‘Upper’

Rebecca Ann Tess
16.04-07.05.2016

»Upper« presents three video and photography works by Rebecca Ann Tess as a part of her ongoing project Alpha++. Alpha++ deals with global cities and the materialization of wealth. The works evolve from discussions on history, the manifestation of power and the power relations in our daily life as well as in an international structure.

The central piece of the show, »The Tallest« (2014) is a shot on-site collection of the tallest buildings in the world today. The high-rises are shown as set pieces of global capitalism, visually diminishing into abstraction. The images are reduced to reminisce the architect’s 3-D renderings of the buildings. A computer voice narrates the competition for the tallest building among several cities including Chicago, Dubai, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Mecca, Nanjing, New York City, Seoul, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Songdo and Taipei.

The film »Upper« (2016) depicts medieval towers of the Italian city, San Gimignano, dubbed the Medieval Manhattan. San Gimignano was an important trading center in the 13th and 14th centuries. The fortified towers in San Gimignano however, were not used for defense but rather as a way for the rich Tuscan families to boast their wealth and power in its height. The ultra-high definition images of the towers are shot with intense blue skies – detached from the site’s spatial structure. A dense, high frequency soundscape (composed by Sara Lenzi) of non-local crickets narrates the towers of San Gimignano as the origin of today’s global high-rise architecture. In this respect, »Upper« serves as a historical echo to »The Tallest«.

»Xed« (2016) is a photograph site-specifically installed in the cabin-like room on the rooftop of Space One, is the world’s tallest twisted building: the Cayan Tower in Dubai. The picture is rotated 90 degrees forming a barricade and in this performative gesture, crossing out the existing space in Haebangchon.

Artist Intro:

Rebecca Ann Tess (*1980) is an artist based in Berlin and Seoul. Tess studied fine arts at the University of the Arts, Berlin, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London and graduated from the Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main. In 2012 she came to South Korea for a residency at Goyang Studios of MMCA and is currently teaching at the photography department at Chung-Ang University.

 Recently her works were on display with solo shows including 12x12 IBB-video space at Berlinische Galerie (2016); Home Time Show Time at Figge von Rosen Gallery, Berlin (2013); Container at basis, Frankfurt am Main (2013); “It takes a company to make art great”, lampione, Frankfurt am Main (2012); Dad Dracula is Dead, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden (2010). Selected group exhibitions include Monitoring, 32. Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival (2015); High Today What’s Tomorrow?, CIAT – Contemporary Institute for Art & Thought, Berlin (2014); Risk Society, MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (2013); Qual & Wahl, Kunstverein Wolfsburg (2013); Reality Manifestos – Can Reality Break Bricks?, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna (2012). In 2011 she received the Villa Romana Prize.