Can materials and tools such as paper, paint, emulsion, lenses or data be understood as the infrastructures of artworks? In photography especially, they tend to remain in the background. At the same time, they respond to light, temperature and time: they age, change colour and consistency, become brittle or glitch, and in doing so shape how we perceive what we see. Often they only come to our attention when they stop working as they should. In this, they resemble the infrastructures that surround us every day: architectures, landscapes, networks, economies and language. Sweats of the Hippo brings together works by seven artists who trace these relations.
Hippo sweat is a thick, resinous secretion that seeps from the animal’s pores as soon as it leaves the water. Colourless at first, it turns reddish orange within minutes of contact with air. Its pigments absorb UV radiation, act as an antibiotic and help regulate body temperature. At once organic film, filter and tint, it calls to mind photographic emulsion.
The exhibition takes its title from an essay of the same name by art historian Yve-Alain Bois.