Lais Myrrha: Calculation of Differences
Galeria Athena is pleased to present Calculation of Differences, by Lais Myrrha.
Everything is fiction
Lais Myrrha’s work presents clear concepts to reveal inadequate forms. Their vocabulary is hybrid and porous. With cement or clay, columns and towers, acts of construction and destruction, gold and cocaine, media and politics, the artist combines precision and ambiguity. There is an urgency in elaborating the present, and therefore historical analysis is fundamental. But if, theoretically, history and mathematics ought to operate in the realm of reason, here they expose the curious arbitrariness of all languages.
In this exposition, Myrrha works with accurate measurements to calculate what is contingent, human, and potentially disloyal. She offers equivalency parameters to shape incomparable or incompatible materials. The works contrast the future and decay. They provoke the bitter taste of self-criticism; the memory of what we might have been; the consciousness of failure that is finally perceived as delirium. In the four pieces of Calculus of Differences, raw materials in a state of becoming are confronted with their destruction and death. This condition suggests narratives. Project and debris settle in identical spaces, which can be either a box or a coffin.
In Non-zero Sum, gold and cocaine have the same weight, one gram. The idea of narrative is present once again, since equivalence suggests some kind of agreement (not very stable or reliable) between the materials. The gold plates, precise and seductive, have no memory. The lawful and unlawful interfere with each other. The artist is interested in game theory, a branch of mathematics that studies the behavior of individuals in competition, to predict the adversaries’ moves and create strategies for action. The theory is applied to fields as diverse as economics, political science, biology, military science, and cybernetics. In this context, the so-called “non-zero sum problems” are those in which a player’s gain doesn’t always correspond to the loss of the other, which doesn’t mean that the result will be fair (since both have the greater objective of taking advantage), nor that it is to the adversary’s detriment. A classic example of a “non-zero sum” is the mathematical problem known as the “prisoner’s dilemma,” where two players are placed in a situation where the most advantageous outcome for both depends on mutual collaboration. Still, they have the option of either trusting or betraying each other.
For the past fifteen years or so, Myrrha has been investigating the uncertain territory of collective memories, where heritage and monument represent powers, values, and aspirations. By constructing monumental anti-monuments, the artist points to the weaknesses and inconsistencies of these projects. Photography is present as a partial document, a kind of imperfect retrospective, and therefore suitable for the investigation of murky conditions. In recent works such as Corpo de prova, Discontinuity through Time and Structure, columns project their own collapse, consummated—or about to be consummated—in the inconsistency of procedures and materials. However, in shaping ruins, the works of the exhibition Calculus of Differences assert themselves as generous and necessary acts, examples of the power of art in situations of disaster.
Heloisa Espada
