticated approaches to image management. New paradigms of warfare would even seem to be at work in a wider variety of institutional sectors. John Perkins in his 2004 book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man for instance, suggests that international bodies such as the World Bank can be implicated in the violent displacement of sovereign governments.

Agendas and Containers is a collage of fragments from official international institutions - real ones as well as fictional places, stemming from film and entertainment culture. Tasked with the establishment and maintenance of global peace, they serve as a point of mediation between nation states. Through the dislocation and recombination of the iconic visual identities of these international bodies, a hybrid spatial continuum is staged. With the semblances of both blockbuster movie set and metropolitan construction site, the work discloses a certain illusionist character of our notions of sustainability and peace.

The work was originally created to be displayed at AKBANK SANAT in Istanbul, after the exhibition POST-PEACE was cancelled there, it was hosted first by the WKV Stuttgart and then traveled to Nest, Den Haag.

Shapeshift

2016, short film by Brian McKenna and Anika Schwarzlose

Camouflage as a form of visual deception is an essential part of military operations. The camouflage of a physical object often works by breaking up the visual boundary of that object. This usually involves colouring the camouflaged object with the same colours as the background against which the object will be hidden. In the realm of deceptive half- truths, camouflage is realised by 'hiding' some of the truths.
A film about the art of camouflage and deception, practiced at a German Military base where technicians are occupied with the fabrication of decoy weapons and stealth technology. Soldiers and technicians demonstrate aspects of their profession, elaborate on what they do, their motivation, and ethical difficulties that their work brings about. The interviews are combined with examples from the history of artistic involvement in military inventions and warfare. From experimentation with new materials, to the invention of deceptive techniques and strategies. Modern camouflage for instance was developed in direct connection with the ideas and findings of the Cubists.

Artefacts

2015, wax print on tyvek

The title of the series is a double entendre and refers on the one hand to the objects which are depicted, but on the other hand it points to digital artefacts and distortions that have been added to alter the images in substantial ways. The images show fragments of ancient figures, as they are archived in museums collections, large concrete sculptures and even utilitarian architectural structures like a flood barrier in the Netherlands. What all the objects have in common, is that their appearance and meaning is dominated by their materiality: polished stone, aging concrete, brittle marble fragments. These images are collected from archives and scanned on a very high resolution. By moving them during the scanning process the shape of the objects is altered so far that new images emerge. New forms are created by causing glitches and distortion. 

The Law Of Good Gestalt

2015, short film, 25 minutes

Networked media technology is changing our relationship to the physical world.
Media and memory are closely intertwined, as memory can be enhanced, corrupted, extended or replaced through filtering, ordering, editing and inscribing past events. We relate to the shaping and preservation of our collective memory in continuously changing ways. In a time when, for many people, public sites increasingly loose their importance as places to visit, gather and contemplate, our relation to monuments is changing. Embodiments of collective memory remain socially relevant, as do our needs for shared acts of remembering, however, the processes of forming collective memories and their monumentalization are changing substantially.
Through the use of narration and found footage, this film explores shifting trends in the way objects, both physical and virtual are perceived as relevant cultural artefacts. In an essayistic form, observations are issued how we collectively deal with symbols and representations of our shared culture and history.

Disassemble - Reassemble - Repeat

2015, video loop

Disguise and Deception

A Mimetic Exchange of Strategies for Make Believe


publication

A special division of the German army called Tarnen und Täuschen (Disguise and Deception) occupies itself with rather curious affairs. The unit is dedicated to the research and development of camouflage technology and the fabrication of decoy weaponry - inflatable tanks, vehicles and imitation land mines. The militarisation of visual surroundings as practiced by the technicians at the base becomes a prism for the aesthetic considerations of ideological systems, and the reciprocal effects occurring between the two. In form of an image dialogue this publication examines particular sets of relations between aesthetics and ideology.


TEXT BY JOHAN FREDERIK HARTLE, ENGLISH
DESIGN BY GAËL PACCARD
20 X 27 CM, 78 PAGES AND 20 GATEFOLD PAGES,
71 COLOR PLATES, 1 B&W PLATES, SOFTCOVER WITH FLAPS
KODOJI PRESS, BADEN 2014, ISBN 978–3–03747–064–0
VAN ZOETENDAAL PUBLISHERS, AMSTERDAM 2014, ISBN 978-90-72532-26-8
Retail Price EUR 35,00 €

SPECIAL EDITION OF 40 COPIES - HARDCOVER WITH A SIGNED AND NUMBERED DUSTJACKET

To Make Oneself Like Something Else

2014, interdisciplinary installation

Tank

2013, video projection

video, displaying an almost imperceptibly breathing rubber landscape - shifting it's shape while slowly inflating

Pools

2012, interdisciplinary media installation, video projection, wall relief, dimensions variable

The video consists of footage that is gathered from a diverse variety of sources; it partly stems from surveillance cameras of hotels in earth quake regions, and partly from private persons, filming the pool in their yard. Recordings shared in forums for earth quake victims, showing a collection of swimming pools during the time of an earthquake. The pool as an ultimate attempt to control the element of water. Its, usually extremely efficient structure, is rendered futile and absurd for the same reasons that allow for its efficiency in the first place: its rigid means prevent any form of adaptation - but they cause an unequal confrontation instead. The collapsing concept of a swimming pool as a source for joy and relaxation however becomes its very own spectacle. Waves emerge where there should be non. They follow their own set of rules. Ripples and lines form grids and chaotic arrays. Dancing with - and mocking the architecture that was designed to contain them. The video is projected on a wall relief, which is mimicking the architecture of the different swimming pools. The relief aligns with the pools outlines. It enhances the video and results in a haptic, 3 dimensionality of the projection - hence, as the video progresses, those same elements disrupt the projection surface and collapse the illusion they had created moments before.

Time moves into one Direction - Memory into the other

2012, interdisciplinary installation


Traditional conceptualizations of war imply the spacial presence of both physical force and a striking visual appearance upon the battlefield. In contrast to such notions, contemporary theaters of war rely far more upon the ability to disappear, to bewilder, and to deceive. Where traditional tactics engage the direct application of mass towards the achievement of goals, the other (and often more effective) tactics resort to techniques of camouflage, remote action and artifice; décor, dress-up and disguise; the imitation of reality. In other words, techniques very much associated with the arts.

Such artistic means were adopted by one particular unit of the former East German army, Tarnen und Täuschen. Translating quite literally to "disguise and deception", this aptly named base had as its sole aim, the invention and construction of the techniques and materials of camouflage, decoy weaponry and other, essentially fake, military equipment. As a central stratagem, this meant the production of adaptations to new and changing environments of conflict. Being the only East German military unit to remain after the unification with West Germany, this army base soon found itself having to transform and adapt to a much different sociopolitical environment. Still existing within the now unified German military, Tarnen und Täuschen continues to function under a new set of conditions in the development of disguises and deceptions for present day warfare. Through her research into the history and present day operations of the Tarnen und Täuschen military unit, artist Anika Schwarzlose encountered a military division largely engaged with aesthetic considerations.

In her exhibition at KHM Gallery, Anika Schwarzlose presents a range of works, each probing from a different angle into the borderland of adaptation and impact, illusion and truth. Amongst diamond-shaped sculptural elements, that resemble radar reflectors, a series of videos is displayed, depicting official buildings - symbols of power and societal organization, which are juxtaposed with sheets of green - engaging a colour that is commonly used in the film industry to mark fields of filmed material designated for being cut out and replaced by fictitious content.

Core element of the show is a structure bordering on both sculpture and architecture. Initiated in homage to a 1926 monument to Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg by German architect Mies van der Rohe, this work functions, in the spacial sense, to block ones field of vision whilst at the same time, through its use of camouflage material, to mimic the act of disappearance. Van der Rohe's original monument was destroyed by the army during the Nazi regime. Through its manifestation in consultation and collaboration with the Tarnen und Täuschen army unit, Schwarzlose's work forms a cycle of appearance and disappearance. This work thus manifests a paradoxical existence as disguised monument to a monument.



Emil Nilsson and Brian D. McKenna

A Rising Tide Lifts All The Boats

2012, interdisciplinary media installation at Transceiver show, Bemis Art Center, collaboration with Jonas Lund

As a site specific installation, conceived in the scope of the exhibition ʻTransceiverʼ, the piece is composed of a projection, an object and a print, all sent to the gallery by various means of transmission. Individual traders and sellers, which we found on different online market places, are creating images to advertise their products. We have collected some of those images, videos and products. They are recombined into a sculpture which tells a story about trading strategies and their inherent visual aesthetics. The sculpture is composed by the curator of the show, causing her to depart from her position as receiver and facilitator and take up an active key position in the process of art production.

Diamond Cut

2012, video projection

shown at BYOB at W139, Amsterdam

This Too Shall Pass

2011, installation and process
collaboration with Jonas Lund

A photographic print is presented in a paper shredder. The piece is transmitted via live stream to this webpage: t2sp.net. Each time a visit on this website is recorded, the paper shredder is activated for a third of a second and tears a small piece of the print away. Once the print has been destroyed, it is replaced with the next one in the edition until the edition has been depleted.

Somewhere Else Before

2011, video installation - collectively created section of virtual space
collaboration with Jonas Lund

A collective video work, based upon crowd sourced video footage collected through somewhereelsebefore.com
Every time a new video is submitted it is added to the sequence, to form a large commonly created section of virtual space. A space without any fixed geographical location, but combined of many individual moments of spacial perception in many different peoples lives. An experience which is created simultaneously by many, over long distances and the duration of several weeks, but the result can only be witnessed in one spot - at the video booth in the gallery in where the piece is exhibited.

Backdrop

2011, installation, mixed media

"digital backdrops" are images that other photographers have created digitally: patterns like gradients, depictions of dramatic skies or resemblances of old stained linnen cloth, meant to be retouched into the background of a portrait, to give it a more atmospheric or nostalgic look. I have dragged these backdrops out into the world in front of the screen, printed them in different large formats and subjected them to different light sources and light temperatures.

Pieces of Sky

2011, website and projection
collaboration with Jonas Lund

The work is a participatory exploration of the relation between objects, images and semantics on the internet. We created a small platform that serves as our set up model, an engine constantly browsing the image sharing platform Flickr, extracting the latest photograph which is uploaded and tagged with "sky" and immediately publishing the result on the website colourfulpiecesofsky.com.

The outcome is a piece with forever changing its visual appearance. Sometimes subtle, sometimes radical changes which altogether reveal operational modes of communication, emerging semantics and image mediation strategies. Photographers all over the world are contributing content to create a shifting, and unpredictable, impermanent but ongoing visual experience. To participate visitors can take an image of the sky, upload it to their Flickr account and tag the image with "sky" the webpage updates every 5 seconds and always displays the latest image added.

Colour Traps

2010, inkjet print, publication

Similar to bug traps which employ the effect of a certain colour to lure in insects, I created constructions with the purpose to entrap a specific colour in a place. I started inventing images that tell about the conditions a colour would prefer to occur - rather then showing it, the images are evoking an idea of it. The series of photographs is accompanied by a one page publication that contains images of the 6 different traps and 6 short texts accompanying each image, quotes about very different understanding of colour. Those 6 conflicting approaches are so different, they eventually suggest a scenario in which colour can be seen as a metaphysical phenomenon.

Drone

2009, wax-print, 70×105cm, video

This work shows a number of attempts to build my own drone and send my camera into the sky. After some more or less successful try outs, a last version proved itself to be functioning, able to provide access to areas I am not allowed to photograph or film in.

Patent Schwarzlose

2009, installation, mixed media, publication

Patent Schwarzlose is an installation, that combines a wooden model of a machine gun, a video projection and an audible monologue plus a translation of it, projected on the ground. Another part of the work is a publication. The work circles around a namesake of mine and his invention.




Text from publication
Patent Schwarzlose M.07/12

“Did you ever google our last name?” my sister asks me. I have to deny, because I have never had the idea to do so. “You should try that once – it’s kind of mad! You will find that a guy called Schwarzlose invented a huge machine gun back in the First World War.” I am quite impressed by that finding. We both fantasize about the possibility of being related to a man like that and think the whole story is strange and funny.

When I try it myself and type my last name into the Google Search window, indeed a link appears, leading to a Wikipedia entry: Andreas Wilhelm Schwarzlose was the inventor of one of the first machine guns; the “Patent Schwarzlose M.07/12″ – an enormous, heavy, water cooled monster. It was used during the First and the Second World War in different European countries. The Austro Hungarian army was equipped with it, then Italian and Russian units captured and used it, besides that it was exported to Greece and The Netherlands. Later it was used by the Nazi German army and as well against them, in Czechoslovakia. The list of countries, which had the gun in service, is long and its trace leads through almost all bigger historic conflicts in Europe.

I visit my parents, curious to tell them about the strange news I have learned. I decide to first talk to my father. My discovery should be of interest to him, since I know about his fascination for military history and weapons. His reaction however surprises me. He knew about Schwarzlose and his invention – since a long time already. Instantly, as if he’d been waiting for this moment, he fetches two books – a weapons encyclopedia and some old army guide for soldiers. Both feature short illustrated articles on the Schwarzlose MG. It is so different from the automatic firearms we know today. In order to be operated, it had to be mounted on a tripod with an integrated seat, reminding me of a bike saddle. Several soldiers where needed to use it. One to adjust and aim, one to feed ammunition and one to sit on the saddle and fire. Soldiers used it as an infantry weapon, the marines mounted it on their ships and it was an aircraft – as well as an antiaircraft gun. From my father I also learn that Schwarzlose was even born in Wust – the same area as my mothers family comes from. Talking to my mother about this subject wont be easy. I have to think of all the evenings when my father sits in a lone, throne like armchair in the living room and watches Vietnam war movies. My mother walks in, comments the scenario with a disapproving exhaling sound and leaves the room. This sequence exists in a number of variations, like “Mafia drama”, “WW2 documentary”, “Western” or “Crime Series”. My mother hates all those genres. For my father however it is conflict – in all its shapes and sizes, and especially with all it’s historical, political and technical facts – that has a captivating effect on him. He pointed out, more then once, that war is ugly and terrifying, but in his opinion it is necessary to know about terrifying things as well. In exactly that point my mother disagrees with him, disagrees strongly. Her approach is directly opposed: She refuses to speak about disgusting things, because they disgust her. It seems like she fears that in the moment you open a terrible topic up for discussion you have already lost. You have let it in your life, you know about it and the more you understand, the greater becomes the chance that it will corrupt you. It is the chill it gives you, when you feel your moral concepts are not rock solid, but can be shaken any moment by what you learn, that chill she wants to avoid buy all means. My mother would not openly question my fathers interest, because that would force her either to reason or to argue with him about it. Both requiring her to track down the source of her fear and disgust. There’s a fair amount of tensed situations and uncomfortable scenes between the two in my memory – enough to tell me it might be sensible to drop the subject. However I decided this is not the time to be sensible. After all it is my mothers name my sister and me are carrying. As expected she is first indifferent – later even repulsed to talk or hear about the inventor of the Schwarzlose. I can try all I want, but it is impossible to get more than a sour gesture of disinterest out of her, for now anyway.

Back in Amsterdam I tell my story to a Swedish friend. He finds out that the Swedish army produced three different medals with the “Schwarzlose Kulspruta” as a motive. He speaks to his grandfather, who remembers operating the gun, but the medal is nowhere to be found. Later we contact a Swedish militaria collector who doesn’t only send me a medal, but also hints that he might know someone who could sell the entire gun if I was interested. Another friend of mine from Israel knows that the Schwarzlose has been used by some units of the Israely army as well. The soldiers gave it the Nickname “Shgorke”, meaning “Blackyæ. Soon the topic is becoming unavoidable to me. My little network of absurd interconnections is growing and information starts finding me before I even look for it.

Only a little later I am approached by another acquaintance: “Say, what was your last name again ?” he asks me. And he tells me how he had been to Bronbeek, a famous Dutch military museum in Arnhem. There he had seen, among other vestiges of Holland’s colonial war in Indonesia, the Schwarzlose gun exhibited in a glass cabinet. When I contact the curator of the museum, he proudly tells me they not only had one, but two Schwarzlose mitrailleurs in their collection and he invites me to pay a visit.

The museum itself is a rather unusual place, a mixture between an elderly veterans home and a military museum, all in the same building. One would leave a room where guns and knifes and other weapons are displayed and go next door – to find a bunch of old men playing pool and drinking lemonade in an oldfashioned cafeteria. The veterans seem to be on display as living war relics, they too are part of the grand history exhibition. As I am standing in front of the glass cabinet which contains the machine gun, looking at it and observing closely all the little bits and pieces it consists of on a large cross section map, a man enters the room. He greets me and asks for my name. As I introduce myself, his face lights up and we shake hands. He is the weapons expert of the museum. He knows the Schwarzlose mitrailleur very well and explains how it works. How many bullets it fires ( 500 per minute ), how heavy it is (machine gun: 24 kg, tripod: 20kg), where it was manufactured (Steyr and Berlin) and why it was so popular (not for being a weapon of great accuracy or sophisticated development, but simply for being easy and cheap to produce.) The man enjoys talking about all those technical and historical facts and I enjoy listening to them. “A truly marvelous piece of invention your grand grand father made.” He claps on my shoulder in approval. “Hm” I am unsure what to say. The name is all he needs. It ties me to the story of the gun whether I like it or not. If my last name was different I would not be here. The name is charged with history and it passes on its charge. Standing directly next to the gun I ask how all those weapons in the museum are deactivated, I had heard that it is illegal to posses functioning weapons of this kind since the end of the Second World War. “Oh no” he says, “this weapon is sharp. If it wasn’t its whole history would be destroyed. That is why we have a special permit for all guns we exhibit.” “Hm – aha” again I do not have a smart answer, mainly because my Dutch is not really sufficient for a more precise discussion. I somehow don’t mind my handicap. It allows me to listen and keep my thoughts to myself. The weapons expert shows me his key chain. Attached to it is a single bullet. “Do you see this? This is the ammunition which was shot with the Schwarzlose. Those bullets we made ourselves, here in Holland.” I catch myself silently speculating why he is using this bullet as a talisman…

Because I would like to take some photographs of the Schwarzlose, he insists in opening the cabinet for me and having me climb inside it. He gives me a hand as I enter the glass case and tells me it is important to get close enough. Otherwise I would miss all the important details.

Between Now and 5 Minutes Ago

2008, performance, installation, mixed media

Between now and 5 minutes ago is a two day performance, taking place simultaneously in Murica/Amsterdam. During day one we built an exact copy of our studio in Amsterdam. During day 2 we continued working on our ongoing projects. A live streaming video exchange connected the two spaces to allow visitors in Murica and Amsterdam to view our progress and help us to copy changes in the studio(s).

collaboration with Jonas Lund

Tools

2009, inkjet print

The work Tools shows a number of analogue tools to alter the perception of reality right in front of ones eyes. Most versions are made to be operated by simply holding up with ones hand and other versions are to be mounted on tripods.

Applying the tools

2009, inkjet print

Eight Families of Handshakes

2007, inkjet print, frames, glas, various sizes

Protection Constructions

2007, inkjet print

The Golden Ruler and Other Important Objects

Flash Cutouts

2008, video