Exhibition 18–22 November 2026
Thu 19 & Fri 20 Nov: 12:30–20:00
Sat 21 & Sun 22 Nov: 11:00–19:00

Please register: luma.com/z6bvy7f9

With Breathe Deeply, Australian artist Catherine Coady presents her first solo exhibition in Berlin at Backspace. Brussels-based curator Dominika Kuthová brings together photographs, sculptures, video works and an expansive installation of organza panels, oversized pills and projections. 
For almost two decades, Catherine Coady has been exploring the contradictions of human behaviour: the desire for order, control and inner balance, and everything that repeatedly disrupts it. Her works combine precision with wit and an often dark humour, which the artist regards as one of the most effective means of communication. The title also takes up this tension: Breathe Deeply is an instruction intended to restore calm and control, yet it presupposes the very unease it seeks to alleviate. Dominika Kuthová, who has worked closely with Coady for more than ten years, deliberately chose Berlin as the location for this exhibition: “The body remembers what the mind edits. Catherine Coady works in that dissonance. Her practice moves between different artistic languages and technical complexities, yet remains grounded in a fascination with the absurdities of human existence. Berlin, with its remarkable history of artistic experimentation and openness to unconventional forms of expression, provides a particularly fitting context for this exploration.”

Morph and the installation at Backspace

At the centre of the exhibition is Morph, Coady's alter ego. The faceless figure in a grey full-body suit appears in photographs and videos, sometimes wearing an oxygen mask, sometimes a hat covered in smiley buttons or a head made of plush toys. Its gestures and transformations initially seem harmless, then tip over into the unsettling. In the video works, repetition, abrupt cuts and shifts in tempo create an almost nervous energy. For Backspace, Kuthová has conceived an installation that leads through several rooms: in the entrance area, statement works welcome visitors, and a corridor leads into a room with pill installations and a projection. In the main space, large-scale, translucent organza panels with gas cylinder motifs hang in front of the central video projection.
Among the artist's best-known bodies of work are her oversized pill sculptures. For almost twenty years, Coady has experimented with materials and industrial manufacturing processes to achieve their immaculate surfaces. The objects play with the idea that there is a pill for everything: for serenity, for happiness, for meaning. Coady describes her approach as follows: “There is a certain absurdity in human behaviour that I find endlessly intriguing. My practice is an ongoing exploration of these aspects of human experience, moving between carefully controlled structures and more instinctive forms of expression. Even life's more uncomfortable moments can reveal something amusing and unexpectedly familiar. Through my work, I suppose I'm sharing some of my own absurdities, shedding light on experiences we might all recognise...”