Dear ,

You were warned that this was going to be a hectic year. As a result the newsletter suffers. I apologize. But here’s a quick note about some of the things that are happening. One this very evening!

Idoll.app at HeK Basel NOW!

In contemporary popular culture the apocalypse is considered a bad thing. That is because popular culture is post-Christian. When you do not love Jesus, the end of the world is the end of everything. So looking back on how people used to deal with that, modern Westerners develop certain rituals to console their souls. They are obviously entirely missing the point of religion but it does give me a certain hope. Maybe some of our contemporaries are beginning to realise that materialism isn’t such a wonderful idea after all, that perhaps something more to existence than genes and molecules would be nice.

This is what I gathered from seeing Neue Rituale für das Ende der Welt as it was being set up at HEK in Basel. Auriea’s IDOL.APP from the Prophecy show is part of it. She even improved it for the occasion! It might be the only piece in the exhibition that takes the actual Book of Revelation seriously. The show opens tonight and runs through Art Basel until August.

Shows in the Fall

I’m not sure if I’m keeping track of everything that Auriea is up to anymore. But I know that she is preparing for two major exhibitions in the USA in the Fall.

One celebrating the 19th century classicist sculptor Edmonia Lewis at Tinworks in Bozeman, Montana, called Chisel & Razor, Act II - The Artistic Legacies of Edmonia & Samuel Lewis and opening in October.

The other, in some ways related, in New York’s Heft gallery.

Also in the Fall, the soon to be released public beta of the remake of our social screensaver The Endless Forest will be featured in Hans Ulrich Obrist’s Worldbuilding exhibition at the new Canyon place, also in la grosse pomme. I’m sure I’m forgetting some.

Digital Stone

You’d think that when time is short for putting together so much work, one would make sure to rely on acquired knowledge and select techniques and media that one is familiar with. Not so my wife! After her experiments with Egyptian blue paste at C.R.E.T.A., Auriea will now travel to a tiny village near Carrara to carve in marble for a month.

Come fund me!

Not that we can afford any of these shenanigans! I’m trying to feed this girl every day but she’s not making it easy. Glory doesn’t buy potatoes! So I’d appreciate some help. You can surprise her on IBAN DE18100110012621105845 or Paypal.

I know this is a lot. And I’m afraid it’s not everything. I wish there was some kind of technology that would automatically write newsletters. And maybe automatically make art just by describing the thing. Oh, well, I can dream!

May the Lord who created the universe (and will apparently end it soon) let His beautiful face shine upon you and be gracious to you!

one with her in spirit and flesh, Michael.