Transience - Virtual Exhibition

SIM is our 3rd virtual exhibition curated by Siilk Gallery. Something that regardless of the pandemic we have decided to continue doing on a regular basis, bringing audiences and artists together digitally, online, to help promote and expand the exposure of artists works we love from around the globe.

In light of all the recent happenings in the world, Sleeper in Metropolis, the title of a song by the 80’s artist Anne Clark seemed more than fitting. A track about being present but not active throughout changes that are out of peoples control.

A dystopian future is being spoken about here. “The cracks” – a space that is within our understanding but distantly out of reach to do anything about.

Something we are aware of, can act out against but time keeps going on without real change.

In the ecstasy of consumption, consumerism and paranoia, but keeps looking through that Crack in the System, thinking, wishing something can or could be done.

Through the sleep, hypersensitive individuals have been turned on to the essentials of life, back to basics, looking inwards, looking towards their surroundings. “Beauty warriors”.

They give birth to inner eternal gardens, limbos and sounds, stratified in relating to the big city life, but always keeping that real and magical factor of the dogmas in which they’ve not ceased to believe in.

The intimate places of unrest become political. And through their cameras as eyes we’re approaching a new way of seeing the most hidden face of the Metropolis.

Works on show by:

Renate Ariadne
Yslam Boys
Charalampos Kydonakis
Shuwei Liu
Yulissa Benitez
Erdem Varoll
Simon Kounovsky

– Curated by Nicole Oike & Daniel Peace

Opening 26.06.21 @ 10am.

Hosted at www.siilkgallery.com/virtual

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Renate Ariadne – www.renateariadne.com

Renate Ariadne’s work gives a glimpse into an alternative world, inspired by her dreams. The low lit scenes she creates are filled with reflections and transparent materials separating them from our daily reality. Fascinated by sexuality and identity, her photographs investigate themes involving the body, such as loneliness, shame and control.

Born in Haarlem, The Netherlands, Renate Ariadne (b. 1993) started taking photographs at the early age of fifteen.

Using photography as a way to understand and differentiate her dreams and imagination from reality. After finishing her Bachelor of Art at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, she moved to London, where she is currently based.

Yslam Boys – www.yslamboys.com

“WE HAVE NO MESSAGE”: this is the only refrain perpetually reiterated by collective Yslam Boys on their works, in their captions, in the answers they give when asked about their practice.
Yet, it’s almost impossible not to grasp the quantity of symbolic references and citations that populate the imagery built around their personal universe. Universe that the viewer is thus left to freely decipher more or less on their own.

Disruptive, irreverent, eclectic, the collective lingers in a constant state of almost uncanny mystery regarding what they do, who they are and how many: their practice spans from ready-made digital illustrations to emo- trap EPs randomly dropped on SoundCloud, from video-making to live performances like a dj-set aired from the terraces of a monastery in the Apulia region (Italy), all the way to Ynstagram, a never-ending performance consisting in social media trolling and in their unpredictable use of their Instagram account.

And Account that was recently banned from the platform for violating the community guidelines by posting a link to XXYYXX, a novel published in 2019 in the form of posts on YouPorn that also marks the birth of the collective.

Charalampos Kydonakis – www.dirtyharrry.com

Charalampos Kydonakis, architect from Crete, amateur photographer.

Editor of the ‘dirty blog’ , member of UP collective. Published monographs :

Warn’d in Vain / An Argonautica NYC tale (2018)

Back To Nowhere / A Minotaur inspired tale from Crete (2018)

Erdem Varoll – www.erdemvarol.com

Erdem Varol, 1988, İstanbul.

I stay alive by walking, taking photographs, drawing, and writing. My works are the result of my everyday encounters shaped by my desire to not resist the emotions that arise through the process and wanting to express myself sharply as opposed to working to define something in a fixed way. Going beyond just moments compressed through visuals and layers of texts, I invite my viewers to see these works as documents that hold clues into my perception, muscle memory, and errors.

Shuwei Liu – www.liushuwei.com

Wenjun Chen, born 1985 in Guangzhou, China. He was photo editor and photographer in magazines before, and now he is a freelance photographer and videographer, and co founder of May and June Studio, currently based in Guangzhou, China.

His works focus on the relationship between individual situation and the social, cultural environment, and the communication between them.

His works were the finalists of the Dummy Award Kassel 2016 and the 8th Three Shadow Photography Award 2016, they also received the Taipei Photo Emerging Photographers’ Award 2016, the XITEK EOS New Talent Award 2015 and Xu Xiaobing Photography Exhibition Outstanding Works of Art 2010. His works got exhibitions in China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Croatia, Portugal, Denmark, Slovakia and Russia. He had held self-publishing book workshops, talk and curatorial in China.

His works have been published on IMA Magazine, LensCulture Magazine, iGANAT, Artco China Magazine, Chip Foto Video Magazine, Citizine Magazine, New Weekly Magazine, Marie Claire Magazine, South Reviews Magazine, People‘s Photography, VICE China, Yogurt Magazine, Edge of Humanity Magazine, Tencent News, Netease News, Sina News, Artron Network, The Paper Network, China Photographers Association Network and other publications.

Yulissa Benitez – www.yulissabenitez.com

Yulissa Benitez Amaro, often called Yu-lez is from from Queens, New york. A photographer that crosses over design and image making into her work. She has been shooting since she was 15. It happened randomly for her when she applied to an old printing high school that focused on visual arts such as design and photo.

That’s where she began to learn everything that she knows now.

Yu-Lez is currently. She started with black and white film photography but now dabbles in both film and

digital, colour and mono. Her work is based on moods, she work can often give off aesthetics from a different era of time because through colour, texture styles, and lighting styles.

She works mainly photographing people, often working with musicians and garment designers, showing their work through her eyes.

While she was in high school the internet became a place where she would showcase her photographs, it was around the time when Instagram was on the rise, with all of the “pleasingly aesthetic styled photos” and Tumblr was around too.

As a teenager, of course, she was inspired. It was a time where she began to dive into things that interested her and come out of her shell. Music was a big part of it, running around going to shows and parties, becoming social and growing with scenes. In NY, everyone is always down and about to get their photo taken wherever it is that you go. As far as her photo career goes, she never initially planned on being a photographer for this long but turns out its a true passion and calling for Yulissa.

Simon Kounovsky – www.simonkounovsky.eu

Simon Kounovsky is a french visual artist based in Europe. Self-taught CGI and VFX artist working commercially with clients ranging from international brands to individuals, he also develops research work centered around concepts like hyperobject, anthropocene, post humanism and ecological anxiety – pushing the limits and the reality of those idea trough visual expression and hyperrealistic extension.