The 15th @kaunasbiennial Life After Life is coming to a close this weekend. In it, you will find “Burden” partially entombed in decades old deli refrigerators, refrigerators that have passed through several shops and ideologies.
Rich conversations with our curator @adomas.n briefly resuscitated one of my older works: “Wait for me” was the only work to come out of my wayward stint in Moscow in 2018-19. It was a work that, in its process, brought me face to face with several people across the expanse of the city dealing in the values of the expired and self-made routes around the prohibited. It was a work that, through my whole body, confronted me with the concatenations of State, Person, and Object – and trouble of the mutability of my own body.
Wrestling with the both the current forces and undying vestiges of imperialism, “Wait for me” ultimately didn’t make the cut. But it absolutely lived in my head as we walked through Stumbras Distillery, the host of our works, formerly state-owned, several times by several states.
Scrolling through Skelbiu for any and every kind of cooling unit, I realized that the transaction as recurring origin in my work developed during this period of my exaggerated otherness in Russia. That the objects of these Informal commerces can describe/ contain countless relationship amongst people accidentally in (a) State(s).
In my blaring youth, I unknowingly planted these seeds in my practice. Thank you, 20s! And thank you to the whole biennial team (especially Renata for trawling every used fridge in Lithuania), for the wonderful show and for grouping me with such special artists for Life after Life.
Burden, 2024
Copper platings of a borrowed object, mobile cooling unit.
Photos by Jonas Balsevičius
Wait for me, 2019
Grain alcohol distillers, expired perfume (Krasnaya Moskva), heating elements
Burden, 2024
Copper platings of a borrowed object, mobile cooling unit.
Produced for the occasion of the 15th Gwangju Biennale last year, Burden is (still) the largest addition to the ongoing Insider’s Grave. The copper platings of this sculpture–made from a hand carved, colonial-era wooden cabinet–were shown within 30m2 walk-in refrigerator. This portable environment, also known as a cold room, the kind in which produce, medicine, or bodies are stored for preservation, was set to a brisk 10°C for the duration of the biennale.
Thank you to @bourriaudnicolas for the invitation and the opportunity to bring this long-fantasized vision to life. And equal thanks to the fantastic @greenjade___ for the very, very vital support throughout the experience
Burden (Fragments 4a, 4b, 9 & 1), 2024
Copper platings of a borrowed objects, mobile cooling units.
Burden, shown here in an a dismembered state, is the largest addition to the ongoing series “Insiders’ Grave.” In Echoes of Ritual, curated by @tenzingbarshee , portions of the borrowed object’s corpus are cooled and on display within deep freezers and funerary body chillers.
From Echoes of Rituals at @jankaps
Photo by Simon Vogel
Your Own Sun, 2025
A heating system, composed from recycled building materials and infrared foil, retrofitted into the exhibition space. The system may be partially reconstructed in the exhibition space each winter, until a new heating system is provided. Excess materials are to be returned to the recycled building material market.
The new, secondary interior inserted within the recently renovated A Tale of A Tub used radiant heating to regionally warm its 570 cubic meters. With infrared foil hugged between used drywall and insulation foam, the installation spread warmth into the space through its architectural – structural– surfaces. As cool air below rubbed past these warmed walls, it snatched some of that heat, carried it onward. Each molecule, only slightly warmer than before, follows its physical protocol. gathers together upwards, bolstering one another, syphoning the walls heat, heat that spills through the slits of the metal banister of the atrium, lingering in the bounds of two plastic curtains.
The Drain came down just a few weeks ago. A million thank yous to the team of @a_tale_of_a_tub — @isabellesully , @erikarovb , @janssenlisanne , and all of the incredibly supportive and game hosts—to @tomihilsee and @flo_henschel for making sure it didn’t all come crashing down, to the inimitable Sabo for all the fantastic design, to Annie, Eric, and Jan for their lived and professional insight, to my dear friends @tildgreene , Clemence and @emiel_zeno for the time and cheers, always thank you @saemundur_thor
And especially, To Erne, for warming it all up.
[ENG] Given that Brianna Leatherbury’s exhibition turns the whole space into an installation, it’s impossible to contain its scope within one frame, or even patch it together across a series of standard documentation photographs. So we’ve tried something a little different: here’s ‘The Drain’ in 360. For Brianna, there’s an affinity between the perspective of the 360 camera and the architectural perspective of drafting. Planning and modelling provides the illusion of omnipotence—you can render a whole cityscape into being—but even with the ability to access the same space from several angles, you can only choose so many at a time. In attempting to see everything at once, the environment of ‘The Drain’ becomes a fisheye-like image, one that doesn’t necessarily document it reliably, but which generates a depth or an entry, a stretched space that helps you to imagine the experience of inhabiting it.
[NL] Aangezien Brianna Leatherbury’s tentoonstelling de hele ruimte tot een installatie maakt, is het onmogelijk om de reikwijdte ervan in één beeld te vatten, of zelfs maar samen te voegen in een reeks standaard documentatiefoto’s. Daarom hebben we iets anders geprobeerd: hier is ‘The Drain’ in 360 graden. Voor Brianna is er een verwantschap tussen het perspectief van de 360-camera en het architecturale perspectief van het ontwerptekenen. Plannen en modelleren geeft de illusie van almacht - je kunt een heel stadslandschap laten ontstaan - maar zelfs met de mogelijkheid om dezelfde ruimte vanuit verschillende hoeken te benaderen, kun je er maar er maar een beperkt aantal tegelijk kiezen. In een poging om alles tegelijk te zien, wordt de omgeving van ‘The Drain’ een fisheye-achtig beeld, een beeld dat niet noodzakelijkerwijs betrouwbaar documenteert, maar dat een diepte of een ingang genereert, een uitgerekte ruimte die je helpt om je de ervaring van het bewonen ervan voor te stellen.
📷: ‘The Drain’ in 360, shot by Brianna Leatherbury, 2025.
[ENG] We have been living with ‘The Drain’ for almost a month, navigating the structure on the ground floor by squeezing through its human-sized gaps and weaving around its edges—a notable aspect of its design being that it intentionally forces viewers to the periphery, refusing them entry out at the same time. Butted up against the architecture, it’s both a structure displaced yet so specifically retrofit that it’s completely made to measure, right down to a single centimetre in some instances. Once upstairs, the cold aluminium of its exterior is undone by an internal heat that rises up to the mezzanine, waiting to greet you on these chilly days when the sun is still hesitating to fully commit to the spring. The heating system that is the basis of the current exhibition is turned on from 1–6PM, Thursday–Sunday, warming the space incrementally throughout the day. Come and feel it for yourself!
[NL] We leven nu bijna een maand met ‘The Drain’, en navigeren ons door de structuur op de begane grond door ons door kieren van menselijke afmetingen te wurmen en om diens randen heen te weven - een opvallend aspect van het ontwerp is dat het de kijkers opzettelijk naar de periferie dwingt en hen tegelijkertijd de toegang tot buiten ontzegt. Tegen de architectuur aangebouwd, is het zowel een ontheemde structuur als een retrofit die volledig op maat is gemaakt, in sommige gevallen tot op de centimeter nauwkeurig. Maar eenmaal boven wordt het koude aluminium van de buitenkant tenietgedaan door een interne warmte die opstijgt naar de mezzanine, klaar om je te verwelkomen op deze koude dagen waarop de zon nog steeds aarzelt om zich volledig aan de lente te wijden. Het verwarmingssysteem dat de basis vormt van de huidige tentoonstelling is ingeschakeld van 13.00 tot 18.00 uur, van donderdag tot en met zondag, en verwarmt de ruimte geleidelijk gedurende de dag. Kom het zelf ervaren!
📷: Brianna Leatherbury, ‘Your Own Sun’, 2025, a heating system, composed from recycled building materials, infrared foil and thermostats, retrofitted into the exhibition space, approximately 660 x 314 x 460cm. Photo: Gunnar Meier.
Fudge, 2024
Copper platings of a borrowed object, aluminum heat exchanger, mobile cold room
Today the value of preservation is outlined by a multi-billion dollar industry: the ‘cold chain’ – a globally interconnected system of freezing, transporting and storing temperature-sensitive goods, in order to extend their usability.
I often ask myself where does the human fit in these drives towards the eternal, to these ambitions of infinite productivity, as we experience the disastrous effects of this never ending “growth.”
Within a mobile coldroom, installed within Brunette Coleman’s white walls, the scraps of the Fudge’s multiplied urns are slotted between the aluminum fins of a heat exchanger, coolant coursing past them, absorbing the room’s heat through its metalisized surface.
Survival Bias at @brunette_coleman will come to a close this weekend. Come and catch the cold if you can.
Photography by @jackelliotedwards (but the last photo was taken by @tedtargett as a bit of encouragement)
Fudge, 2024
Copper platings of a borrowed object, copper pipes, condenser unit
“Survival Bias” is a type of logical error in which we selectively assess only successful outcomes, the survivors of time, largely because there is less evidence of their alternative. Those exceptional successes, preserved physically become, by default, legacy.
Fudge, while I didn’t get to meet you your lifetime, I was carefully, warmly, briefly trusted with you in your death.
On view at in Survival Bias at @brunette_coleman , in the company of other plated works and @i_a_okon ’s “Writing sourced from ‘Text Exercise 1’”, through July 6
Photography by @jackelliotedwards
Burden (Parent or Vessel), 2023
Copper plating of a borrowed object, copper pipes.
Currently on view in “Survival Bias” at @brunette_coleman , nestled into the office area of the gallery. Find it, and perhaps have a chat with Ted and Anna, until July 6th.
Photography by @jackelliotedwards
And a big thank you to @jenniferlinnieteets and @aprilinparisfinearts for encouraging the original production of the work last year during Conduit House
![[ENG] Given that Brianna Leatherbury’s exhibition turns the whole space into an installation, it’s impossible to contain its scope within one frame, or even patch it together across a series of standard documentation photographs. So we’ve tried something a little different: here’s ‘The Drain’ in 360. For Brianna, there’s an affinity between the perspective of the 360 camera and the architectural perspective of drafting. Planning and modelling provides the illusion of omnipotence—you can render a whole cityscape into being—but even with the ability to access the same space from several angles, you can only choose so many at a time. In attempting to see everything at once, the environment of ‘The Drain’ becomes a fisheye-like image, one that doesn’t necessarily document it reliably, but which generates a depth or an entry, a stretched space that helps you to imagine the experience of inhabiting it.[NL] Aangezien Brianna Leatherbury’s tentoonstelling de hele ruimte tot een installatie maakt, is het onmogelijk om de reikwijdte ervan in één beeld te vatten, of zelfs maar samen te voegen in een reeks standaard documentatiefoto’s. Daarom hebben we iets anders geprobeerd: hier is ‘The Drain’ in 360 graden. Voor Brianna is er een verwantschap tussen het perspectief van de 360-camera en het architecturale perspectief van het ontwerptekenen. Plannen en modelleren geeft de illusie van almacht - je kunt een heel stadslandschap laten ontstaan - maar zelfs met de mogelijkheid om dezelfde ruimte vanuit verschillende hoeken te benaderen, kun je er maar er maar een beperkt aantal tegelijk kiezen. In een poging om alles tegelijk te zien, wordt de omgeving van ‘The Drain’ een fisheye-achtig beeld, een beeld dat niet noodzakelijkerwijs betrouwbaar documenteert, maar dat een diepte of een ingang genereert, een uitgerekte ruimte die je helpt om je de ervaring van het bewonen ervan voor te stellen. : ‘The Drain’ in 360, shot by Brianna Leatherbury, 2025.](https://sp1.picnob.com/p/pt_6757597127267248214541_0_d193badc50851bdaebe74d1002f2f0ef.jpg?o=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&h=10cc9fa48d4100eb9b9dd7222984e9ee)
![[ENG] We have been living with ‘The Drain’ for almost a month, navigating the structure on the ground floor by squeezing through its human-sized gaps and weaving around its edges—a notable aspect of its design being that it intentionally forces viewers to the periphery, refusing them entry out at the same time. Butted up against the architecture, it’s both a structure displaced yet so specifically retrofit that it’s completely made to measure, right down to a single centimetre in some instances. Once upstairs, the cold aluminium of its exterior is undone by an internal heat that rises up to the mezzanine, waiting to greet you on these chilly days when the sun is still hesitating to fully commit to the spring. The heating system that is the basis of the current exhibition is turned on from 1–6PM, Thursday–Sunday, warming the space incrementally throughout the day. Come and feel it for yourself![NL] We leven nu bijna een maand met ‘The Drain’, en navigeren ons door de structuur op de begane grond door ons door kieren van menselijke afmetingen te wurmen en om diens randen heen te weven - een opvallend aspect van het ontwerp is dat het de kijkers opzettelijk naar de periferie dwingt en hen tegelijkertijd de toegang tot buiten ontzegt. Tegen de architectuur aangebouwd, is het zowel een ontheemde structuur als een retrofit die volledig op maat is gemaakt, in sommige gevallen tot op de centimeter nauwkeurig. Maar eenmaal boven wordt het koude aluminium van de buitenkant tenietgedaan door een interne warmte die opstijgt naar de mezzanine, klaar om je te verwelkomen op deze koude dagen waarop de zon nog steeds aarzelt om zich volledig aan de lente te wijden. Het verwarmingssysteem dat de basis vormt van de huidige tentoonstelling is ingeschakeld van 13.00 tot 18.00 uur, van donderdag tot en met zondag, en verwarmt de ruimte geleidelijk gedurende de dag. Kom het zelf ervaren! : Brianna Leatherbury, ‘Your Own Sun’, 2025, a heating system, composed from recycled building materials, infrared foil and thermostats, retrofitted into the exhibition space, approximately 660 x 314 x 460cm. Photo: Gunnar Meier.](https://sp1.picnob.com/p/pt_6751571747173132596932_0_bace9fed9c10250372a8ac25acb079f0.jpg?o=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&h=70d433c7c0d514cd4bc92dd74bcc5c23)
