The commission called Of Yous brings to bear the artist’s promiscuous practice, centering on performativity and language, to the scale of a sculptural installation. Essender approaches nature as queer, summoning a system of objects that constructs the semblance of place. Sculptural forms, architectural typologies, and visual cues are recast as a speculation, a hallucination – a world. Meticulous in its delineation, the exhibition reveals the artist’s process in navigating the threats and possibilities of a multitudinous self: autonomous, healing, and frozen in transition. The space that results is, in fact, against space.

Commissioned under the topic New Agora, presented as part of the exhibition:

Of Yous, The Július Kollery Society – Nová Cvernovka, Bratislava, Slovakia, November 10, 2023 – January 12, 2024, organized by The Július Koller Society 

photo: Ján Skaličan
text: John Taylor-Foster