NEXUS PLEXUS
Wooden construction, small sculptures, video 12:38 min, animation, sound
2024
The wooden object, which resembles a game board with its carved lines, pencil drawings and arrangement of lines and symbols, is populated by a multitude of small sculptures. The lines and symbols represent the nodes of a network through which the objects, as embodiments of various archetypes and states of consciousness, enter into symbolic interaction and depict various processes of consciousness.
The video shows various sequences, including performative elements, as well as 2D and 3D animations, which combine to form a collage-like composition. This is accompanied by analogue synthesiser compositions and spoken text.
NEXUS PLEXUS plays with simulation theories, such as those of physicist Thomas Campbell, which state that we are avatars in a reality created by a higher consciousness, and also shows various actions reminiscent of rituals or games as a way of anchoring oneself in this world or making contact with another, inner world.
The work reflects how layers of time, states of consciousness and symbolic realities can converge, overlap and condense in one place. The place is not understood as a static space, but as a hub, a dynamic network of meanings, interactions and transformations within a non-linear flow of time. A place of timelessness, where strategies for development and occupation, as well as reorganisation, are developed and passed on. It is the place where the creative spirit has a home, which connects us and in whose matrix intention and transformation combine to form a loop.
NEXUS PLEXUS moves between science, magic and science fiction, inviting viewers to playfully adopt new perspectives on the perception of our reality.
About Johanna Mangold and Sarah Huber
Johanna Mangold
Sarah Huber
Sarah Huber and Johanna Mangold explore models of reality and states of consciousness in their artistic collaboration. Their practice combines archetypal symbols, ritual motifs and elements from science fiction and pop culture with scientific and theoretical paradigms. They investigate how ritual actions influence the connectivity between humans, other living beings and the earth, and what effects this has on human consciousness. The mechanisms of the psyche and the dynamics of physical interactions are essential fields of research in this context.
Johanna Mangold (born in Kempten in 1984) studied fine art at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart under Prof. Cordula Güdemann and Prof. Rolf Bier from 2008 to 2015. From 2018 to 2020, she was a master student in the academy’s Weissenhof programme under Prof. Ricarda Roggan. Drawing, textile and object art are just as much a part of her artistic repertoire as sound, video and virtual reality. Thematically, she primarily deals with areas of the unconscious, dream images, the exploration of states of consciousness and memory, and the construction of individual mythologies. Johanna Mangold lives and works in Stuttgart and Ulm.
Sarah Huber (born in Pforzheim in 1987) studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart from 2007 to 2016. In 2022, she was a lecturer at the ABK Stuttgart and has since been working in the field of art education. Artistic work as a tool for questioning one’s own reality and mapping one’s own psyche in order to explore the nature of reality is central to her thinking.
The media she uses range from printmaking and drawing to carved wooden panels, objects and installations. Sarah Huber lives and works in Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg.
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