Press:
Hyperallergic, Review
Aimée Burg: Magicker of the Solutional Caves

Auxiliary Projects is excited to present a selection of work by Aimée Burg from March 28 through May 3, 2015. This is the gallery’s first spring exhibition in its new location in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. We will host an opening reception on Saturday, March 28, from 6-8pm. The gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays from 1-6pm and by appointment.

On Star Trek (the original, obvs) the crew would sometimes visit planets that only appeared primitive. Although the aliens’ civilization was more advanced than our own, their planet’s development had not been parallel to ours and so retained traces that reminded the crew of human cave painting or crude pottery.  Most often, these artifacts would deceive the crew, who would not realize until later that the host planet’s life forms were more psychically evolved than humans and therefore less beholden to material fanfare. Their built environment, far from being reduced to ergonomics, was in fact fulfilling the entire spectrum of uses from physical to spiritual, extensions of capacities unseeable to the human eye.

For our spring rebirth, Auxiliary Projects presents the sculpture of Aimée Burg. Simultaneously futuristic and crude, they have the air of usefulness for purposes we are not able to discern. Undergrowth could be an interface, an abacus, or a musical instrument.  Breastplate is not just forlorn hanging rods, but rather a sculpture intertwined with its museum display (but also somehow mini-blinds). Casted evokes children’s book castles but also distills its form, like a logo, to a stylized icon.  The sculptures are fashioned in simple shapes from common materials, yet they have an awkwardness that feels non-contemporary. Possibly a work like Skyscraper Landscape alludes to ancient technology and symbolizes what may have been lost since we filled our vision, hands, and pockets with smooth touchable glass holding sparkly pictures. Burg’s sculptures are neither smooth nor sparkly. Her Wedges series present what seems like a visual system or a code—maybe we should try touching them. If we did would a hidden door open?

These works neighbor useful objects but announce their own volition.  Imagine them posed next to a functioning bowl, next to a real gamepiece, next to actual miniblinds.  Or it’s quite perfect to see them in a gallery, giving us six weeks to study them. Or maybe (accidentally!) drop one on the floor and open an inter-dimensional wormhole to a solutional cave.