ghost, 2021
Ghost is a series by Aiala Hernando and Addie Wagenknecht, about hope and disappointment. The title is a reference to the slang term "ghosting" which is when a person disappears without explanation after dating, sexting, or a short-term relationship, leading to confusion and disappointment about the loss of a temporary fantasy.
Semi-opaque tulle and organza rest lightly on top of flowers, perhaps those gifted by a lover, in various states of decay. The images capture the progression of hope and excitement to disappointment, resulting in mourning and the realization that one must start over again.
Since 2014 Aiala Hernando and Addie Wagenknecht have collaborated on temporal works that build on the notion of unmasking the artifice of traditional still live representation into site specific works, renegotiated from a female lens-the secrets, the coping mechanisms and temporary highs of existing in this generation. Represented from a contemporary place which is somewhere between the ubiquitous, the obvious and the still; they articulate the complex power dynamic between the visual image and documentation of self as an imbedded as form within the private as public spaces we inhabit. Their dynamic works mimic and recall romantic relationship (as many of the titles within the series delude to precisely that). Hernando and Wagenknecht’s images reveal a number of parameters for how our relationships are negotiated between ourselves and the subjects, and between us and the image. Select exhibitions of their collaborative works include bitforms gallery, New York City; MU, Eindhoven, Netherlands; Art Gallery at NYUAD, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Haus der elektronischen Kunste Basel, Switzerland and DAM Gallery, Berlin, Germany.