AES+F

Triumph Gallery, Moscow

St. Petersburg, State Russian Museum, AES-AES+F, 2007
Moscow, Triumph Gallery, 2006
Salzburg, Galerie Ruzicska, Max Gandolph Bibliothek, De Sculptura, 2005

AES+F Group and Triumph Gallery, Action Half LIfe, Moscow: Agey Tomesh, 2006, pp.108-113
AES, AES+F, St. Petersburg: Palace Editions, 2007, pp. 331-333

Overall, the work is in good condition but with some surface dirt in places. There is minor pitting to the surface in places throughout, such as the top inner area of the left thigh and the stomach. There are a few surface scratches in places, for example to the area around the belly button. A couple of surface scratches can be seen on the base, which has recently been re-coated.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Executed in 2006, this work is from an edition of 3 plus 1 artists' proof.

 

Emanating a sublime glow of warm light via the smooth reflections of its polished aurous surfaces, Warrior No. 4 is the perfect embodiment of AES+F's unparalleled faculty to combine unique aesthetics with cutting-edge thematic enquiry and extraordinary technical accomplishment. This exceptional work is seminal to AES+F's highly-acclaimed Action Half-Life. Sculptures group (FIG. 1), which constitutes five young warriors and is without doubt their outstanding sculptural achievement to date. This group, executed between 2005 and 2006, followed from the series of digital collages and prints on canvas of Action Half-Life. Episodes 3 and 2 (2003) and Action Half-Life. Episodes 1 (2005), which portray children laden with futuristic, tubular weapons in staged postures arranged together in a barren landscape, frequently contextualised by generic sci-fi fortifications. As Evgenya Kikodze has noted, "The topic of glamorous youth...has found its full expression in this series of shining crowned statues of children" (Evgenya Kikodze, "The Golden Calves of desire", Action Half Life: Sculptures, Moscow 2006, p. 23).

 

Kikodze has described how the surfaces of this sculpture group create tension between material tangibility and reflective illusion: "the possibilities of both tactile pleasure and interaction with the object disappear" as the "glittering surface becomes a Kingdom of Distorting Mirrors that reflect in skewed perspective the exhibition space and the viewers looking at themselves" (Op. Cit., p. 25). By rendering the lithe anatomy of a pre-adolescent in unyielding bronze, Warrior No.4 quarries the art historical precedent of comparable bronzes of children, notably including Donatello's genre-defining David (c. 1433) (FIG.2) in the Bargello in Florence and Edgar Degas' groundbreaking Little Dancer of Fourteen Years (c.1881). At the same time, it infuses this grand, canonical narrative with imagery from contemporary visual culture, most prominently from science-fiction comic graphics, animation and film. This is manifest in the figure's looping antennae and sci-fi rifle-canon. According to the artists, the weapons in the series combine design elements of blasters from the films Starship Troopers and Star Wars as well as other sci-fi graphic sources. In keeping with the other statues, this girl does not have her finger on the trigger, but rather proffers her weapon innocently as a prop like some ornament of fashionable design.

 

Resplendent in shining gold, Warrior No. 4 portrays both the privilege of childhood as well as the objectification of youth as one of the most highly traded commodities in today's society. No longer human, this apparently familiar youthful archetype is in fact untouchable, being statically bound in the pathos of perpetual isolation. While her reflections sustain Kikodze's observation that "a permanently mutating form is constantly at war with its own prototype" the young warrior, frozen in auric metal, will never grow up and is truly trapped in time. (Op. Cit., p. 25)