Janina Frye

The title is borrowed from the Blue Morpho butterfly. While the antonym of the origin ancient greek word ‘morpho’, is ‘amorph’ which means shapeless, the roughly meaning of the word ‘morpho’ is ‘the shape one’. This refers to an ultimate shape and it stands in contradiction to Frye's concept of the human body. She uses this contradiction to rethink the concept of the ‘shape one’. The work was produced at the European Ceramic Center (Sundaymorning@EKWC) in Oisterwijk, The Netherlands.

Material: Ceramic, cotton belts, plastic buckles

Size: 100 x 72 x 60 cm

Photos by Ilya Rabinovich

The postures and the monumental presence of the torsos remind of traditional sculptures from the ancient greek, but they also defy the expectation of a perfectly and geometric shaped body. Rather they display mutations of bones and flesh, incorporated with hindsights of functionalities, like cut outs in the shape of handles or holes where you could tie something down and traces of 3-D rendering. Further, their skin is matt and coloured, greenish and blue. With this series of sculptures Frye speculates on a new species that disrupts the distinction between human and object, female and male, and human and non-human animal. The work was produced at the European Ceramic Center (Sundaymorning@EKWC) in Oisterwijk, The Netherlands.

Material: Ceramics, cotton belts, plastic buckles

Size: Olive: 109 x 71 x 54cm; Green: 108 x 70 x 60cm

Photos by Ilya Rabinovich

The work 'call and response', is an installation of a ceramic object, a bar chair and cotton belts. It refers to the feedback loop of the consumerist culture, which is in a continuously dialog with our body, our concept of the body and our perception. In general with the use of utilitarian structures in her work, Frye wants to refer to something familiar. And by combining the familiar with the alien she wants to suggest a re-evaluation of the existing normalities. The work was produced at the European Ceramic Center (Sundaymorning@EKWC) in Oisterwijk, The Netherlands.

Material: Ceramic, cotton belts, plastic buckles, bar chair, plastic foil

Size: 120 x 65 x 45 cm

Photos by Ilya Rabinovich

By wondering how our bodily perception might change, Frye started looking at new technologies which might change our perception and our image of the human body. ‘Anterior longitudinal sacroiliac ligament’ is the result of a journey into an AR-application for medical surgical training purposes. This sculpture presents re-contextualize body parts which Frye found in the application. The sculpture is named after the medical names of these body parts. She was looking for parts and areas within our body which looks familiar and alienated to us because often we are not totally aware of how the inside of the human body look like. Frye is interested in the history of medical illustrations and how distributed intelligences has shaped how we imagine the body looks like form the inside. 

Material: Metal, acrylic resin, polyurethane foam

Size: 130 x120 x 80cm

Photos by Julia Biasi

Various materials interacting as a system, covered by an olive green skin (made from latex) which is showing traces and imprints of an anonymous inside. The work presents two solid bodies connected to vacuum compressors. The vacuum compressors are sucking air out of the bodies, after a while, when the compressors turned off, slowly the bodies gaining air and the imprints are becoming less visible. The material is getting slowly stretched and relieved like a respiratory system. After a certain time, the compressors are turned-on and sucking out the air again. This process repeats itself every 10-20 min.

Material: Latex, vacuum compressor, metal, plasticine, pvc hoses

Size: each 180 x 120 x 5 cm

Photos by Julia Biasi

The warmth of a seat is an installation with a concrete cast from an upper leg and a lifting cushion which is normally in use in ambulances. The compressor is controlled by an Arduino chip. Throughout the exhibition the cushion is getting slowly inflated and deflated, so the leg cast is getting moved up and sinking down. The title refers to the Marcel Duchamp term 'the infrathin'. It's a term which rejects definition, it can only be described by examples, 'the warmth of a seat' is one of it. Frye made this work before her time at the RCA. It was part of her solo show 'Kiss off life' at P/////AKT in Amsterdam in 2018.

Material: Inflatable cushion, compressor, concrete, plastazote foam, arduino

Size: 120 x 110 x 130cm

Photos by Charlott Markus

Frye made this work before her time at the RCA. It was part of her solo show 'Kiss off life' at P/////AKT in Amsterdam in 2018.

Material: Medical thermoplastic, metal rod, water, watercolour, plastazote foam

Size: 140 x 40 x 60cm

Photos by Charlott Markus

The work is based on the idea that everything exists out of imprints of slightly different versions of something. When something suddenly disappears it’s not completely deleted, it always leaves traces. The work is made from medical thermoplastic, it shows imprint in the plastic from various shapes. Frye made this work before her time at the RCA. It was part of her solo show 'Kiss off life' at P/////AKT in Amsterdam in 2018.

Material: Medical thermoplastic, straps, metal stand, plastazote foam

Size: 130 x 55 x 40cm

Photos by Charlott Markus

Reframing 1 is an installation with a rail, a motor and a long hollow tube attached to the it. This apparatus is usually used in hospitals to transfer people who cannot walk. The installation moves in a random interval. A motor starts running and moves the tube through the exhibition space, this may effect the spectator’s experience, as they must step to the side to free space for the tube to move. Frye made this work before her time at the RCA. It was part of her solo show 'Kiss off life' at P/////AKT in Amsterdam in 2018.

Material: medical hoist lift, aluminium rail, aluminium tube, straps, plastazote foam, Arduino

Size: 300 x 200 x 250 cm

Photos by Charlott Markus