RAINA HAMNER / BRIANNA LEATHERBURY / SABINA MARIA VAN DER LINDEN / STURTEVANT
SYMBOLIC EXCHANGE

RAINA HAMNER / BRIANNA LEATHERBURY / SABINA MARIA VAN DER LINDEN / STURTEVANT

SYMBOLIC EXCHANGE

SEPTEMBER 11 – OCTOBER 19, 2024

Inspired by Baudrillard’s seminal work Symbolic Exchange and Death (1976), this exhibition explores the concept of exchange as a powerful catalyst for evolution, transformation, and transcendence. The “symbolic exchanges” presented here celebrate the poetic interaction of creative and cultural practices, offering compelling alternatives to traditional paradigms of production and transaction.

Raina Hamner’s drawings offer a glimpse into a rich inner universe, capturing the animistic qualities of the world around her. Her work has evolved into a distinctive style over time, bringing dream-like figures to life. Each artwork opens a gateway to hidden realms, revealing intricate layers of emotion and thought.

For more than fifteen years, Hamner has exchanged drawings for therapy sessions. After her analysis concluded, her therapist—recognizing the significance of what Hamner had achieved—returned most of these works on paper. This collection of more than two hundred ‘drawings in exchange for therapy’ now forms a substantial body of work.

Brianna Leatherbury’s ongoing series features the transformation of borrowed items into copper plates, which are then returned to their original owners. Her sculptures explore the theme of transactions, sensuously engaging with the material effects of economic forces embedded in objects, spaces, and interactions.

Using the alchemical process of copper plating, Leatherbury turns each object into a relic, reminiscent of an ancient fossil or a prehistoric artifact.

Sabina Maria van der Linden, a significant figure in Berlin’s art scene, is a Dutch artist whose work spans from the late 1990s to the present. Her diverse creations include screens, calligraphic forms, prints, and costumes. Van der Linden produced a series of digitally altered images of herself alongside Naomi Campbell and other well-known figures, or in intimate settings with male artists. These works explore themes of fetishism, celebrity worship, advertising, fashion, superficiality, and vintage pornography.

Through meticulously staged and manipulated personas, van der Linden examines society’s extreme obsessions with perfect beauty, eternal youth, total control, and perfection, prompting the audience to confront these cultural fixations.

Sturtevant is well-known for her unique practice of recreating other artists’ works from memory. While her reproductions are visually similar to the originals, they are not mere copies. Her reinterpretations of pieces by contemporaries such as Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol, as well as iconic figures like Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Beuys, explore complex issues related to authorship, authenticity, and originality.

The subtle variations between her versions and the originals invite viewers to look beyond the visual similarities and engage in deeper conceptual contemplation. As Warhol famously remarked when asked about his creative process: “I don’t know. Ask Elaine [Sturtevant].”