Snailing (Slippy slimy slug slut)
Anne Duk Hee Jordan
September 27 - December 7, 2024
Opening September 27th, 6-8pm
Free RSVP
Canal Projects presents Snailing (Slippy slimy slug slut), the first solo institutional show in New York by Korean-born, Berlin-based artist Anne Duk Hee Jordan. Known for exploring the adverse effects of technology on nature and its impact on humanity’s connection to the planet, Duk Hee transforms Canal Projects into an immersive installation centering the world of the famous snail, Jeremy, and their quest to find a compatible mate.
Jeremy was a garden snail with a rare sinistral condition where their shell coiled to the left, rather than the right, as a vast majority of snail shells do. As snails have a one-year lifespan and mate face-to-face, sliding past each other on the right side so their genitals can meet, Jeremy’s rare shell made it difficult to procreate. This tragic love story led the researchers studying Jeremy to embark upon an international search to find them a mate, succeeding shortly before he passed away in 2017.
Having both male and female reproductive organs, snails possess electromagnetic abilities to have sex and telepathic abilities to exchange their thoughts and feelings. Taking Jeremy’s story and the unique qualities of snail sexuality as the subject of this piece, Duk Hee, who identifies as non-binary, continues an artistic exploration of “sex ecologies,” pushing against western, patriarchal norms of sexual understanding to highlight the exuberant sexual possibilities and survival strategies of the more-than-human world. Jeremy’s journey from isolation to finding a mate is paralleled by moments of kinship that arise between human visitors and robotic snails that Duk Hee has arranged in various snail habitats throughout the exhibition.
Inspired by Jeremy’s quest for partnership, the immersive environment serves as a reflection upon his extraordinary life and exercises the promise of interspecies knowledge building. Upon entering Canal Projects, visitors will encounter areas where human and snail habitats merge. Long columns of curtains arranged like the spiral of a snail’s shell create enclosures filled with salad-leaf pillows and carpets, live plants, and robotic snails. The installation is accompanied by three songs written by Duk Hee and composed by musician Sasha Perera that collage together scientific facts about Jeremy sourced from the internet, which visitors are encouraged to listen to as they lay in the rest areas. The artist invites us to slow down and experience life at a snail’s pace, promoting a sense of shared existence and mutual care.
Duk Hee’s fixation with Jeremy and the reproductive practices of snails serves as a continuation of the artist’s long standing artistic exploration of the lives of other species. A previous exhibition, The Worm: Terrestrial, Fantastic and Wet at Urania Berlin in 2021 involved luminescent effects and large tunnels to recreate the insides of worms. For Ziggy and the Starfish (2016-2022), a sculptural video environment, Duk Hee studied the sex life of marine species, especially those that are non-binary, illuminating the exuberant sexual possibilities and survival strategies that make us, humans, look rather prudish and inexperienced. Now, at Canal Projects, visitors will follow Jeremy’s story from a scientific curiosity to a symbol of biodiversity and the importance of preserving all life. Observing these artificial snails and learning about Jeremy’s story can teach humans about patience, resilience, and the smaller, often overlooked aspects of nature, underlining the importance of communication between species.
Special thanks to alexander levy and James Voorhies.
Transience and transformation are the central themes in the work of Anne Duk Hee Jordan. Through movement and performance, Duk Hee gives materiality another dimension—building motorized sculptures and creating edible landscapes. The artist’s sculptures are intended to draw the viewer into the present and open a dialogue between natural phenomena, philosophy and art. The work is like an interactive fantasy that plays with the knowledge and theories about the world and our souls. In the absence of concrete knowledge, fantasy runs riot. The artist opens up doors to a universe of humorous and romantic machines that juxtapose robotic consciousness with organic cyclic decay and life. Duk Hee asks questions about ”agency” and encourages a change of perspective, shifting the focus away from humans towards ecology.
