‘Everything is and isn’t at the same time’ is an extension of Troika’s series of perspective sculptures which began with ‘Squaring the Circle’ in 2013, followed by ‘Dark Matter’ in 2014, and ‘Polar Spectrum’ in 2015. Inspired by Edwin Abbott’s satirical novel ‘Flatland’ where the inhabitants of a two-dimensional world cannot recognise a three-dimensional object, Troika’s perspective sculptures become a mutation of different forms which are perceived depending on the position of the observer. The title ‘Everything is and isn’t at the same time’ is a direct reference to the Principle of Polarity, proposed in the anonymous philosophical text ‘The Kybalion’ (first published in 1908), which embodies the idea that everything is dual, everything has two poles and everything is opposite.
Expanding on the formal structure of ‘Squaring the Circle’, ‘Dark Matter’ and ‘Polar Spectrum’ ‘Everything is and isn’t at the same time’ combines multiple shapes into a faceted sculpted object. Like its larger counterpart ‘Dark Matter’, it unifies structural opposites, consolidating a perfect circle, a hexagon and a square into one sculptural form. ‘Everything is and isn’t at the same time’, as with many of Troikas works, transports an abstract mathematical system into concrete reality and the real world, by extension appropriating and short-circuiting the logic pertaining certainties attributed to different representational systems.
The sculpture is Troika’s first use of jesmonite. Resembling a satellite view of a landscape or a charcoal chiaroscuro, the coagulated texture both animates and obfuscates the sculpture’s surface. In contrast to the unifying nature of black flock that covers the surface of ‘Dark Matter’, Troika’s use of jesmonite flattens sculptural facets through distortion and intervention rather than homogenisation.
‘Everything is and isn't at the same time’ was first exhibited at Art Basel Miami, 2015 and subsequently exhibited at Troika's solo exhibition of the same name at Galerie Huit in 2016.