Cosima von BoninHeteroAugustAug 15th - SeptemberSep 16th, 2020Gaga L.A.

Gaga is pleased to present HETERO, the second exhibition of Cosima von Bonin at GAGA, first in our LA location.

As it was the case with Shit and Chanel, HETERO is the result of an expansive WhatsApp dialogue between the artist and the gallerists. This time, unlike the last, even the install was done through video calls. This year plans have changed for everyone, we have had to change dates and locations for this show twice and the artist could not make her way to Los Angeles. But maybe the show has embedded in it the traces of this moment, marked by remote working and new socializing modes. We can’t avoid missing her physical presence. But who knows, by being present in every decision and detail in the show, we have the feeling that we can hear her laugh and maybe find her in this gingerbread house for adult Hansels and Gretels.

As one walks into the gallery, the first thing we encounter is LOVE/HATE behind which hides a secret (furtive) smoker lounge that serves as an anteroom to an amusement park of hard to decipher amusements. We do not know if we are entering the house of horrors or a fun house. Probably none of the above or both at the same time: the house of mirrors where we see the deformed and therefore an even more precise reflection of the adult children we are. Fragile and shy like the characters we see in the show, but voracious, seduced and fascinated by the gingerbread house that has its real place in our subconscious. And just like that the installation unfolds emphasizing the back side of the works which become just as important, or even more important, than the front side for those who like to see ´the other side of things´. Screens create crushing spaces. Fences make sure we keep our distance but at the same time invite us in.

More than a script (discourse, meaning or slogan) Cosima has elaborated on a color palette, worthy of the most exquisite interior decorator, the perfect set for our interior and the mise-en-scene of our most shameful desires and nightmares.

Here nothing is what it seems which could be said in another way; that a rose is not a rose is not a rose. Front / back, love / hate, more than opposites in tension, binary posed or confronted, the work seems to embrace kindly the contradictions and everything in between. Hetero? Heterosexual or Heterodox? A rose is not a rose but sometimes a rose that is not a rose could also be a rose.

Flags that are not banners but axes, axes that are not weapons but toys, toys that are words, and words that are sculptures. Sculptures that become fences and fences that become hashtags. Hashtags that are not trending, nor proposing any slogan, but some tarot card of ambiguous significance, radical surfaces that work as a screen where we project. Magic mirrors.

Luis Felipe Fabre, Mexico DF 15 de Agosto 2020
Fernando Mesta, Los Angeles, August 2020

Installation
views

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero
House of Gaga ❧ Hetero
House of Gaga ❧ Hetero
House of Gaga ❧ Hetero
House of Gaga ❧ Hetero
House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Works

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
Axe, 2020
Wood, steel and synthetic resin varnish
15 x 6.25 x 1 inches
38.1 x 15.9 x 2.5 cm
Ed 1/20 + 5AP

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
Cute (black), 2020
Styrofoam, fiberglass and resin
18.75 x 39 x 18.5 inches
47.6 99.1 x 47 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
Hetero, 2020
Velvet, mohair, cotton, metal, box
99 x 69 x 29 inches
251.5 x 175.3 x 73.7 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
LOVE/HATE, 2011
Jute sacking, cotton
77.17 x 106.3 inches
196 x 270 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
The Loser (black and white version), 2020
PVC, fiberglass, epoxy
86.6 x 22.2 inches
220 x 56.4 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
Fence (short version), 2020
Velvet, foam, steel
53 x 45.25 x 10 inches
134.6 x 114.9 x 22.9 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
Thumper Bubbling (version 1), 2020
Cotton
82.75 x 59 x 1.75 inches
210.2 x 149.9 x 4.4 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
Fence (corner version), 2020
Velvet, foam, steel
101 x 45.25 x 56 inches
256.5 x 114.9 x 142.2 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
I Love Rilke, 2020
Velvet, cotton
76.5 x 64.75 inches
194.3 x 164.5 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
Faust, 2020
Cotton
107.87 x 85.43 x 1.57 inches
274 x 217 x 4 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
The Loser (green silver version), 2020
PVC, fiberglass, epoxy
86.6 x 22.2 inches
220 x 56.4 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
Cute (pink), 2020
Styrofoam, fiberglass and resin
18.75 x 39 x 18.5 inches
47.6 99.1 x 47 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
Thumper Bubbling (version 1), 2020
Cotton
82.75 x 59 x 1.75 inches
210.2 x 149.9 x 4.4 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
Fence (long version), 2020
Velvet, foam, steel
100 x 45.25 x 56 inches
254 x 114.9 x 22.9 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
MacArthur Park, 2020
Cotton, steel
85.5 x 89.75, 34 x 34 x 27.5, 28.25 x 30.25 x 27.5 inches

House of Gaga ❧ Hetero

Cosima von Bonin
Smoke, 2008
Acrylic, LED, electronic transformer, neon and steel
60.24 x 24.8 x 3.54 inches
153 x 63 x 9 cm