Photography / Photograms / Kinetic Interactive Sculptures / Sculptures

In bed with Lucy and Dolly - Photograms

Mapping the temporal balance between water and air in the form of unique bubbles—which emerge as a result of dynamic systems that do not follow linear and hierarchal patterns of organizational behavior—Fried charts the fundamental economy of fluid networks in nature. In varying chromatic tones, Fried depicts strictly non-biological membranes that evoke a strong resemblance to primordial living cells or biotech test-tube creations, and reminds us of just how fragile, yet adoptive the architecture of life is.

Fried creates large gaseous vesicles in a totally darkened room using infrared goggles. At the decisive moment before they fall, he photograms them onto grainless color sheet-film by triggering a colored point-light source above. He captures the shadows of these fleeting objects to make an image on a photosensitive support using only light and the light sensitive material. No camera or lens is used.

What we see in his enlarged c-prints are the latent shadows and spectral aberrations of these transparent forms caused by the membrane’s curved surface. The object itself becomes the lens, subtly bending the light and altering its own image.

The series title refers to Lucy as the early hominin ‘mother’, to Us as the ‘myth-makers’, and to Dolly the cloned sheep, as to what Fried ironically calls the ‘missing link’, in a mythological dialogue that seeks orientation in a world in which man has moved from adapting to and controlling their environment, to designing life itself to fit it’s environment. With this work, Fried involves our sense of orientation in a world that has taken a biomorphic journey from the Cambrian sea to the sea of science and it’s playpens of genetic engineering.

C.C.: Would you please explain your reference in the title of the photographic works to Dolly, the first cloned sheep?

D.F.: With her arrival (Dolly), a media star was born. Suddenly everyone knew a barrier was shattered between mankind’s practice of altering his environment, and mankind‘s attempts at re-inventing himself. Humans has always looked for what separates themselves from other species. For me, Dolly became the missing link, fulfilling man‘s need to be supreme. On the other hand, Lucy, an ancient hominid, is a woman of less certain origin. Although we can clearly interpret her physiological nature, the question is still posed: how intelligent was she really?’ Well, at least clever enough to eat, sleep and reproduce biologically... So we find ourselves in bed with our own past and future, trying to orientate ourselves to this brave new world.

Christopher Chambers is an artist, critic, and curator based in New York City.

INTERVIEW full text - English / German:

In bed with Lucy and Dolly - Fotogramme

In seinen Arbeiten „Im Bett mit Lucy und Dolly“ zeigt Fried das flüchtige Gleichgewicht zwischen Wasser und Luft in Form einzigartiger Luftblasen, entstehend als Resultat aus dynamischen Systemen, die nicht den linearen und hierarchischen Mustern organisierten Verhaltens folgen. Er kartografiert so die fundamentale Ökonomie der Netzwerke in der Natur. In unterschiedlichen Farbtönen bildet Fried ausschließlich jene nicht-biologischen Membranen ab, die eine starke Ähnlichkeit zu den Ur-Lebenszellen oder den Schöpfungen im biotechnischen Reagenzglas besitzen und uns daran erinnern, wie stark und doch wie vergänglich die Architektur des Lebens ist.

Fried kreiert, ausgestattet mit einer Infrarotbrille, in einem vollkommen abgedunkelten Raum große Blasen und erzeugt im entscheidenden Moment ihr Fotogramm auf kornlosen Farbfilmbögen. Er nutzt die Schatten der - hier sogar transparenten - Objekte, um ein Bild auf den Film zu bannen. Er verwendet also ausschließlich Licht und lichtempfindliches Material, keine Kamera, kein Objektiv.
Was wir in seinen vergrößerten C-Prints sehen, sind die Schatten und die Spektralabweichungen dieser transparenten, von der gekrümmten Oberfläche der Membran selbst verursachten Formen. Das Objekt wird damit zum Objektiv, welches das Licht subtil bricht und damit das eigene Bild verwandelt.

Der Titel bezieht sich auf Lucy (die frühe Menschenmutter), auf uns (den Mythos) und auf Dolly, das Schaf (das Missing Link). Sie stehen in einem Dialog, der die Orientierung in einer Welt sucht, in der sich die Menschheit von der Kontrolle ihrer Umwelt bereits wegbewegt, hin zu dem unvermeidlichen Drang, unsere eigenen Vorfahren neu zu erschaffen.

Mit dieser Arbeit stimuliert Fried unseren Orientierungssinn und führt uns auf eine biomorphische Reise, vom Kambrischen Meer, bis hin den Versuchsteichen der Wissenschaft mit ihren ersten Schöpfungen der Gentechnik.

C.C.: Könnten Sie Ihre Anspielung im Titel der fotografischen Arbeiten zu Dolly, dem ersten geklonten Schaft, erklären?

D.F.: Mit dem Erscheinen Dollys war ein Medienstar geboren. Plötzlich wusste jeder, dass eine Grenze zwischen der Praxis der Menschheit, ihre Umgebung zu verändern, und den Versuchen der Menschheit, sich selbst neu zu erfinden, gefallen war. Der Mensch hat immer danach gesucht, was ihn von anderen Spezies unterscheidet. Für mich wurde Dolly zum „missing link“ und erfüllte das Bedürfnis des Menschen nach Überlegenheit. Andererseits ist auch Lucy, eine alte Hominide, eine Frau von mehr als zweifelhafter Herkunft. Obwohl wir ihre physiologische Herkunft exakt bestimmen können, stellt sich noch immer die Frage: „Wie intelligent war sie wirklich?“ Nun, zumindest klug genug, um zu essen, zu schlafen und sich biologisch zu reproduzieren, was mehr ist als ich von unseren Vorfahren sagen kann. Auf diese Weise finden wir uns selbst im Bett mit unserer Vergangenheit und Zukunft wieder und versuchen uns in dieser „schönen neuen Welt“ zurechtzufinden.

INTERVIEW full text - English / German:

Stemmers - Sculptures

This ongoing series of unique handmade sculptures began in 2004. Fried coined the term “Stemmer” as a personifying name for stem cell creations. Currently the stem cell is the most promising yet controversial programmable self-reproducing building block on a cellular life level, which in the hands of the genetic engineer has become the absolute malleable “bio-porcelain” of choice at the turn of this century.

These three-dimensional works are a series of geometrical sculptures that portray his vision of stem cell creations with a kind of prepubescent innocence. They look like young or undeveloped beings, easy to personify and almost friendly in appearance. Although there is a clear association to organic cell clusters, Fried actually follows a basic law of economy found in complex bubbles to hand-build and facet the sculpture’s surface. The sharp-networked angles formed by intersecting spheres of varying size result in dynamic shapes that in spite of their clean mathematical origin appear biological, and possess an abstract yet curiously personal character. Each Stemmer sculpture contains several “faces” when viewed from different angles, which easily suggest multiple abstract personalities.

If Fried’s Stemmers are perceived as premature in vitro creations, then one must think: what might they grow up to be? Life-savers like skin or liver? Patented spare parts or estranged new breeds? His Stemmers also appear to have gender, which is enforced through their intended resemblance to figures from the stone age such as the “Venus of Willendorf”, which depicts an anatomically exaggerated female form, or other phallic icons found in many Paleolithic cultures.

As in many of Fried’s other works, the artist presents us with minimalist symbolic imagery that suggests a mix of mythological and scientific beliefs, while calling attention to the manipulative processes that are now deeply rooted in our cultures. By resurrecting and modernizing humankind’s oldest fertility icons - in an era whereby applied technologies are trumping the oldest form of reproduction and evolution - with fertility icons of a synthetic nature for future generations, Fried confronts us with our desire and ability to alter nature’s course, and perhaps our future evolutionary process.

Rainscapes - Photography

At first glance, the colorful arrays of countless water drops in Fried’s Rainscape photographs appear to be falling galaxies - clusters of dripping light painted on the night sky. On closer inspection one sees that they are actually photographs of pure falling Rain.

Fried captures strongly individual patterns of rainfall on large format color film. Rich chromatic variations are revealed by the prismatic effect of light passing through each individual raindrop, evoking a spacious cosmic look. Fried’s large-scale Rainscape photographs exude a quiet replenishing quality that unloads poetically within the viewer.

Observing what gives rise to civilizations, or may ultimately lead to their demise, Fried sees freshwater as problematic in the 21st century. Since ancient times, with prayer and ritual - to science and its methods, humans have wished to influence the weather, and although the collective human pursuit has undoubtedly had profound affects on the ecosystem, we are luckily still unable to control bigger systems such as the weather. Rain still falls freely through the world’s trees, and harvesting hands before completing it’s cycle. However, access to - and usage of - clean water is being moved into increasingly privatized hands, servicing industry more than local needs and down river ecosystems. Fried’s Rainscapes portray sweet water at its birth and invites us to contemplate its worth as we become its temporary custodians.

Rainscapes - Fotografie

Auf den ersten Blick erscheinen die Reihen zahlloser bunter Wassertropfen in Frieds “Rainscapes” (Regenlandschaften) wie stürzende Galaxien -Ansammlungen tropfenden Lichtes vor den nächtlichen Himmel gemalt. Erst bei näherer Betrachtung sieht man, dass es sich tatsächlich um Fotografien reinen, fallenden Regens handelt.

Fried bannt die höchst individuellen Muster des Niederschlags auf großformatige Film. Durch den prismatischen Effekt, wenn Licht den einzelnen Regentropfen passiert, entstehen reiche chromatische Variationen und erzeugen einen räumlichen, kosmischen Eindruck. Frieds “Rainscape” – große Fotografien strömen für den Betrachter eine stille, poetische Anmut aus.

Mit dem Blick darauf, was zum Aufstieg von Zivilisationen oder zu ihrem schlussendlichen Niedergang führen mag, sieht Fried Trinkwasser als das Problem des 21. Jahrhunderts. Seit alters her haben Menschen den Wunsch gehegt, das Wetter beeinflussen zu können, durch Gebete und Rituale bis hin zur heutigen Wissenschaft mit ihren Methoden. Und obgleich dieses gemeinsame menschliche Streben zweifellos einen tief greifenden Einfluss auf das Ökosystem hatte, sind wir glücklicherweise immer noch unfähig, größere Systeme wie das Wetter zu steuern. Wasser fällt immer noch frei durch die Bäume dieser Erde und durch die Hände des Landmannes, bevor es seinen Zyklus vollendet. Dennoch liegt die Herrschaft über den Zugang und die Nutzung von frischem Wasser zunehmend bei der privaten Wirtschaft, die der Industrie mehr dient als den lokalen Bedürfnissen und den Ökosystemen flussabwärts. Frieds “Rainscapes” zeigen frisches Wasser bei seinem Entstehen und laden uns ein, über seinen Wert nachzudenken und so für kurze Zeit zu seinem Hüter zu werden.

Globalexandria - stainless steel sculptures

Three-dimensional constructions of mirror-polished stainless steel spheres and intersecting rods colonize a wall in a loosely organized manner, or grow from the floor into free-standing networked structures—swarms of mirrored orbs that physically support and reflect one another’s position in synoptic play.

Fried’s spatial ‘Globalexandria’ objects derive their essential skeletal forms from the systems thinking information age in a gestural way. One immediately gets a sense of motion as we look to connect the dots, perhaps in search of some nonsensical sense, while noticing that as we project our own synaptic perspective into the network. We can see our position reflected in all the spheres simultaneously, and in each sphere we also find an endless rerflective feedback of all their positions.

These sculptures are inspired by the information age, connectivity on a global scale, the creation of highly relevant positions through networks, and how such internalized systemic approaches change our perceptual habits, and by daily use, even our core beliefs. Fried reflects on the phenomenality of these dissipative networked structures, which thrive on input, emergent complexity and feedback.

The title is a hybrid of Global and Alexandria. Since the fall of the ancient Egyptian library by localized fires, our entire information age has evolved into a decentralized structure—though just as vunerable via corruption of data or systemic failures—that has significantly democratized knowledge and liberated communication largely regardless of geography or class. Our way of thinking is changing as well. Certain tools throughout the ages have fundementally altered our approach to problem solving and eventually seeps into our philosophies.

From cave paintings to cuneiform to binary code, our languages also evolve with our tools. And while literacy in code is becoming more widespread, conversely, encryted data becomes more complex and exclusive. Oddly, we are the first civilization to purposely design a language that no human—even geeks—can decifer with their own senses.

Navigating such rapid technological advancements—where the only constant is constant change—we can get stuck using old ingrained maps and rules. We don‘t have thousands of years to master these innovations like a hand axe. Fried questions if our common-sense philosophies and perspectives can develop as keenly as our technologies to narrow a wisdom-gap in the making. Like art lives from breaking borders, even in the face of big-data, we have never had a more empowering tool to explore and share our freedom of expression, innovation and visions.

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