For Important Questions a group exhibition at the Union Pavilion as part of the 2024 Gwangju Biennale – Alban Karsten created a trilogy of works: a sculpture of a litter, an infinite music video and a sculpture of an exoskeleton. The works deal with support structures and the different meanings of carrying.
The sculptures refer to centuries-old support structures for carrying and transporting sacred objects, the rich or the dead; and, more recently, lifting and transporting an endless amount of packages from warehouse to front door. At production sites where heavy physical and repetitive work is performed, the employee has recently been offered an exoskeleton; which, like a shadow worker, offers a set of helping hands, arms, shoulders or legs. The fact that this gesture to relieve the employee also results in increased efficiency and productivity is, of course, quite convenient.
Alban’s sculptures employ techniques associated with furniture making, such as upholstery, carving, draping, joinery and bobbin-style woodturning. In doing so, he emphasizes that furniture objects have always been support structures, and therefore the earliest extensions of human beings.
His music video features an upbeat song sung by a self-assembled choir that includes his mother, a former opera singer. Since the noble task of carrying often is performed by the somewhat less fortunate, Alban therefore sees his song as a modern work song; songs sung during heavy physical work, where rhythmic movements – such as spinning, sawing, hoisting, walking, drilling, and so on – were emphasized.
The choir walks around indefinitely, ascends an artificial mountain, strides through fields and along paths in good spirit, resolutely descends, gets tired and starts all over again. Meanwhile, they chant a series of affirmations designed to convince themselves that they are on the right track, that they can handle the burdens just fine, and that they deserve to believe in what they do. Occasionally an exoskeleton suit appears here as well, as a cameo, to inconspicuously change owners when support is needed.
