Ethan Assouline, Jan Domicz, Gina Folly

Artists: Ethan Assouline, Jan Domicz, Gina Folly

Artistic work is exposed to the constant presumption of having to explain itself: What is this supposed to tell us? What was he/she thinking? What discourses are being touched upon, and where, pray tell, do I appear in it? As justified as these questions may be, in sum they often close off more than they open up. Would an exhibition be conceivable in response to this, which thematizes and allows the production of hermeticism in an environment that constantly demands explanations and discursive resolution? And what new questions would that provoke?

Despite significant differences, the works by Gina Folly, Ethan Assouline, and Jan Domicz collected in WHIMSIES are united by a certain whimsicality toward the viewer. Whimsical in that they do not reveal everything, but flirt with withdrawal and enigma. Which, however, should not be misunderstood as a pose, but rather as a serious possibility of a different approach to the works that is not already laid out and spelled out.