During Covid-19 I lost my usual work environment and many project opportunities. As a result, I have had to reduce my practice to a confined space. This obviously influenced my work as well. I often work with themes of interventions in space on a micro and macro scale and how these interventions change our perception and affect our environment. In this series, I focused on how confinement changes our feeling of time as well as space.  The formal language I use is taken from biological research of lifeforms, which exist under conditions unimaginable to humanity: underwater vents, brine pools, sulfur seas on a faraway moon, and bacteria in city sewage. The theme of the net is not only a manifestation of space but also of how time can bend space and create untouchable materiality. The paintings invert linear space and time towards a multitude of plains of existence. 

Painting the inverted space

My practice revolves around the estrangement of Nature. Questioning boundaries between inner and outer space and the divisions which humankind erects to enclose themselves in a comfortable situation. 

The way I work is based on the energy and quality of the materials I use. I start by using very wet techniques through which an unreproducible form emerges and continue by framing this momentary event within an abstracted spatial context.

Avoid the void inspects the intricacies of the idea of empty space and its relation to perception and the tradition of abstraction. The works are the tipping point between these fields of thought, oscillating between abstracts colour fields and bodies of unknown matter. 

I was supposed to have a residency and exhibition in the new contemporary museum in Anhui China which was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Avoid the void

An inverted stroll inside my own body.
Exploring the essence of meat/flesh and its different social and anthropological meaning. 
In modern society, this integral part of nature becomes estranged and loses it's mental and physical nutritional value. A big part of these work revolves around materiality. 
The works are comprised primarily of found pieces of human garbage (mainly plastic and fabrics) and industrial felt. The ongoing project is inspired by the infestation of flesh with microplastic in the Anthropocene and its unknown ramifications.
The materials used are recognizable and act as an ambiguous connection between oneself and one's environment.
This body of work researches the gap between the most wanted and craved objects of consumption and those which are deemed worthless.



The Dancer and the Butcher

A site-specific installation about unseen spacial structures. The forms of the work are derived from deep-sea lifeforms such as worms, sponges and microorganisms, living under harsh and alien conditions. The implications of these ways of life remain unclear and unfathomable, yet these relatively simple organisms live to astonishing ages surpassing humanity's meagre understanding of time. The net creates a contextual framework connecting the individual pieces, which highlights the spaces between them and exposes their connections. This net can be seen as the impact of digital space and rendering but also as the curvature of space-time and relativity.

the big curve

The series is called "A Piece of the Pie" and consists of more than 50 works.
Through their cartographic and biomorphic references, the works point to the discrepancy between the natural and the constructed space.  The name of the series originates in the dialectic of the conquest of territory, especially the remains of the colonialist fight for influence where everyone tried to get a piece of the pie. The pieces are always fragments of an unknown lost whole. The works are mounted on the wall (similar to trophy heads of animals) and their relation to the space around them is intricate. At times, the edges of the works follow natural formations similar to physical geography and at others, they halt abruptly like randomly assorted international borders. 
The individual pieces of the series are connected by their experimental quality and their material nature to form a complete unit. However, they also operate as a stand-alone system. The materials and textures highlight the interaction between different systems, analogous to our world and its diverse ecosystems.

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Abie Franklin