OFLUXO

Animal, vegetable, or mineral? But the animals, naturally, are more active. And more talkative.
               – Ursula le Guin, Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences

They Miss Being Aware of Time is Mary-Audrey Ramirez’s first solo exhibition in the Czech Republic, presented at Polansky Gallery.

The sculptural installation expands upon Ramirez’s interest in non-human narratives, namely that of animals and fantastical hybrid beings. References to vintage science-fiction films and video games materialize as active scenes wherein Ramirez’s characters play, fight, and carve out their own narratives.

In the 1998 film The X Files, detectives Fox Mulder and Dana Scully find themselves on a path to uncover a dangerous, potentially extraterrestrial conspiracy. As they travel through the rural midwest to find answers, they stumble upon what seems like a government facility, hidden in the middle of an expansive corn field. The facility is sterile and empty, except for a faint humming sound, of which the detectives at first can’t seem to decipher. Mulder places his ear to the ground. It’s not an electrical sound. Suddenly, vents burst open, and hundreds of thousands of mutant bees are released into the hall. The detectives race for the entrance and only narrowly escape the attacking swarm.

Instead of a buzzing, when entering They Miss Being Aware of Time, one can imagine hearing a combination of clashing, screaming battle sounds. Oversized and vividly hued ant-beings, abandoned by their queen, bite, brawl and sting in desperate confusion as their structured existence is now completely dismantled. Purposelessness leads to fury, exasperation, attack. Three massive, decaying hives waver and sway as mandibles clench and stingers meet shell.