Residual Marks / Exuviae
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Residual Marks is a dual exhibition curated by HATCH 2019-2020 residents Fabiola Tosi and Stephanie Koch. The exhibitions were presented on June 25th through August 5th, 2021 at Chicago Artists Coalition, under a shared conceptual framework of absence and emergence. What remains and what endures?
Residual Marks holds two duo exhibitions: Exuviae and Endurance and Emergence. Exuviae introduces new work by HATCH 2019-2020 artists-in-residence Naomi Elson and Joshi Radin, curated by Fabiola Tosi; Endurance and Emergence features new work by HATCH 2019-2020 artists-in-residence Julia Klein and Salim Moore, curated by Stephanie Koch. Challenging traditional exhibition formats, the two shows are presented to the viewer in separate gallery spaces, while representing a conceptual conversation. The two projects can be alternatively read as independently curated or as a whole, providing a fluid approach to the interpretative process.
Residual Marks holds two duo exhibitions: Exuviae and Endurance and Emergence. Exuviae introduces new work by HATCH 2019-2020 artists-in-residence Naomi Elson and Joshi Radin, curated by Fabiola Tosi; Endurance and Emergence features new work by HATCH 2019-2020 artists-in-residence Julia Klein and Salim Moore, curated by Stephanie Koch. Challenging traditional exhibition formats, the two shows are presented to the viewer in separate gallery spaces, while representing a conceptual conversation. The two projects can be alternatively read as independently curated or as a whole, providing a fluid approach to the interpretative process.
Exuviae is a balance of space and void, where physical presence and absence are equally represented by remnants of embodiments. The works of Joshi Radin and Naomi Elson are exuviae of bodies that conjure physicality through emptiness. What can we learn from discarded parts of ourselves? What does absence tell us about past, present and future? Radin and Elson embark on a journey of inner-excavation, searching for answers to often existential and ethical questions, among the fossils of what has been left behind. The two artists turn to the scale of the body in search of a deeper understanding of the self and its relation to the world at large, extending through time and space beyond the contingency of the present.
“Space is not empty. It is full, a plenum as opposed to a vacuum, and is the ground for the existence of everything, including ourselves. The universe is not separate from this cosmic sea of energy.”
- David Bohm
- David Bohm
Our perception of absence as emptiness is rooted in pre-quantum physics theories, postulating that there are no particles in empty spaces. However, what we consider as empty space is rather full of particles that jitter frantically in their own quantum, and therefore absence retains physical qualities of matter. Presence and absence are part of the same universe of cosmic energy. The emptiness in Radin and Elson’s work represents that physical quality of quantum space, retaining the essence of what came before and the potential of what may come after. Absence becomes the object of study, together with the remnants of bodies that are not here now, but left behind fossils of their presence.
The colors from fabrics and found materials in Elson’s installations encounter the dramatically dark tones of Radin’s prints, creating the effect of a two-voices conversation happening in the gallery space. The tension between bi-dimensional and tridimensional objects speaks to the multiple dimensionalities of time and space, in an exhibition that analyzes the individual without visual representations of human bodies.
Read the full curatorial essay.
The colors from fabrics and found materials in Elson’s installations encounter the dramatically dark tones of Radin’s prints, creating the effect of a two-voices conversation happening in the gallery space. The tension between bi-dimensional and tridimensional objects speaks to the multiple dimensionalities of time and space, in an exhibition that analyzes the individual without visual representations of human bodies.
Read the full curatorial essay.