The Weight of Smoke
Solo Exhibition
Parallel Vienna Artist Statements, 2025
»Once, he made a bet that he could measure the weight of smoke.«
»You can’t do that. It’s like weighing air.«
»I admit it’s strange. Almost like weighing someone’s soul. But Sir Walter was a clever guy. First, he took an unsmoked cigar and put it on a balance and weighed it. Then he lit up and smoked the cigar, carefully tapping the ashes into the balance pan. When he was finished, he put the butt into the pan along with the ashes and weighed what was there. Then he subtracted that number from the original weight of the unsmoked cigar. The difference was the weight of the smoke.«
»You can’t do that. It’s like weighing air.«
»I admit it’s strange. Almost like weighing someone’s soul. But Sir Walter was a clever guy. First, he took an unsmoked cigar and put it on a balance and weighed it. Then he lit up and smoked the cigar, carefully tapping the ashes into the balance pan. When he was finished, he put the butt into the pan along with the ashes and weighed what was there. Then he subtracted that number from the original weight of the unsmoked cigar. The difference was the weight of the smoke.«
This anecdote from the film Smoke (1995) tells of the attempt to grasp something fleeting, almost incomprehensible, in terms of weight and number.
Every day, sunbeams sweep through the room where the works AM and PM are presented. The window frame forces the light rays to constantly cast different shadows on the walls and floor. Nagy interrupts this cycle: artificial light sources are added to the naturally occurring sunlight. (...)
Every day, sunbeams sweep through the room where the works AM and PM are presented. The window frame forces the light rays to constantly cast different shadows on the walls and floor. Nagy interrupts this cycle: artificial light sources are added to the naturally occurring sunlight. (...)
This creates a sphere of asynchronicity in which not only the moments installed by the artist compete with one another, but sunlight itself is also staged as an additional rival. The work thus opens an intermediate space where present and memory merge, where light continues to exist detached from its origin.
AM and PM not only preserve two specific moments of light, but also make visible how strongly perception is bound to repetition, memory, and reconstruction. What we see is no longer the light itself, but its trace, its echo.”
This exhibition was awarded the Parallel Vienna Bildrecht Young Artist Award 2025
