Edward Cella Art & Architecture presents Vernacular Environments, Part 3, the third of an annual exhibition that explores a diversity of tensions between the figure and the environment and asks, what pluralities do we live in? Through varied typologies, the works included in this exhibition are focused on the body and mind in relationship to design, technology, and architecture. The exhibition features works by David Alekhougie, Allan Bennetts, Daniel Cummings, Kirsten Deirup, Adriene Jenik, Erik Hanson, Shannon Lucy, Constance Mallinson, Thomas McDonnell, Syd Mead, and Wendy Red Star. The exhibition is co-curated by artist Michael St. John and gallery director David De Boer. To highlight the human experience as it relates immersive learning experiments, artist Adriene Jenik will create performances reading “climate futures” with her ECO tarot deck.
The artistic representation of a person where the face and expression is predominant is known by all accounts to be called a portrait. This is not just a snapshot but rather, a composed image of a person. Since the dawn of Western art making, portraiture has used various systems and different artistic conventions; but, generally speaking, over the past two millenniums, the best artists were selected to make portraits of people in power. In the 20th Century, artists have shifted this notion considerably; and perhaps none more than Marcel Duchamp who created his own likeness repeatedly in a variety of methods and materials including torn paper. Creating the image of another in relationship to the tense social conditions that has greatly impacted our relationship to each other and the world we live in.
Within this context, it is important to consider the psychological state we are in when looking at a portrait. Does the portrait project new thoughts onto me? Do any of those thoughts have anything to do with the portrait I am looking at? Is the portrait a representation of person or an experience that has a relationship to the world? In the pseudo-anthropological film The Perfect Human (1967), Jørgen Leth categorizes his subjects by recording the disconnected social experience they are having with each other. And though we see a beautiful man and woman dressing, undressing, dining, crying, and in bed with one another, their isolation quickly reveals their heartache. Through this psychological shift, an enduring space is built which creates participants and identifies them. However, rather than that being the point of the work in this exhibition, and merely identifying how artists portray figures, they shift perspectives to undermine ideological struggles with society. It is from this perspective that the exhibition unfolds.
PUBLIC EXHIBITION PROGRAM:
Adriene Jenik: Your EcoFuture
Saturday, July 13, 2019 | 11:30 – 2:30 P.M.
Artist Adriene Jenik offers to read your climate future utilizing her original ECOtarot cards. A limited number of readings are offered and must be reserved in advance. The sessions will be preformed in the gallery and the public is welcome to watch the proceedings.
Readings are limited, please reserve by calling 323.525.0053, or email associate@edwardcella.com
