Michael Zahn - Todo y Nada

Online Exhibition

Todo y Nada, which translates as ‘everything and nothing’, is a notional work of art created by Mike Zahn. It focuses upon five digital pictures of an empty gallery, presented within the same space but from different vantages. The pictures of a gallery presenting itself subtly twist a non-exhibition into an exhibition, and the photos stage an encounter suspended between two realms – that of the physical gallery, shown in its barest state with empty white walls, and a new electronic realm, where the artwork, its documentation, and the exhibition are all one and the same.

At first look, the play of actual and virtual spaces in Todo y Nada is slightly disorienting. This perception, however, encourages a contemplative experience when the images are truly reflected upon and viewed as a group, and there is a feeling of stepping through the looking glass, or being transported out of the everyday. The ‘real’ world has been turned around to frame itself, and in turn creates a surreal fantasy environment that is both perplexing and familiar.

Zahn’s inspiration for this show is an image file of a meme which circulates online as an auto-corrected text exchange: What’s wrong? Nothing (Everything). To say all is well and in good order has become a reflexive action for most, yet this often belies our true emotions. This contradiction is further amplified when the world is literally on fire, and far from ‘ok’.  Zahn’s quotation of this text exchange addresses the heaviness of our situation, and also the senselessness of it all. A graphic rendering of these words is the only thing which appears in the otherwise empty gallery. 

We may see everything, or nothing, in a conceptual work of art.  Our experiences, knowledge, personal history, and direct interaction with a piece might transform it into something filled with meaningful relevance, or provoke dismissal as simply being absurd for absurdity’s sake. Zahn treads this line, and lets us decide for ourselves— are we engaging a magical realm filled with potential, or fooling ourselves with a trivial illusion?

Mike Zahn’s recent exhibitions include Window at Tennis Elbow in New York,  Sound on The Fourth Floor at Sammlung Daimler in Berlin,  (@mined_oud) at MADRE in Napoli,  Adapter_Adapted & etc at Greenspon in New York,  The Crayon Miscellany at OMI in Hudson, and Olivier Mosset:++Leaving The Museum at Museum Barengasse, Kunsthalle Zurich.

photos for Todo y Nada taken by: Cary Whittier