“Pivot” at Little Berlin
The Form Review is a simple attempt to increase dialogue within art journalism and highlight the subjectivity of a traditional exhibition review. Artists/curators/responsible parties of an exhibition are invited to respond to five short prompts. In turn, a representative of the St.Claire views the exhibition and independently responds to the same five prompts. Both sets of “form answers” are published in tandem on the St.Claire website. To participate drop us a line at hark@the-st-claire.com
(IMAGE: PIVOT ice-cream. CREDIT: Matt Kalasky)
Responses by Will Owen, Exhibition Curator
1. What is hidden in this exhibition? What is in plain sight?
What is hidden in this exhibition is that the initial curatorial concept stemmed from positive medical news after months of testing, and how quickly the mind can go from being engulfed in emotion and fear to swiftly returning back to daily banalities. The pivotal, momentary shift from consuming to subsuming.
Each work in the show makes tangible naturally occurring, invisible / microscopic aspects of the natural world — bacteria, fear, heat waves, and sound waves.
2. Who would be this exhibition’s parents? What might it’s children look like?
The parents of this exhibit would be the result of a romp between Sandor Katz, Tim Hawkinson, and Suzanne Ciani.
*OR*
A beluga whale and a petri dish.
The children would be outwardly shy; they would dress fairly modestly by their parents in public, but when they were allowed time to themselves, it would be in a vivid, self involved world of exploring biological intricacies on both innocent and precocious levels.
3. Describe one moment in this exhibition.
As you enter the space, an acrylic tank sits humming. Visitors to the show are encouraged to press their bodies against the tank to experience a sound work by Philadelphia artist Nadia Botello. Additionally, other visitors are then encouraged to listen to the piece by placing their ears against the bodies of those people pressed against the tank. The work may be listened to through the resonant chest or back of someone else. The piece, titled “Bodies of Water” explores how sonic waves pass through liquid, both water in the acrylic tank and through another human’s body.
4. This exhibition answers/asks the following question:
How do you expose some of the invisibilities experienced in the natural world?
5. You should message this exhibition if…
You are interested in experiential work that is exploratory and sensory based.
Responses by Matt Kalasky, The St.Claire
1. What is hidden in this exhibition? What is in plain sight?
The unseen is in full view in this exhibition. Often visualized through a scientif-esque process of illustration: To express the invisibly small in readable forms. To maturate bodies from formerly unrelated data points. To create categories out of waves and wind and weather. To show how sound becomes an object even though it was never meant for us.
2. Who would be this exhibition’s parents? What might it’s children look like?
It’s parents were poets or perhaps James Turrell or perhaps sedimentary rocks. They labored everyday to explore the small instances of grace and used the tools of the trade to expose their working; to communicate how small quiet beauty lives inside of a person like you and me. It’s kids turn the science fair projects into splendid games of entertainment. Giving proof of concept in a pencil drawing. The control group is out of control; collapsing in fits of laughter then napping then songs.
3. Describe one moment in this exhibition.
Gastro-conceptual Ice Cream: of, relating to, or based on concepts concerning sustenance and its relationship to human tastes, tissues and issues. Example flavor: Corn, Blue Cheese, Ghee, Cantaloupe, and Caramel
4. This exhibition answers/asks the following question:
Why every artist wants to be a scientist. (But knows that they are different directions of the same path)
5. You should message this exhibition if…
your stomach your ears your peers your leers and your fears are available for questioning.
…
PIVOT
www.littleberlin.org/calendar/2015/11/6/pivot
ON VIEW:
November 6 – 29, 2015
Little Berlin
2430 Coral St.
Philadelphia, PA 19125