The Uncanny Home of Our Imagination

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I'm pleased to share the Shell Jackets as part of "The Uncanny Home of Our Imagination" curated by Lisa Crossman & Julia Csekö with artists Céline Browning, Joana Traub Csekö, Julia Csekö, Amelia C. Young,  Kate Nielsen and Adams Puryear (FPOAFM Studios), Elana Adler, Jonathan Talit and Mia Cross.

THE UNCANNY HOME OF OUR IMAGINATION
March 19—April 9, 2016
opening reception: Sat. March 19, 6—9pm

Nave Gallery Annex
gallery hours: Thurs & Fri, 6-8PM; Sat & Sun, 2—6PM

"This show is a fleeting exploration of the home as concept and lived material space in which taste, anxiety, and desire take shape. Playfully using the concepts of the uncanny and the “uncanny valley” as points of reference, selected objects and their placement within a house-turned gallery are meant to call attention to the act of attaching emotions to the things that populate our inhabited domestic spaces. The home takes on a special role as site of origin and desired return – an (extra)ordinary domestic environment filled with art that may provoke empathy or aversion." –  Lisa Crossman. More information about the exhibition and events on the exhibition webpage.

 

Inner Chamber — a collective art making exercise at the Gardner Museum

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Inner Chamber — a collective art making exercise at the Gardner Museum

I’m please to be part of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s new “Sanctuary Series” with a workshop of meditation and art making that provides a unique experience within the museum’s collection and provides tools for synthesizing the barrage of mass media imagery that fills our daily lives.

“Inner Chamber”, part of the Gardner’s Sanctuary Series
Sunday, March 6, 2:30-4pm
Register in advance.

As a young child I was “diagnosed” as having an over active imagination. This was my parents way of soothing me back to sleep after a particularly realistic nightmare in which the Pink Panther stalked me while his theme song played.  This “superpower” as I now like to see it, the ability to imagine what isn’t there, is closely correlated with imagining what could happen or what is to come in the future. It is the power of imagination. And when not harnessed properly it can lead to useless worry.

It is also the power of empathy.

After learning to recognize the difference between dreams and reality I next had to content with the nagging worry about what could happen in real life – especially when it came to human suffering.

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On the Line

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Those who know me know how often I'm looking down admiring cracks in the pavement and sidewalks. Museum and gallery floors too. Cracks are everywhere! They're nature's way of exerting her presence. "You can't tame me", she cries.

I love drawing cracks. I love looking for patterns within them. I love extracting the bits and pieces that are created by these fissures. And lately I've become a bit obsessed with collecting them. Chances are on any given day I have a hunk of concrete in my pocket. I live in Boston and we're in the middle of a building boom. Need I say more?

I first started making the Sidewalk Series of asphalt and concrete miniatures this summer as I was exploring my urban neighborhood's connection to nature. Or lack there of. Each time I found a chunk of asphalt on my walk I'd pick it up and imagine it as a tiny landscape. I'd ask myself what could live there, where the water source might be, and what resources could be hidden inside.

When asked to contribute to On the Line, a group exhibit with one artist from each of the ten stops on the MBTA's new Fairmount-Indigo commuter rail I knew exactly what I'd contribute. The ten new Sidewalk Series pieces in On the Line were all collected within a half-mile radius of my home. Most came from a development parcel in Chinatown where I first filmed the Alone Together Tent Dress demonstration in 2013 and where I returned in 2015 to photograph the tent for Interdependence. During the intervening years a tower with luxury lofts and affordable housing was built. The adjacent wedge of land squeezed between the road and highway ramp is still a beautiful mess of "art supplies" and the last refugee in the area for those without a home. 

One the Line
curated by Medicine Wheel Productions' Spoke Gallery and UMass Boston's Trotter Institute
February 3—April 15, 2015

Spoke Gallery
110 K Street, 2nd floor, Boston, MA 02127
Gallery hours: Wed—Fri 12—5pm and Saturdays by appointment

 

Sidewalk Series, 2016. Found asphalt and concrete, modeling turf and gold leaf. Click for more images including the Chinatown development parcel.

on breathing and the essentials

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We breath everyday, but what connection is made when we breathe in other people's air? Since seeing these photos of "Talisman of Breath" at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in early June, the idea of swaping "breaths" has been on my mind. By containing our breath in a little inflatable origami ball that can be given away or lost, we are reminded of what is essential versus what isn't. What if all we needed was to carry a little personal spiritual token everyday?

-Audrey Hsia, studio assistant

 

in a tiny box I would put...

Traditional Japanese inrōs were used to carry small objects that today would be stashed in a pocket or purse. (This is the only design flaw I can find in the kimono but boy it is major.) Made up of multiple compartments, these small satchels were worn at the waist and contained things like medicine, cosmetics and identity seals.

As the owner of a pair of pants with count them, seven, pockets, I simply can't imagine paring down my essential belongings to something as small as a cell phone. Unless there's a lipstick app? 

“Talisman’s of Breath” was inspired in part by the Gardner’s collection of inrōs and my fascination/disgust with having everything I need right at hand. It builds off of the Sherpa Hoods and Survivor Packs – which promise to carry everything one needs to master physiological comfort, safety, belonging/love, self-esteem and creative fulfilment – and the PA Wristlets which signify their wearer is stressed.


 

"Talismans of Breath" June 6, 11–4

I'm pleased to host Talismans of Breath a drop-in workshop at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on June 6, 11am–4pm where we'll create personal inflatable talismans that support creative energy. Come by anytime to make a simple origami ball that can be inflated and deflated with the breath and turned into a necklace, bracelet, pin or key chain. These small, wearable objects offer the chance to slow down and breathe…and to show off your individual style too!

 

Talismans of Breath is inspired by Ken Smith’s inflatable Fenway Deity – an inflatable psychedelic spiral pattern and gold chain that acts as new conduit for the Museum’s creative energy –  along with the Japanese inrōs and the many portraits in the museum’s collection that depict sitters’ with talismans, charms and other protective amulets.

 

Talismans of Breath
June 6, 11am–4pm
Ages 7-99
Free with admission

Street Study

My fascination with street culture continues in the form of Street Study, an exhibition I co-curated with Jennifer Epstein. Now up now through February 16 at The Beehive the exhibition features seven Boston-based artists who use the street as muse and exhibition space including Cash For Your Warhol, Cyrille Conan, Bug Davidson, Faile, Greer Muldowney, Jeannie Simms, and Joe Wardwell. 

The street can be both dark and light. It can be both inviting and hostile. It can be a presentation space for street artists, and host to photographers and flaneurs alike. Street Study highlights the many roles the street plays in the creation of their artwork. 

Street Study
Dec 5, 2014—Feb 16, 2015
reception: Wed, Jan 14, 6—8pm

I've gone Elsewhere

Have you ever dreamed of throwing in the towel and joining a commune? Who hasn’t fantasized about communal meals lovingly cooked with fresh organics and tempeh? How about ending a long day of doing nothing by playing the spoons with young, long-haired men and bangos?

Well, I’m living that dream in Greensboro, NC at Elsewhere, a residency in a former thrift shop. After a frenetic summer making, curating and researching public art I'm learning the rhythms of the almost-South and comparing two very different but equally vibrant cities.

Yesterday I went to a talk by John Roberts of The Better Block and was reminded of the power of thinking small, and local. I've got a few ideas to try out in Boston as simple as cleaning up my own front stoop.

In the meantime, I’m finishing documenting the wardrobe pieces that call to me and beginning to design an outfit for a fictional time-travelling character.