Soup has opened Athen Kardashian & Nina Mhach Durban’s latest solo exhibition ‘04.) I’m Not A
Girl, Not Yet A Woman’ at The Shop, Sadie Coles HQ.
South London-based Kardashian & Durban began their collaborative practice in 2022, having originally met on their foundation course at Kingston University in 2018.
United by a shared interest in diasporic femininity, girlhood fandom and turn-of-the-millennium popular culture – consolidated by their twinned upbringing in London under Indian mothers – Athen & Nina’s collaboration centres around an almost subconscious ongoing dialogue and a mutual understanding and appreciation of each other’s lived experience. Juvenescent scrapbooking, teenage fandom and religious devotion converge in shrine-like constructions of collected imagery and ephemera, echoing the hand-crafted collages that adorn their maternal grandmother’s fridges and mantelpieces. Evidence of their Indian heritage merge and mingle with quintessential Y2K kitsch, as bindis meet Bratz dolls, bangles meet Gogo’s Crazy Bones and Bollywood starlets brush shoulders with Hollywood heartthrobs.
‘04.) I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman’ sees The Shop transformed into a cavernous Santa’s grotto of treats and treasures, fakes and fortunes, romances and riches. Welcomed by regal blood-red trompe l’oeil leather pattern wallpaper, at once evoking gaudy gastro-pubs, faux-fur laden front-roots and VIP luxury lounges, the duo’s continued interest in piratical reproduction is foregrounded. A fake-it-til-you-make-it world of aspirational imitation that blurs the boundaries between homage and appropriation – of social mobility made manifest on our TV screens through The X Factor or Britain’s Got Talent, canine class division bridged by spaghetti in Lady and The Tramp and commemorative thimbles marking the 20th anniversary of Bridget Jones’ Diary or Wimbledon Centre Court’s new retractable roof.
Demonstrating the ever-increasing maturity of their collaborative practice, here Athen & Nina enter their artistic adolescence, a pubertal period of elevation and evolution. Whereas previously their keepsakes, souvenirs and trinkets served as additional exhibited accoutrements, they now take centre stage as sculptural arrangements, pedestalized atop DVD cases housing the duo’s favourite films. Alongside, a large-scale collaged portrait of the Indian cinematic icon Rekha refines the artists’ use of found imagery, whilst retaining the colloquial collaged charm of bootlegged pop paraphernalia.
Finally, a heap of gold chocolate coins spills from one corner of the space, immediately recalling Félix González-Torres’ many candy mountains. In addition to their attribution as a touching tributes to his partner Ross and the countless others who passed away as a result of the AIDS epidemic, much has been made of González-Torres’ sweet-toothed interpretation of anti-capitalist ideals and promotion of equitable economic distribution. And so, with a scentscape induced by incense enticingly entitled ‘Gold Rain’, ‘Good Fortune’ or ‘Attracts Money’, Athen & Nina not only hope to get rich quick, but also invite you to share in the wealth and get rich too.
ATHEN KARDASHIAN & NINA MHACH DURBAN 04.) I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman, 3rd – 20th December, Soup at The Shop, Sadie Coles HQ
All install images: Athen Kardashian & Nina Mhach Durban – 04.) I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman – Soup at The Shop, Sadie Coles HQ
