This special, hour-long performance will utilize guided meditation and sound healing as an accompaniment to LA-based artist Kathryn Garcia’s film installation and invites the viewer on a meditative journey from birth, death to rebirth.
About TEMPLO
TEMPLO consists of an installation of 4 large-scale pyramids, a central altar, a film, and a participatory performance. The Pyramids act as energetic and physical anchors and are meant to be entered. As part of the experiential nature of the performance the visitors are invited to participate in a meditative offering. The video acts as a backdrop – a journey into the Divine Feminine, expressed as a reverent connection with the earth, and our cosmos (as epitomized by the sun’s light reflected in the sculptures). The cycles of death and rebirth are evoked in ritualistic scenes shot within Phoenician tombs, and neolithic burial chambers. Rituals at ancient sites consecrate a deep honoring of our sacred Earth, and Her mysteries. Scenes of the Sea invoke the watery depths of the feminine. As part of the opening ceremony sound healers will be performing in situ.
‘Spiritual interchange and oneness between woman and earth as forms of therapeutic, internal healing also figure’s in Kathryn Garcia’s mesmerizing multi-media works. Filmed in Ibiza, a Spanish island, the artist’s video footage features Garcia in striking ritualistic goddess poses which emulate historical ancient iconography. In the backdrop hovers Es Vedrà, the uninhabited Goddess Island near Ibiza, a well known energetic vortex. By channeling feminine wisdom and spirituality, Garcia’s nude body serves as a bridge between terrestrial elements of the earthen ground and the cosmic qualities embodied in the beams of light radiating from the prisms. A hypnotic combination of video, light, performance, and sound healing in the artwork pull human consciousness towards the divine feminine, Garcia’s body behaving as the primary medium to usher a sense of cathartic release.’—Lisa Aubry
For the opening ceremony, there will be a performance that utilizes sound healing as an accompaniment to the video.
As part of the programming Garcia has invited two scholars: Miriam Robbins Dexter and Starr Goode, both pioneers in the field of Women’s Spirituality to perform a slide lecture. These lectures explore comparative linguistics, archeology, and mythology centered around the archetype of The Goddess. TEMPLO, a performance-based installation, will be on view and activated as part of The Performance Project from 4 – 17 March.
About Kathryn Garcia
Kathryn Garcia (b. Los Angeles, CA) lives and works between Los Angeles and the Mediterranean. Inspired by her spiritual practice and travels to ancient and sacred sites, Garcia works in a variety of media, including site-specific performance, video, sculpture, and drawing. Provocative and oftentimes interactive, her work engages with the Goddess Archetype as a means of reclaiming identity vis a vis the female body. Garcia’s bodies – her body, or the constructed bodies seen in her drawings, are created as vehicles for spiritual experience where the body becomes a sacred site. Her interactive works explore themes such as healing, mindfulness, participation, interconnectedness, and the experiential in art and are meant as offerings to the public. These offerings take place within immersive sculptures that the artist considers temples. Early on in her career, Garcia worked on international projects with Emi Fontana and Rirkrit Tiravanija, such as Women in the City (2008), Palm Pavilion (2008) and Asile Flottant (2010). Garcia’s work has been exhibited in the US and abroad, including The Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana; LAXART, Various Small Fires, 356 Mission, and Gavlak Gallery, all in Los Angeles; Pace Gallery, GBE, Participant, PS1-MOMA, all in NY; Ballroom Marfa, Texas; The Power Station, Dallas; Nina Johnson, Miami; Edel Assanti, Southard Reid, London; Embajada, Puerto Rico; Arredondo/Arozarena, Mexico City; and DESTE foundation, Greece.
