The theatricality and malaise of machines characterized by abundance, repetition, necessity, error and expansion, come into full play in Analia Saban’s latest body of work, “Synthetic Self,” which is simultaneously exhibited at Sprüth Magers and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. Saban offers a restless existence mediated by technology in this transdisciplinary exhibition. Her work, existing neither as entirely biotic nor purely mechanical, narrates an unceasing negotiation between “nature” as represented by earth-based mediums, forms of machinery and materials that signify technological advancement. At once sublime, efficient, and feverish, the experience of Saban’s work results in a low-level existential distress where functional objects and images emerge as sources of everyday desire. She brings attention to a dysphoria underlying the sense of compulsion, exalted alienation, overwhelming excess of energy in her frenetic details and highly controlled outcomes in her engineered forms. Saban’s work compels us to question our progress and the tedium of our needs. Are we winning? Have we won? In order to live with great satisfaction, must the matter of our lives be literally scattered by fans? If errors and instability are inherent to a machine’s compromised nature, do I have to inhabit a world filled with errors? Have I always, almost instinctively, understood what Saban is possibly suggesting: that it was a mistake to think I couldn’t live without machines when, for a long time, I wasn’t entirely certain that machines weren’t actually sharing life with me?

Sprüth Magers
5900 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
1010 N. Highland Ave.
Los Angeles, CA

On view through October 28, 2023