Remanence//Remnants

Ziv Ze've Cohen

​The artist’s first solo exhibition in Chicago, Remanence//Remnants presents a collection of relics excavated from an ahistorical epoch. Bringing together recent works from the ongoing series Remanence, and parallel works by Cohen, the exhibition highlights the inescapable relationship between material culture and historical time by juxtaposing electromagnetic remanence with sculptural remains. Tracing a cyborg body through various media—including sculpture, installation, and holography—the works on view are simultaneously figurative and unplaceable; oscillating between sacred icons and science fiction curios to explore collective memory by constructing a speculative future.


Central to the exhibition, the eponymous kinetic, light sculpture Remanence scans the space transporting viewers to a parallel, but familiar realm. Artifacts of the future, Remanence and subsequent works from the series, draw on formal references that range from classical sculpture to the literature of ideas. Demonstrating Cohen’s prowess in unremembered media, a collection of holograms employ both pulse laser transmission and reflection rainbow type, complicating the surrounding sculptures by reimagining the depiction of multiple dimensions. Looking both backward and forward, these works highlight Cohen’s approach to media archaeology—using the past and the future to investigate one another. Accompanying the works in the exhibition, an artist book serves as a transcript linking the media on view. This collection undermines expectations surrounding the encryption of data–both ancient and contemporary—presenting history from the perspective of a new corpus.

-Duncan Bass-


Artist Bio

Ziv Ze’ev Cohen is a visual artist with an emphasis on technology. His works challenge the senses of both human and machine alike. Often speculating on possible future, in his practice, he is constantly reflecting on the impact machines have on our society.

Born in Israel and based in Chicago, Cohen holds an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Art and Technology Studies where he works as a faculty member. Cohen’s works have been exhibited worldwide including Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria and at the Museum of China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China.

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