NADA Miami 2020

Lotte Andersen (b. 1989, London, UK, lives and works in Lima, Peru presents “It’s not you, it’s me. It’s complicated,” a project developed in Lima, away from the artist’s home in London. Andersen proposes a collection of works dealing with the weight of relics, considering the function of mementos. Suspended in space, the works converge and act in unison to produce a momentum, generated by the viewer’s own personal history; questioning, rejecting and manipulating nostalgic motifs.

A meditation on the success of the dismantling of Empire, Andersen investigates the ripples of colonialism through the lense of Pop culture. Dealing with the ideological loss and revision of late 90s spin, the propaganda of ‘multi-culti Britain’ and ’Cool Britannia,’ the artist poses her own questions on mixedness within her own heritage. The work is presented, erect yet wonky, proud yet defeated and unconcerned with the echoes it permeates. “Babygirls own standard of etiquette” and “The Dick Jewell Standard,” explode these thoughts, standing side by side, their poles demarking an imaginary “X” shape. The scene is set, a space contained, marking out players within this entanglement. “The Nail in the Coffin (Mis Uñas Favoritas),” a set of custom acrylic nails mounted in specimen case, subverting the tradition of Victorian butterfly catching; Mickey Mouse, a rave smiley, the EU flag, a sad face and the British flag, exist side by side.

The project is a metaphor for collapse, and the subsequent choreography of collapsing structures, where the residue or core is revealed. The viewer is confronted with the aftermath, activated by their own reaction. A humbling reminder that potential is often born from chaos, envisioning a space where contemporary and folkloric histories permutate. 


Here, we encounter solemnity’s relationship to loss; looking back to wonder, what the future is? Taking things out to reveal the vibration of that which has passed. When the show is over, how are you affected?