South African born conceptual artist Adrian Hermanides understands art as a means to expand the limits of subjectivity in order to affect social change. Hermanides is interested in portraying punctured, fluid and mobile states that convey a certain softening of the borders. Sexuality and humor are a recurring theme in his work, as well as deflation and retraction. In Eredep, Hermanides shows a blown-glass bubble filled with exhaust fumes. The bubble is attached to the wall by its tip that resembles a penis, leaving the rest of the bubble to look like an enlarged scrotum. In the found object installation Alms for Birds, Hermanides displays the meticulously sorted contents of a dead person’s apartment. Lifelong collecting and accumulating become a stand-in for the owner and a projection screen for the life they may have lead, left to the viewer’s scrutiny.
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