BERLIN.- Société is presenting Selected works, a solo exhibition by the Swiss artist and writer Tina Braegger.

The first chapter It’s Not Looking Good For You was on view from September 2 to October 24, 2024 at Duarte Sequeira in Seoul.

Tina Braegger’s work addresses questions related to originality, reproduction, authenticity, repetition, and difference. Since 2016, she has explored these topics through the motif of the “dancing bear,” a bootleg drawing that became an emblem of the American rock band The Grateful Dead in the 1970s. Braegger first started working with the bear after seeing it on a concert handbill and the image subsequently evolved into a reference system that has since permeated every aspect of her artistic practice. Braegger employs the bear as a “structuring logic to follow the same set of rules over and over again,” using it as an anchor in her painterly exploration of a diverse catalogue of styles. By taking the bear out of its historic context, she directs our attention to the motif itself and its visual and conceptual malleability. As a sign or symbol, the bear can be manipulated to mean anything—even to stand in for the creative process itself.

Recently, Braegger’s shifting relationship with this motif has taken on a more narrative approach. While many of her earlier compositions depicted the bear in a distorted, fragmented, or tessellated form, in Selected works Braegger is exhibiting a body of nine intimately-scaled works which radically pares down her approach to the symbol.

Unlike the countless deadheads who constantly revamped the bootleg icon in their own unofficial merch sold in concert parking lots, Tina Braegger’s adoption of the motif is not an act of devotion or fandom. Instead, for Braegger, the mascot operates as a surrogate, a sparring partner. Her engagement with the dancing bear is a game in its own right.