NADA House 2021

NIR ALTMAN is proud to present a two-person presentation by Cole Lu and Littlewhitehead for NADA House 2021.
Cole Lu’s freestanding centerpiece is composed of a burnt wood door with a half-buried 30th Anniversary of First Man in Space aluminum medal, made from metals flown on board from a Soyuz TM spacecraft. Lu’s work questions the private/cosmos space and its temporal conditions, transforming the space into a portal to a dimension where fiction intertwines with the historical artifacts. Two carefully engraved mahogany mirrors depict a cautionary tale of a long history of collective amnesia against apartheid.

Littlewhitehead’s works draw on domesticity, incorporating historical references and postcolonial appropriation. Their sculptural objects resemble Cong vases from 13th century China; structurally fractured, they house dead plants made in brass. The accompanying painting is a variant of an Ukiyo-e image, transferred, altered and distorted.