sleepwalker at paul kotula projects
Paul Kotula Projects presents Sleepwalker which recognizes the omnipresence of trauma and loss in America and the ambiguous consciousness of its reality. It brings together visual and sound artworks by seven American artists to affect emotional and intellectual responses to the preciousness of life and the varied extents of loss, human and otherwise, and/or their potential cause. It does this without specificity to any singular event.
This sculpture describes the burden of trauma and the body’s attempt at psychological as well as physical reparations. The piece could still be wet as it appears to be folding and pulling away from itself. The absence of color pronounces deeply shadowed creases and nooks in the heavily textured material.
Peter Williams explores violence with a dimensional single gunshot in a stippled, vivid palette. He poses questions regarding ownership of the shot as well as the implication that incarceration is just as murderous as caged humanity is persistently and methodically crushed.
Cynthia Greig continues to take photography to new levels of ingenuity and intrigue. In this portrait series she records human breath on a flatbed scanner. These otherworldly images capture life like a warm exhale on a winter window.
Reading like a lugubrious Hawaiian lei, this ribboned adornment, placed alone in the smallest room of the gallery, commands mindful reverence. The word ‘aloha’ means the presence of the breath. It also represents a force that holds together existence as well as love, affection, peace, compassion and mercy. Mourners wear their loss around their necks and hearts until it lifts into memory.
Both yoga and meditation use the breath as a point of focus to simultaneously calm the body and the mind. An angry kid might attempt to hold their breath in defiance. One might be so overwhelmed they have their breath ‘taken away’. This exhibition goes under the surface of the social challenges that were brought to the fore during the pandemic to render the soul’s torment visible. One can be breathing but not truly be alive.
Sleepwalker features work by Rebecca Casement, Cynthia Greig, Tony Helpburn, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Karyn Oliver, Peter Williams and Anne Wilson.
On view through December 10th at Paul Kotula Projects 23255 Woodward Ave, Ferndale
*images courtesy of Paul Kotula Projects unless otherwise noted
direct quote from gallery materials
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