David Bernstein

I make sculptures and find ways to activate them. The sculptures take their visual language from familiar things such as tools, ritual items, and sometimes sex toys; but they are morphed and transformed into abstract forms that produce new associations. Some of my pieces are actually functional, as in the case of my wellness based works such as the Saunra, a sauna inside of a Fiat Multipla car. The use is both actual and symbolic, because you are both experiencing the “normal” activity, while simultaneously reflecting on the poetics. My treatments of objects and situations serve as starting points for conversations, stories, and performances. I intend to shift the status of an object, elevating it to become more than what it is, to evoke an almost sacred power. 

For example with my Spatula Series, I take a banal everyday object and twist and transform its formal properties. The handle folds and splits through its own spatula slots, like a snake biting its tail. This inward looping spatula becomes the Introspective Spatula, and it begs the absurdist question, “If objects can speak, do they talk to themselves?”. While I try to craft quirky things that make us think about profound questions, I also embrace pathos and want to remind you it’s still a spatula. It’s performing magic while showing you the mechanism of how I’m pulling your strings.

When presenting my work, I try to create intimate spaces for meeting and hospitality. There is a particular focus on touch in my work. This facilitates a deep and intimate relationship, not only with objects but also between individuals. This physical aspect is blended with language. In my writing and performances, I use humor and word play as a way to open up a curious, joyful, but also critical state of mind. Much like the sculptures, I take words as a material that can be stretched, shifted, and combined.

In my projects, I collaborate with a variety of people. Sometimes we work together for a single project or for a longer sustained practice, such as with my cosmic cowboy collective, Self Luminous Society (SLS). In SLS, we each bring our own way of working, contributing to the whole. Before SLS, I never considered costume, but thanks to one of the members, I am now exploring this potential. I also collaborate through a practice of invitation where I invite colleagues to show works within my exhibitions that resonate with the themes, and create public programs with different guest hosts.These collaborations have led to projects dealing with psychology, spirituality, and food. Some artists that I have collaborated with are: Rosa Sijben, Styrmir Örn Guđmundsson, Juan Pablo Plazas, Marianne Theunissen, Bernice Nauta, Jokūbas Čižikas, Diego Tonus, Agnieszka Polska, Géraldine Longueville, and Jurgis Paškeviius.