Bogosi Sekhukhuni
HABITABLE ZONES
June 10 - July 22, 2023


An ecosystem searching for metabolic paths of survival,
the metaphysical cost is an obscurus, hiding at an anti-garden whose name is HOAX
(a fear of migratory touring tests in the post-2100s, when ambience has never existed)

allowing, absorbing teleological programs, so that a cognitive light cone might exceed its boundaries.
Even as the bulbous Nested peer idly at me

– Bogosi Sekhukhuni


Lender and designer Bogosi Sekhukhuni (b. 1991, South Africa) offers considerations on cultures and histories of technology. Working across a range of media such as sculpture, video, set design, furniture design and performance, Sekhukhuni develops approaches that think through mechanics of futurity.

Since 2012, Sekhukhuni’s work has been featured in both solo and group exhibitions, including Role Play, Fondazione Prada, Milan (2022); Age of You, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (2021); Art in the Age of Anxiety, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah (2020); The Art Happens Here: Net Art’s Archival Poetics, New Museum, New York (2019); Bogosi Sekhukhuni, Foxy Production, New York (2018); Rencontres de Bamako, African Biennale of Photography, Mali (2017); and Simunye Summit 2010, Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg (2017). They have been awarded the Prix Net Art Award, Rhizome, New York (2017). Sekhukhuni is a founding member of the artist group NTU and has worked closely with CUSS Group. Sekhukhuni is co-founder of design firm INFANT.

 
 

HABITABLE ZONES is supported in part by The Ford Family Foundation's Golden Spot Residency Program and West Seattle Garden Tour.

 
 
 

 

The Alien Earth: Bogosi Sekhukhuni

An essay by Michael Wang for HABITABLE ZONES

Michael Wang is an artist based in New York.

 
A red geometric sculpture and three black and green sculptures are on the gallery floor. A long chain of vacuum sealed silver packets is hung from the wall and floats above the floor.
A red geometric sculpture and three black and green sculptures are on the gallery floor.
 
A long chain of vacuum sealed silver packets is hung from the wall and floats above the gallery floor that’s dusted with a black material. In the background, two semi-transparent sheets with brown patterns are hung at the corner of the room.
 
 
A long chain of vacuum sealed silver packets is hung from the wall and floats above the gallery floor that’s dusted with a black material.

it’s constant awareness of mixotrophic delight
2023
Aluminum foil, Mylar, Rhodopseudomonas palustris, Sterling silver
Dimensions variable

HOAX (detail)
2023
Nostoc flagelliforme
Dimensions variable

 
 
A section of the chain sculpture–a silver vacuum sealed packet with brown liquid inside.

it’s constant awareness of mixotrophic delight (detail)
2023
Aluminum foil, Mylar, Rhodopseudomonas palustris, Sterling silver
Dimensions variable

 
 
A section of the chain sculpture–a few silver vacuum sealed packets.

it’s constant awareness of mixotrophic delight (detail)
2023
Aluminum foil, Mylar, Rhodopseudomonas palustris, Sterling silver
Dimensions variable

 
 
A section of the chain sculpture–a few silver vacuum sealed packets with brown liquid inside float above the gallery floor that’s dusted with a black material, held up by two small silver poles attached to the floor.

it’s constant awareness of mixotrophic delight (detail)
2023
Aluminum foil, Mylar, Rhodopseudomonas palustris, Sterling silver
Dimensions variable

HOAX (detail)
2023
Nostoc flagelliforme
Dimensions variable

 
A section of the chain sculpture–a few silver vacuum sealed packets with brown liquid inside float above the gallery floor that’s dusted with a black material, held up by two small silver poles attached to the floor.

HOAX
2023
Nostoc flagelliforme
Dimensions variable

it’s constant awareness of mixotrophic delight (detail)
2023
Aluminum foil, Mylar, Rhodopseudomonas palustris, Sterling silver
Dimensions variable

Black hair-like material on the floor.

HOAX (detail)
2023
Nostoc flagelliforme
Dimensions variable

 
two semi-transparent sheets with brown patterns are hung at the corner of the room.

Pearl of Seattle i, ii
2023
Vacuum sealer bags, Rhodopseudomonas palustris
76 x 8 inches, 73 x 8 inches

 
 
two semi-transparent sheets with brown patterns are hung at the corner of the room.

Pearl of Seattle i, ii
2023
Vacuum sealer bags, Rhodopseudomonas palustris
76 x 8 inches, 73 x 8 inches

 
 
two semi-transparent sheets with brown patterns are hung at the corner of the room.

Pearl of Seattle i, ii
2023
Vacuum sealer bags, Rhodopseudomonas palustris
76 x 8 inches, 73 x 8 inches

 
 
two semi-transparent sheets with brown patterns are hung at the corner of the room.

Pearl of Seattle i, ii (detail)
2023
Vacuum sealer bags, Rhodopseudomonas palustris
76 x 8 inches, 73 x 8 inches

 
 
Four red garage tiles on the floor, with a delicate silver wire structure attached on top. Two silver vacuum sealed packets are hung from the structure.

660-680 nm, 800-925 nm
2023
Aluminum foil, Mylar, Rhodospirillum rubrum, Trypic Soy Agar, Garagetrac tiles, Sterling silver, steel rings, steel staples
36 x 32 x 15 inches

 
 
A delicate silver wire structure sits on red garage tiles. Two silver vacuum sealed packets with brown gels are hung from the structure.

660-680 nm, 800-925 nm (detail)
2023
Aluminum foil, Mylar, Rhodospirillum rubrum, Trypic Soy Agar, Garagetrac tiles, Sterling silver, steel rings, steel staples
36 x 32 x 15 inches

 
 
A silver vacuum sealed packet with brown gel inside is hung by silver chains from a silver wire structure.

660-680 nm, 800-925 nm (detail)
2023
Aluminum foil, Mylar, Rhodospirillum rubrum, Trypic Soy Agar, Garagetrac tiles, Sterling silver, steel rings, steel staples
36 x 32 x 15 inches

 
Three sculptures made of a thin plastic material primarily in black and neon green sit on the floor.

light harvesting complex 
2023
3d printed polylactic acid 
Dimensions variable 

A sculpture made of a thin plastic material sits on the floor. It’s in an S shape in neon green, with black and white spikes.

light harvesting complex (detail)
2023
3d printed polylactic acid 
Dimensions variable 

Two sculptures made of a thin plastic material sit on the floor. One is in a circular shape in black, with neon green spikes. The other is a half circle in black, with neon green spikes.

light harvesting complex (detail)
2023
3d printed polylactic acid  
Dimensions variable 

A sculpture made of a thin plastic material sits on the floor. It's a half circle in black, with neon green spikes.

light harvesting complex (detail)
2023
3d printed polylactic acid
Dimensions variable