Protean silicone matter — Andrew Roberts

Protean Silicone Matter confronts the audience with two melting narratives. On the surface, the project presents a speculative history of multi-species engineering. Beneath that, it functions as a meta-modern analysis of its own methods of artistic production.

Recognizing that fictions shape reality and that Role-Playing Games (RPGs) offer critical tools for reconfiguring the present, Roberts weaves a fable synchronized with post-human forms of life. Since our relationship with bodies of water has long been mediated by fantasy, the exhibition asks a central question: Is it possible to design a new tale for our time?

The characters in the work —invoked through poems, digital animations, and sculptures— exist in a state of deep suspension where death and repose are indistinguishable. They appear as marine creatures dreaming of a non-human future, yet they exist as haunted, spectral artifacts.

The project is articulated by a three-channel digital film in which silicone, acting as a spectral entity, achieves self-awareness. Conscious of its material history and its role in fabricating images, the silicone transmutes into the bodies on the screens before finally escaping to find its tangible form in the accompanying sculptures.

Viscous and constantly changing form, the works in this assemblage accept their role as entities within a narrative play. They harness science fiction’s power to imagine utopias while simultaneously recognizing

Haunted silicone matter, 2023. Medical grade silicone. 40 × 200 × 275 cm — 15 3⁄4 × 78 3⁄4 × 108 1⁄4 in.

Tank matter (blue), 2023. Medical grade silicone, resin, automotive paint, wood and metal structure. 69 × 122 × 8 cm — 26 3⁄4 × 48 × 3 in.

Tank matter (purple), 2023. Medical grade silicone, resin, automotive paint, wood and metal structure. 69 × 122 × 8 cm — 26 3⁄4 × 48 × 3 in.

Tank matter (pink), 2023. Medical grade silicone, resin, automotive paint, wood and metal structure. 69 × 122 × 8 cm — 26 3⁄4 × 48 × 3 in.

Tank matter (red), 2023. Medical grade silicone, resin, automotive paint, wood and metal structure. 69 × 122 × 8 cm — 26 3⁄4 × 48 × 3 in.

Tank matter (orange), 2023. Medical grade silicone, resin, automotive paint, wood and metal structure. 69 × 122 × 8 cm — 26 3⁄4 × 48 × 3 in.

Tank matter (yellow), 2023. Medical grade silicone, resin, automotive paint, wood and metal structure. 69 × 122 × 8 cm — 26 3⁄4 × 48 × 3 in.

Protean silicone matter, Solo presentation with Pequod Co., Art Basel Miami Beach., 2023.