Worlds Away
Anne Duk Hee Jordan
‘Under water the world and perception is different, we feel pressure on the organs while being weightless at the same time – it is as if we perceive multidimensionally for the very first time.’ - Anne Duk Hee Jordan
Worlds Away is a multi-sensory installation that plunges you into the depths of the ocean, into a world composed of fantastical creatures including a giant clam and microscopic phytoplankton. The silhouettes of these plant-like drifters are printed on translucent sheets of fabric in blues, purples, and greens; the color spectrum that is still visible to the human eye as we descend under water. Illuminated by blacklights the critters seem to have a photoluminescent glow about them. A mattress in the center of the space invites visitors to lie down, shift their perspective - akin to divers looking up to the surface at refracting light - and to become fully enveloped by sounds of whale songs, breathing, and the disturbances of a motor boat, carefully composed in collaboration with Filip Caranica. Reminiscent of Hélio Oiticica’s immersive Cosmococa pavilions from the 1970s, Jordan’s psychedelic environment firmly anchors one’s bodily presence in space whilst turning our perspectives topsy-turvy by centering gigantic microorganisms. In doing so, she sharpens our sense of deep entanglement needed for worlding unknown futures.
Worlds Away, 2022-2023 - tent structure, 6 x 6 x 6m approx., stage elements, beds, cushions, 8-channel sound installation
Phytoplankton, 2022-2023 - clear resin, acrylic paint, variable dimensions
Worlds Away, 2021 - print on NeroTexx, 618 x 245 cm
Clam Extravaganza, 2021 - sculpture, 75 x 220 x 103 cm on plexiglass mirror, 110 x 250 cm
Courtesy of the artist and alexander levy, Berlin.
Anne Duk Hee Jordan
°1978, Korea
Anne Duk Hee Jordan builds her practice around the entangled relations between humans and nonhumans. Often riffing on humor, fantasy and concepts intrinsic to nature, her works in sculpture, performance, video, kinetics and robotics, challenge agency relations and shift the focus from human beings toward ecology as a whole. Her work is shown worldwide in recent solo exhibitions, group shows and performances in HEK, Basel, Switzerland; Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany; Gwangjiu Biennale, Korea (2023); Baltic Art Center and Public Art Agency Stockholm, Gotland, Sweden (2022); Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin, Germany (2022); Kunsthall Trondheim and The Seed Box, Trondheim, Norway (2021); Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Serbia (2021); Urania, Berlin, Germany (2021), and KIOSK, Ghent, Belgium, (2020). Anne Duk Hee Jordan studied at the Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin and continued with a Master in Fine Arts at the Institut für Raumexperimente in Berlin under Olafur Eliasson. She is also a professional rescue and apnea diver, a chef, and a therapist specializing in the study of body movements, all of which infuses her practice. She lives and works in Berlin and is represented by alexander levy, Berlin