COBRA draws from Café Cobra, the underworld bar that served as a social anchor in Dudek’s former neighborhood. The work incorporates archival images of the bar and a replica of its neon sign, originally produced and gifted by the owner following a non-commercial project realized there the previous year. That project brought together local residents, younger participants, and figures from the art world, collapsing distinctions between everyday life and artistic production.

Installed in the gallery as a performative, wall-based structure, COBRA opens onto a recessed void that marks the absent presence of the bartender, a symbolic locus of exchange, ritual, and memory. The work carries the social and emotional residue of the bar into the exhibition space, preserving its histories in an active, transformed form. For a private collection, the piece can be left open to reveal the wall behind, allowing the void to participate in its environment, or fitted with a mirror to create a reflective display, transporting the energy of this legendary place into one’s home.