ANNA UDDENBURG: Schinkel Core

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Archive Berlin Review from our issue #44

In 2019, I was invigilating at a contemporary art institution in Zurich. One of the museum’s group shows — presenting art linked to post-cyber feminism — included three works by Anna Uddenberg, and it was my duty to sit near Uddenberg’s sculpture titled Disconnect (airplane mode)(2018) for hours on end. The work features a hyper-sexualized, voluptuous mannequin slouching on a daybed and clad in tight-fitting athleisure made from a velvety fabric. A curtain of blonde hair covers the mannequin’s face, shroud-ing its identity in an aura of anonymity or perhaps generic representation. While sitting in front of this carefully crafted life-size doll, I couldn’t help but wonder if her butt that looked so real also felt like a real one. At one point I couldn’t resist the urge anymore and pushed a finger into one of the buttocks (obviously not something a museum guard should do). What I expected was a sensation comparable to the pliant softness of silicone, a tactile experience imitating the texture of human flesh. My imagination had made up images of the buttock yielding, perhaps even meeting my finger with resilience, a bit like memory foam. In reality, however, the figure was constructed from a hard material — a far cry from thes iliconey softness I imagined.

The stiff mannequin wore a single Croc covered in soft green velvet, its mate resting beside her. While Crocs seem to be en vogue right now, I’m sure they will go out of fashion at some point in the near future. Which, looking at Uddenberg’s work once more, makes me wonder if it will really stand the test of time. Her new (and first) monograph, Work 2010—2023(2023), once again, and more than ever, brings to light a recurring issue I see in the artist’s practice: it doesn’t age well.

The issue doesn’t arise materially. These works are impeccably crafted(something particularly true of Uddenberg’s recent productions for Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin andMeredith Rosen Gallery inNew York). Rather, Uddenberg’s body of work feels as if it were stamped in big red letters pro-claiming the era of its creation. It’s as if the work is about the role of con-temporary art in reflect-ing the transience of cultural trends and attitudes, while Uddenberg is actually— and, I assume, deliberately— swallowing a bitter pill: the inevitable side effect of engaging so closely with the aesthetics of contemporary fashion (and collaborating with such brands as Balenciaga) carries the inherent risk of falling out of trend if you don’t manage to keep pace with fashion’s transformation. This outcome is particularly challenging, as the art market tends to be less keen on significant aesthetic shifts within an artist’s practice than within the fashion scene.

The issue doesn’t arise materially.These works are impeccably crafted(something particularly true of Uddenberg’s recent productions for Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin andMeredith Rosen Gallery inNew York). Rather, Uddenberg’s body of work feels as if it were

At least in Berlin, where both Uddenberg and I work and live, she still seems to be the hot shit, celebrated by a para-art-scene that, for example, gathered at her Schinkel Pavillon opening, dressed in head-to-toe black, NewModels T-shirts, and racy sunglasses — a blend of aesthetics that I thought were all over a few years ago, and that my friends and I have jokingly dubbed “Schinkel-core.” Schinkel’s recent program further featured artists H. R. Giger, Florentina Holzinger, DIS, Jon Rafman, and Shayne Oliver, all contributing to a similar fashion-friendly, dark-and-twisted tone, which seems to target this exact group of textbook Berlin cool kids.

Although there permanently remains the risk of going out of style, for Uddenberg and her peers working with the ultra-con-temporary, one of fashion’s big truths comes in handy: trends always resurface. I think Berlin is ready for a Maria Eichhorn revival.

ANNA UDDENBERG: Premium Economy is published by DISTANZ (2024).