Marika Thunder
sensitive machines
Caprii | Ed. 12

Each of the solo and group exhibitions composing the dynamic, playful programme of Caprii is accompanied by a booklet, which offers an extended plane for holistically encountering the praxis of the respective artists.

The twelfth edition presents a series of new works by Marika Thunder. The artist was born and raised in New York City, but frequently relocated throughout her youth, which gave her a unique perspective on the various institutions in society. Her meditations in oil paint range in subjects from childhood scrapbooking celebrities, to Cotillion ceremonies, Yeshiva boarding schools, exercise equipment, and other heavy machinery she comes across during excursions to junkyards and other sites where she photographs them and uses them as reference for paintings. Her subversive and vibrant configurations attempt to tap into the collective consciousness of individuals impacted by institutions and the surreal and formative memories we all share. Thunder claims she sees these machines as anthropomorphic extensions of the human body and our desires. By capturing them in states of repair and transformation, she depicts the drive humans have for “transforming” and modifying ourself - especially physically- to become a better version of ourselves. This phenomenon seems particularly present in the zeitgeist, where we are under constant surveillance and placed in competition with one another. This obsession for self-improvement expounds and causes people to go to more extreme lengths of achieving such. Thunder’s paintings oscillate between abstraction and realism, containing a range of different mediums and surfaces she likes to experiment with. Here evidence of the human hand and it’s capabilities and limitations for rendering the mechanical can be observed and reflected upon. Thunder believes that art is a transcendent practice, one that involves the artist allowing themself to become a vessel for a greater spiritual force.

The booklet series is designed by Studio Thomas Spallek and is made using remnant paper stock sourced from Druckerei Kettler.