x and oh!
GROUP SHOW
04.12.25 – 27.02.26

FABIO HENDRY
STÉPHANIE BAECHLER
YAN JIANG
ELISSA LACOSTE
MATTEO BAUER BORNEMANN
GUY MELDEM
YVONNE ROGENMOSER
DOUGLAS MANDRY
ZATO

SECOND NATURE PROJECTS
PFINGSTWEIDSTR. 31
8005 ZÜRICH

x and oh! brings together works that resist settling.Familiar in outline, they shift just enough in material, surface, or structure to prompt a closer look. The title marks a moment of recalibration, when familiar structures loosen and perception subtly shifts.

At the centre of the exhibition is Terrain, a material investigation by Fabio Hendry. Using waste polyamide powder from industrial 3D printing combined with natural and coloured sands, the works are formed through heat, gravity, and time. As the material fuses unevenly, surfaces emerge that record compression, collapse, and points of pressure. Presented as sculptural low tables and surface elements, Terrain moves between geological reference and contemporary material processes, establishing a material character that is grounded, precise, and yet open-ended.

Stéphanie Baechler’s House Calendar stretches and warps time schedules into a large knitted surface. Comments such as They call it love and fragments drawn from digital calendar interfaces embedded in the textile point to forms of care and labour historically associated with female domestic roles, and often rendered invisible. Separate from this work, embroidered poetry ribbons appear as long textbearing bands, gathered and hanging as a sculptural piece.

Elsewhere in the exhibition, material shifts continue along different routes. Yan Jiang translates jewellery techniques into rhodium-plated brass plates, their polished surfaces highlighting ripples and irregular edges. Elissa Lacoste combines recycled leather with sculpted vermiculite rims in dice trays that recall lichen formations, paired with hand-made glass dice. Matteo Bauer Bornemann’s matt-galvanised steel vessels balance strict geometry and weight against moments of instability and fracture.

Guy Meldem embeds burner phones and cables into wax candles — fragments still visible — forming a contemporary nature morte. His round clocks, covered in printed colour fragments, turn time into interference rather than regular rhythm. In Yvonne Rogenmoser’s ceramic vase, a carefully crafted surface is partially oversprayed, loosening the conventions of the medium; her large process drawings extend this tension, with vessel forms acting as proxies for shifting emotional states.

Douglas Mandry contributes blown-glass forms derived from glacier-mill scans alongside overprinted offset plates from a recent research and book project. Zato (Stefan Liniger) intervenes directly in the space, removing existing ceiling fixtures and reconfiguring them with rods, tape, and exhibition materials. As daylight fades, the room settles into softer light and muted colour hues.

Together, the works articulate a shared attitude. Each practice introduces a slight offset — a small shift away from what is expected — through how materials are employed, combined, and redirected. Decisions remain readable, tracing a direct line from intention through making into the object itself. What remains is a sense of character and presence: objects that hold their identity while remaining open to variation across settings and situations.