Exuviae
Curatorial Essay
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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(1) 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.”(2)
- 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.
Working with reclaimed fabrics and other found materials, Naomi Elson creates shells of bodies, garments that are dictated by the physical traits of someone whom we are only allowed to meet through their absence. These wearable sculptures are made of remnants of past works that have been deconstructed and reconstructed, a cyclical process that transforms fossils discarded by individuals into vessels for future potential embodiments. The layers of fabric and paint are modeled on a body that is not present in the gallery space, but of which the work retains the shape, the passage, a former presence of an identity which once filled the space in-between.
Similarly, Joshi Radin creates Records (2020) and Fragments (2020) of fossils that exist where intergenerational discourses converge. Radin’s research on issues of scale was originally inspired by images of the Earth viewed from space, which emerged around 1968, photographed during the Apollo 8 and Apollo 17 expeditions. A Litter of Baby Galaxies (2020) and Toxic Waste and Race (2020) question the ability of humans to comprehend the consequences of their actions beyond the contingency of present. Here, the scales of the body and the universe converge in an unbalanced relation, to the detriment of Earth.
Shifting away from the scale of the universe, Records (2020) is a series of mono-prints that look at the individual on a 1:1 scale. Reclaimed baby clothes record the absence of bodies that were once present, while also epitomizing unsolved future existences, threatened by present global crisis. Even when faced with ethical questions of intergenerational survival, individual attempts at shifting human behaviors in favor of the unborn seem inconsequential, as we find ourselves incapable of grasping the consequences of our own exuviae. With Fragments (2020), Radin brings the viewer even closer, concentrating the attention on partial and incomplete records that invite to take a deeper look into these imprinted instants.
Through their exuviae, Elson and Radin invite the viewer to an intimate conversation that resonates in all the dimensions of space. Presented with what remains, we can ask ourselves what could [be]come, bouncing back and forth between unresolved questions that continue to echo incessantly from the gallery walls, into empty spaces and inside our minds.
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.
Working with reclaimed fabrics and other found materials, Naomi Elson creates shells of bodies, garments that are dictated by the physical traits of someone whom we are only allowed to meet through their absence. These wearable sculptures are made of remnants of past works that have been deconstructed and reconstructed, a cyclical process that transforms fossils discarded by individuals into vessels for future potential embodiments. The layers of fabric and paint are modeled on a body that is not present in the gallery space, but of which the work retains the shape, the passage, a former presence of an identity which once filled the space in-between.
Similarly, Joshi Radin creates Records (2020) and Fragments (2020) of fossils that exist where intergenerational discourses converge. Radin’s research on issues of scale was originally inspired by images of the Earth viewed from space, which emerged around 1968, photographed during the Apollo 8 and Apollo 17 expeditions. A Litter of Baby Galaxies (2020) and Toxic Waste and Race (2020) question the ability of humans to comprehend the consequences of their actions beyond the contingency of present. Here, the scales of the body and the universe converge in an unbalanced relation, to the detriment of Earth.
Shifting away from the scale of the universe, Records (2020) is a series of mono-prints that look at the individual on a 1:1 scale. Reclaimed baby clothes record the absence of bodies that were once present, while also epitomizing unsolved future existences, threatened by present global crisis. Even when faced with ethical questions of intergenerational survival, individual attempts at shifting human behaviors in favor of the unborn seem inconsequential, as we find ourselves incapable of grasping the consequences of our own exuviae. With Fragments (2020), Radin brings the viewer even closer, concentrating the attention on partial and incomplete records that invite to take a deeper look into these imprinted instants.
Through their exuviae, Elson and Radin invite the viewer to an intimate conversation that resonates in all the dimensions of space. Presented with what remains, we can ask ourselves what could [be]come, bouncing back and forth between unresolved questions that continue to echo incessantly from the gallery walls, into empty spaces and inside our minds.
Notes
- The Latin word exuviae indicates “what is stripped from the body”. In biology, exuviae are the remains of a moulted exoskeleton, left behind by ecysozoans (including insects, crustaceans and arachnids).
- David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Rutledge, 2002.