Ed Atkin’s exhibition “Old Food”, is not for the easily unsettled. Now showing at Martin-Gropius-Bau, this is the artist’s largest installation of work to date and consists of a series of CGI animations that portray characters in a melancholic, alternative reality. Describing CGI as our latest “art toy”, Atkins takes our desire to see an augmented and perfected version of our world and does exactly the opposite. Rather than use it to beautify, he mocks our shiny digital dreams, using the technology to enhance and distort the organic properties of human beings for grotesque effect. His eerie artificial protagonists crawl, cry hysterically, play piano in an almost human-like manner, instilling the viewer with a sense of queasy unease. There is clearly a dark, comical undertone to the exhibition. Atkins exploits our emotional investment in the characters, making us wait and watch sequences on repeat, in anticipation of a conclusion. When it comes, it is never what we expected. This exhibition, like the thought of old food, gets under your skin, leaving you with a sense of discomfort that can’t be easily shaken. (Text: Lucy Thorpe / Photos (clockwise from top): Mark Blower, Jansch, c/o Ed Atkins)
Martin-Gropius-Bau, Niederkirchnerstr.7, 10963 Berlin-Kreuzberg; map
Wed-Mon 10-19h
Ed Atkins “Old Food” until 7.1.18; program