{"id":15367,"date":"2025-06-26T04:36:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T04:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/15367\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T04:36:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T04:36:12","slug":"alicja-kwade-reflects-the-warped-nature-of-time-and-reality-in-poetic-installations-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/15367\/","title":{"rendered":"Alicja Kwade Reflects the Warped Nature of Time and Reality in Poetic Installations \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Square steel bars give way to knotted branches covered with patina in <a href=\"https:\/\/alicjakwade.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Alicja Kwade<\/a>\u2019s monumental meditation on time. Anchoring Telos Tales at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacegallery.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pace Gallery<\/a> in New York is a sculpture in which architecture and nature converge.<\/p>\n<p>Mirrored cylinders hang among the structures with distorted clock faces on their ends. Warping further as viewers move around the forms, these timepieces reflect the ways we are all bound up with the passing of the days. Time, Kwade suggests, skews our perceptions and realities and is only partially in our control. Whereas the city conforms to human design, nature doesn\u2019t, and neither wholly does time.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/kwade-6.jpg\" alt=\"mirror panels in a desert with stones surrounding it\" class=\"wp-image-457657\"  \/>\u201cIn Blur\u201d (2022), powder-coated stainless steel, mirror, stones, objects, 410 x 4,700 x 13,300 centimeters. Photo by Lance Gerber<\/p>\n<p>Born in Poland and now based in Berlin, Kwade (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/tags\/alicja-kwade\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">previously<\/a>) is known for confronting long-held beliefs through sculptures, installations, film, photography, and more. Her preferred materials are minimal, including stainless steel and stone. Mirrors play an important role, too, and in large-scale works like \u201cDuodecuple Be-Hide,\u201d panels slot between granite and marble spheres and lookalikes of patinated bronze.<\/p>\n<p>Much like Telos Tales, this sculpture utilizes these sleek reflective surfaces to call our perception into question. Altering the images they reveal depending on the viewer\u2019s position, each mirror becomes a sort of portal in which the organic forms and bronze are replicated again and again, creating a seemingly endless array of alternate realities. A similar phenomenon occurs in \u201cIn Blur.\u201d Surrounded by trees and stones in a desert, mirrored panels reflect the environment, while simultaneously hiding what lies behind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very much about human nature, (the) nature of reality, how we understand our own world,\u201d Kwade says about her recent work. \u201cIt questions what our position is in the structure of this universe we are kind of thrown into.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Telos Tales is on view through August 15. Explore more of Kwade\u2019s work on <a href=\"https:\/\/alicjakwade.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">her website<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alicjakwade\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/kwade-3.jpg\" alt=\"a detail image a large suspended cylindrical metal sculpture with a distorted clock on the end\" class=\"wp-image-457654\"  \/>Installation view of \u2018Telos Tales\u2019 (2025)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/kwade-2.jpg\" alt=\"large suspended cylindrical metal sculptures with distorted clocks on the end suspend from a gnarled, tree like sculpture\" class=\"wp-image-457653\"  \/>Installation view of \u2018Telos Tales\u2019 (2025)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/kwade-8.jpg\" alt=\"a large suspended cylindrical metal sculpture with a distorted clock on the end\" class=\"wp-image-457659\"  \/>Installation view of \u2018Telos Tales\u2019 (2025)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/kwade-9.jpg\" alt=\"a person walks behind three glass sculptures in a gallery\" class=\"wp-image-457660\"  \/>Installation view of \u2018Telos Tales\u2019 (2025)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1499\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/kwade-4.jpg\" alt=\"colorful stones arranged in a circle with mirrors slotted between them\" class=\"wp-image-457655\"  \/>\u201cDuodecuple Be-Hide\u201d (2020), granite, patinated bronze, mirror, marble, 110.4 x 225 x 225 centimeters. Photo by Roman Ma\u0308rz<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1668\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/kwade-12.jpg\" alt=\"colorful stones arranged in a circle with mirrors slotted between them\" class=\"wp-image-457663\"  \/>\u201cDuodecuple Be-Hide\u201d (2020), granite, patinated bronze, mirror, marble, 110.4 x 225 x 225 centimeters. Photo by Roman Ma\u0308rz<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/kwade-10.jpg\" alt=\"mirror panels in a desert with stones surrounding it\" class=\"wp-image-457661\"  \/>\u201cIn Blur\u201d (2022), powder-coated stainless steel, mirror, stones, objects, 410 x 4,700 x 13,300 centimeters. Photo by Lance Gerber<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1499\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/kwade-5.jpg\" alt=\"colorful stones arranged in a line with mirrors slotted between them\" class=\"wp-image-457656\"  \/>\u201cTrans-For-Men 6\u201d (2019), mirror, Carrara marble, concrete, granite, patinated bronze, bronze polished, stainless steel, 117 x 77 x 574.3 centimeters. Photo by Roman Ma\u0308rz, courtesy of the artist and KO\u0308NIG Galerie<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2668\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/kwade-7.jpg\" alt=\"colorful stones arranged in a circle with mirrors slotted between them\" class=\"wp-image-457658\"  \/>Detail of \u201cTrans-For-Men 6\u201d (2019), mirror, Carrara marble, concrete, granite, patinated bronze, bronze polished, stainless steel, 117 x 77 x 574.3 centimeters. Photo by Roman Ma\u0308rz, courtesy of the artist and KO\u0308NIG Galerie<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/kwade-11.jpg\" alt=\"two stones with black lamps attached\" class=\"wp-image-457662\"  \/>\u2018Blues Days Dust, Mennour\u2019 (2024). Photo \u00a9 Alicja Kwade, courtesy of Archives Mennour and the artist<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do stories and artists like this matter to you?<\/strong> Become a <a href=\"https:\/\/colossal.local\/members\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"118516\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Colossal Member<\/a> now, and support independent arts publishing.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Hide advertising<\/li>\n<li>Save your favorite articles<\/li>\n<li>Get 15% off in the <a href=\"https:\/\/colossal.shop\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Colossal Shop<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Receive members-only newsletter<\/li>\n<li>Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Square steel bars give way to knotted branches covered with patina in Alicja Kwade\u2019s monumental meditation on time.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[15462,648,1032,1033,171,15463,981,15464,1038,15465,6620,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-15367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-alicja-kwade","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-installation","14":"tag-metal","15":"tag-mirrors","16":"tag-sculpture","17":"tag-stone","18":"tag-time","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}