CHRIS FREMANTLE

Serpentine Gallery

Three groups of work:

Cloud Cities: Species of Spaces and Other Pieces the outdoor sculpture above features homes for 23(?) species. This has a second indoor element including a play room for kids that adults can’t enter.

Indoors, a film installation about Extractivism and the green economy which is focused around the Manifesto for an Ecosocial Energy Transition from the People of the South (which will be read aloud to you if you hop on one of the stationary bikes outside and peddle).

And the other inside element is arachnophilia, an installation comprising various webs created in Berlin by spiders who live with and in the Saraceno studios. No spiders travelled to the UK, just vitrines of webs.

When I first saw the Cloud Cities I thought ‘here we go’ but by the end I was completely absorbed by the intelligence and aesthetic of this exhibition. It speaks to exchange and the importance of understanding the ecosystems of which we are part. My conclusion on the Cloud Cities is that they are like a circle in geometry, wholly different from any circle in real life. The Cloud Cities are like a 3d catalogue, a sort of habitat or IKEA display of all the forms of inhabitation we could include to enable a multi-species coexistence.

Also saw the Alchemy show at Thaddeus Ropac and the Sarah Sze installation The Waiting Room at Peckham Rye.