The New Ambidextrous Universe, Tauba Auerbach, ICA

Not to be missed, The New Ambidextrous Universe at the ICA is the first UK solo show by Tauba Auerbach, a young, up and coming artist based in New York. The show captures the spirit of a new futurism, in which the future figures as a speculative version of the present. Returning to the theme of an earlier work, Ambo Dextro, which consisted of a 'reconfigured' typewriter, The New Ambidextrous Universe explores the dexterity of the human hands in relation to cultures and technologies of writing. 

The ambidextrous of the title suggests not only the potential for human hands to write and draw in two directions simultaneously, but also the symmetry of the human body, the facing pages of a book, a Venn diagram, or the splitting of the universe into two parallel worlds. Picking up on the tropes of science fiction, Auerbach's formal logics are often informed by scientific and mathematical principles, as well as having a retro-futurist aesthetic. Incorporating graphic design, textiles, typography, and book-binding, these peculiar objects suggest transformative ways of perceiving the familiar.