Jerico Contemporary is pleased to present Ø (Portals) Soft Magic, our third solo exhibition with Australian artist Anna Pogossova. Showing from Thursday May 19 to Saturday June 11, Pogossova’s latest series of photomedia and sculpture is an exercise in worldbuilding, adding new layers to the artist’s exploration of inherited symbols and constructed fantasy.
While Pogossova’s 2020 exhibition, Anticipation Machines, built connections between fabricated worlds and our reality, in Ø (Portals) Soft Magic, her tactile imagery bulges into the third dimension. This body of work allows viewers to peer not just into, but behind, Pogossova’s imagined realms, and even grasp a memento. Palm-sized talismans – artifacts and souvenirs – accompany the works as if asking to be held. With the prospect of touch, fantasy becomes familiar.
Here, worldbuilding conventions meet practical considerations, as Ø (Portals) Soft Magic represents an expansion of Pogossova’s universe, of her sculpting practice, and of the technology to facilitate her vision. As with her previous series, the artist and photographer draws on her knowledge of how images are created, backstage and behind the scenes. In Ø (Portals) Soft Magic, Pogossova’s ‘portals’ are propped up by rudimentary stands, secured by sculpted sandbags. Rather than dispel the magic, these handmade elements function as conduits between versions of reality.