Andreas Greiner

Greiner’s work is informed by the natural sciences, technology and the humanities. A central focus of his work is the human–nature relationship and the Anthropocene, as currently discussed in academia and in mainstream media.

A characteristic of Greiner’s work is the cultivation of bioluminescent algae and other bioluminescent creatures. When the water in which the organisms live is disturbed they produce bright blue specks. In a darkened exhibition space this effect has been produced mechanically by Greiner using musical instruments or gyroscopes to disturb the water's surface. Soundwaves have also been used to initiate bioluminescence in works accompanied by abstract musical pieces. (see works The Molecular Ordering of Computational Plants, Multitudes, Dreamcatcher, 16 sqm).

Greiner’s work comments on contemporary issues but also seeks to explore possible futures in what he himself has called “archeology of the future”. This idea is recognisable throughout his work, but most prominently in his exhibition for the Museum Berlinische Galerie (2016–2017) or the ‘Kunsthalle‘ Meat Factory in Prague (2018), in which he constructed a monumental sculpture 3D printed from an X-ray scan of a dead-found broiler chicken in an industrial feeding plant (Monument for the 308). This species of hybrid chicken—a modern biofact—is artificially bred, sterile and one of the most consumed animals in the western world. The 8 meter tall statue was meant to resemble a dinosaur in a natural history museum (see also Weltuntergang – Ende ohne Ende at Natural History Museum in Bern/Switzerland (2018–2019)). Just as dinosaurs are icons of prehistoric eras (Triassic-Cretaceous), Greiner conceives the broiler as an icon of the Anthropocene.

Two years after Greiner exhibited the work, in December 2018, the Royal Society Open Science journal published an article by a group of geologists, paleobiologists and archaeologists, which asserted that common broiler chicken could be a potential paleo-biological marker for the changes brought about in the Anthropocene:

Study (Portrait) of the Singularity of the Animal (2015 – ongoing) is the title of a series of works exploring the genre of portraiture, altered (unnatural) nature and non-human life beyond human senses. Traditionally this genre has been used to express a human subject’s individuality, character and beauty.

Greiner has also framed animals as living sculptures. For example in Der freie Grundriss (2014) he placed a pupated fly maggot named Ludwig inside the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin (Festival of Future Nows). Once it hatched it became a ‘flying sculpture’. Its status as an art work was confirmed by the artistic director of the Neue Nationalgalerie by signing a contract with Greiner. Another living sculpture conceptualised by Greiner was a hybrid broiler chicken from an industrial fattening plant northeast of Berlin, whom he named Heinrich (2015–2016). Greiner brought him to a suburban petting zoo in October 2015 where he died a few months later. His status as a ‘living sculpture’ was also confirmed with a contract between the petting zoo and Greiner.

Greiner also highlights sculptural qualities of phenomena which are not usually associated with sculpture. Traditionally sculpture is a static medium formed from inanimate matter and Greiner seeks to expand this. In the past he has demonstrated the plastic and sculptural qualities of an explosion (Entladung with Fabian Knecht, 2012–2013), of social interactions and of electron microscopies of unicellular organisms (Hybrid Matter).

Andreas Greiner (born 1979) is an artist based in Berlin. He works with a wide range of different media including sculpture, installation, photography, video and techniques such as electron microscopy, algorithmic image creation and 3D printing. Frequently he works with biological and natural growth processes to create art works. His approach addresses humanity’s relationship with its living and non-living environment and the nature–culture dichotomy.