Xenia Bond: Usania

Dates: July 12 - 30, 2022
Reception: July 12, 6 - 8pm

On the floor is a robot vacuum cleaner. I took it apart because I'm interested in all the pieces. There's something ironic about an object designed to clean up mess that just becomes mess itself. Working on the floor I can't help but relate to it like a toy, I have no idea about electronics. I'm just trying to get each component to its basic form. The toys I had were never about taking things apart or learning how things worked. I'm really good at making a mess though. It reminds me of how in sewing factories the only men who worked there were mechanics who fixed broken sewing machines amongst the thousands of female machine operators.

The robot vacuum isn't really changing the world. Most people I know who have one seldom use it and it is more for entertainment. I think we like them because they're a cute sentient creature, that moves independently. There's something comforting about having this new creature at home. This mess could really do with a good vacuum. A vacuum vacuuming up a vacuum, a vacuum cannibal. What's left is the site of the skeletal remains of a cannibal vacuum. I mean vacuums already eat dust which is mostly comprised of human flesh.

-Xenia Bond

Xenia Bond (b. 1992, London) graduated from the Slade, London (2016) and the Stadelschule, Frankfurt (2019). Recent exhibitions include A.P.T. gallery, London; Studio Picnic, Berlin; Lewisham Arthouse, London; Huselhof, Frankfurt; and the Staedel Museum, Frankfurt.