image text special shop

'The Share of Opulence; Doubled; Fractional', a Group Show Curated by Cédric Fauq at Sophie Tappeiner, Vienna

article image; primary-color: #C1BEB9;
Installation View
article image; primary-color: #B8B4B1;
Installation View
article image; primary-color: #B4B4B6;
Installation View
article image; primary-color: #716F72;
Olu Ogunnaike, Saturated Systems 1, 2018
article image; primary-color: #CECDCB;
Installation view
article image; primary-color: #6B696C;
Olu Ogunnaike, Saturated Systems 2, 2018
article image; primary-color: #6E6E6E;
Olu Ogunnaike, Saturated Systems 3, 2018
article image; primary-color: #CDC5C2;
Kobby Adi, Insufficiently Imagined Directory #3, 2018
article image; primary-color: #BAA997;
Installation View
article image; primary-color: #625E5D;
Olu Ogunnaike, Unsaturated Systems, 2018
article image; primary-color: #DBDAD8;
Installation View
article image; primary-color: #BBB6B3;
Installation View
article image; primary-color: #CDC8C2;
Candice Lin and Patrick Staff, Hormonal Fog (Study #6), 2018
article image; primary-color: #C6C2BF;
Candice Lin and Patrick Staff, Hormonal Fog (Study #6) (detail), 2018
article image; primary-color: #D4D0CD;
Installation View
article image; primary-color: #CDCCC8;
The Share of Opulence; Doubled; Fractional, Dominique White, Landlocked Prisoner, 2018
article image; primary-color: #D2CFCA;
Installation View
article image; primary-color: #CDC3B7;
Kobby Adi, Urgent Bench (remixxx) fka A.G.F. (detail), 2018
article image; primary-color: #B7A38A;
Installation View
article image; primary-color: #D5D5D3;
Installation View
article image; primary-color: #D0D4D5;
Thomas Geiger, Bust Talks, 2018
article image; primary-color: #D9D8D4;
Installation View
article image; primary-color: #C9C8C4;
Installation View
article image; primary-color: #DBDAD8;
Installation View
article image; primary-color: #A09D94;
Julie Villard and Simon Brossard, Treasure System (I) (detail), 2018
article image; primary-color: #C9BAB3;
Lewis Hammond, Becoming II, 2018
article image; primary-color: #AEADB3;
Lewis Hammond, Apparition, 2018
article image; primary-color: #D6D4D5;
Installation View
article image; primary-color: #C0B6AC;
Lewis Hammond, Shield, 2018
article image; primary-color: #C6C7C1;
Installation View

The project acts as a fantasised reading of Percy Julian’s life and accomplishments through an exhibition, a publication / poster, and a series of events. Using his time in Vienna (1929–1931) as temporal nexus from which to launch a tentacular investigation, the project’s different components highlight and pervert motifs from his biography to create unlikely relationships between condemnation, credits, luxury, blackness, commemorative sculptures, hormones, and plants.

Tale I — Percy Julian (1899–1975), an African American chemist who discovered the formula to synthetise estrogen and testosterone from the soybean’s protein structure, studied in Vienna from 1929 to 1931 to complete a doctorate in organic chemistry under Dr. Ernst Späth. At the time, Vienna was at the forefront of chemical research, especially plant-based chemistry. Within two years, Julian managed to successfully extract four different alkaloids (1) from an “Austrian” (2) plant he was working on: the Corydalis cava. This provided him with the necessary techniques and methods to, later on, extract and synthesize alkaloids and hormones from other plants.

Tale II
— Julian did not only spend his time in Vienna studying. Outside the United States for the first time, he encountered a world where being a black man inacademia was a very different experience. In letters to colleagues and friends, he narrates how he felt perceived as a wonder rather than a threat, how he got close to Vienna’s Jewish community (3), and how he got to enjoy operas, balls, and other pleasures.

Condemnation
— Back in the U.S., some of Julian’s letters from Vienna were used against him to discredit his academic achievements. What triggered the publishing of the letters was a supposed affair between Julian and the wife of one of his colleague as well as internal quarrels at his alma mater.

Beans
— Julian then became an industrial chemist and focused his efforts on beans, notably the Calabar bean and the soybean. Thanks to the Calabar bean—which is said to have been used in legal disputes in West African communities as a lie detector—he found a remedy for glaucoma. He extracted even more from the soybean: fire extinguisher foam, cortisone, progesterone, testosterone, estrogen, paint…

Tale III
— When Julian learned of his mentor Dr. Ernst Späth’s death, he returned to Vienna and commissioned a bust to be displayed at the University of Vienna. Julian is also said to have paid for Späth’s funeral.

— Cédric Fauq


1. Alkaloids are chemical compounds found in nature. They have various effects on the body, as they have pharmacological, psychotropic, stimulating, and toxic properties. Caffeine, cocaine, nicotine, and morphine are examples of alkaloids.
2. The plant was said to be “Austrian” at the time but is in fact also endemic to the mountains of eastern Africa and the Himalayas.
3. For more information about the affinities shared by the Jewish and Black diasporas, refer to Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic (1995).

14.9.18 — 3.11.18

Kobby Adi, Minia Biabiany, Lewis Hammond, Candice Lin & Patrick Staff, Olu Ogunnaike, Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, Dominique White and live events with Sorour Darabi, Jules Loanne Gleeson, Thomas Geiger

Sophie Tappeiner

'THEIR VOLUMES, WORKS FROM THE CRISTELLA COLLECTION', Curated by Treti Galaxie at

'Soft Armor' by Garance Früh at In extenso, Clermont-Ferrand

'Of new monsters, Earth created more' by Olga Paramonova and Nika Peshekhonova at

'1000 Regrets' by Nicola Genovese at Lokal-int, Biel

'Fragrant Tissues', Group Show at beacon, Munich

'Like a Moth to a Flame' by Luca Florian at Atelier 35, Bucharest

'Social Agony Conscious Healing' by Jack Kennedy at Forth, Nottingham

'CELESTIAL POETICS', Group Show Curated by Liam Denny at Greenhouse Off-site, Mel

'GRAFT' by Amitai Romm at VEDA, Florence

'Terrapozzoli' by Martina Kügler at Mountains, Berlin

'Un perfume sin soporte, un gasto puro' by Marina Glez. Guerreiro and Raúl Lorenz

'Misty’s Tears', Off-Site Show by Gitte Maria Möller in Unitarian Church, Cape To

'Meditations on Entropy' by X Breidenbach at NIGHTTIMESTORY, Los Angeles

'Plague Expo Show', Group Project at Plague Office and Sasha Shardak's studio, Ka

'Re: Recover; Don't make angels dream of' by Yamamoto Shohei at Ritsuki Fujisaki

'Peel' by Stian Ådlandsvik at Van Etten Gallery, Oslo

'Figures of Speech', Group Show Curated by Dobroslawa Nowak and Nicola Nitido at

'Wet Wishes' by Laura Ní Fhlaibhín at Britta Rettberg, Munich

Next Page