Echoes of the Self Resonates at Durden and Ray – Genie Davis
Echoes of the Self: Contemporary Explorations in Self-Representation is an exciting, even revolutionary exhibition currently on tap at Durden and Ray. Curated by Valerie Wilcox and Jenny Hager, who each have lovely pieces in the show, the full artist roster also includes
Nina Alvarez, Nicole T. Belle, Rory Devine, Ayin Es, Mark Steven Greenfield, Nichol Marsch, Randi Matushevitz, Dakota Noot, Mei Xian Qiu, Vojislav Radovanović, Jennifer Strings, Chidi Ukwuoma, and Eden Yono.
Working in wide range of mediums from stunning stand-up paper dolls to wildly creative mixed media video, paintings, drawings, and sculpture, the artists present an array of talent as vastly diverse as their visions of self.
Curators Wilcox and Hager describe the show as representing “contemporary human experience through modes of self-representation and the intersection of personal narratives.” As important and weighty as that description may be, and as potent as the issues the show addresses are, from mental health to identity and gender politics, don’t be fooled. The show is also pure fun, inventive, and beautiful art, and a necessary and sharp commentary on our personal lives and the world in which we live.
Roughly based on the conceptions of self-portraiture, the exhibition swells beyond that, creating the kind of narrative that engages the senses and feelings of viewers, inviting us into the hearts and minds of others as well as encouraging us to examine our own.
There are also nods to the significance of digital technology in our lives, and how it both melds and divides us, and shapes our own perceptions. We may be looking at a world, and an inner self, that is shaped by social and digital interactions – frankly, such as this one.
But this is an exhibition you truly must take in live: there are so many moving parts, both emotionally and literally, from the fascinating video work presented within a 60s era television cabinet to the motion blurred twirl of a hanging sculpture, these works reach out to the viewer, begging an immediate sense of reaction and illuminating the soul and spirit of each depicted identity.
It would be hard to ignore the absolute standout that is Jennifer Strings’ “The Doll Chronicles-Welcome to the Doll Realm,” a mixed-media stop-motion and animation 12-minutes video featuring a variety of ball joined dolls created by artists Elizaveta Fastovets/ Holy.a.Nora; Dolls/ Eli Effenberger, Marmite Sue/ Doll Menagerie with mohair doll wigs by Anna Zolotuhina. Such a wild, imaginative, deeply involving ride this work is. Shaun Sisco provided Strings’ retro cabinet and television.
On the shelf below the television cabinet, Strings has included props from the video work that give the viewer insight into the complex thoroughly alive project she has created. So, what does it all mean? For this viewer, it was about entering a realm in which we see the real as surreal yet recognizable, delightful yet incongruent, fascinatingly detailed and immediately familiar. In short, these are dolls, and they could be you.
Randi Matushevitz, “Psychedelic Journey 1” is a very different sort of video, a painting of the artist’s that morphs and changes from its interface with video, creating a highly mutable, strangely transcendent view of shifting self, and redolent with the sense that life is always shifting, even if it is imperceptible to the naked eye until the passage of time and thought reveals it.
Nina Alvarez’ video, “The Honesty Protocol,” is also riven by change, presenting shifts both subtle and exhilarating.
Dakota Noot’s “Children of the Corn-fed,” are wonderful, richly poignant stand-up “paper dolls” made from colored pencil, crayon, and marker drawings on paper and foam core. Reaching up to 66” in height, the work charms and reimagines self. We are where we came from, growing up with kernels of self-perception and wisdom, as well as distortions and fears (yes, pun intended). But we are more than that. We can change, grow, represent ourselves and the world we came from while reimagining it. These are as delightful as they look, an entire living diorama of perception.
Vojislav Radovanović’s gorgeous, delicate hanging sculpture, “Everyday Balancing Acts,” is delicate and ethereal, constructed from found gloves, wooden sticks, branches, expanding foam, bungee cords, metal hooks, and acrylic on wood. It is a painted mobile that evokes something spiritual, the balancing act we perform by simply existing in a complicated world, always shifting to meet the moment and the winds of change.
Co-curator Jenny Hager’s lustrous and enveloping “Embonpoints,” an acrylic on canvas, is aglow with color, line, and a dream-like sense of possibility; her curatorial partner, Valerie Wilcox, offers an incredibly rich, dimensional wall sculpture made from acrylic, foam board, and plaster.
The pale pink and soft teale blue of “It’s Good to be Seen” evokes gender identities and the hidden gaze. Who are we looking at? And who might we be if we looked within. Wilcox notes that the piece is about invisibility, the effort to be seen, and the feeling of being unseen.
Conceptualizing her vision about self was a curatorial idea that Wilcox was long passionate about for a show. The result is an exhibition that offers lustrous diversity and seamlessly “unseen” curation from the curatorial team.
Nichol Marsch’s “Self Portrait 29 (Broken),” is a different sort of wall sculpture constructed of stuffed nylon pantyhose, with thread, hair, wire, eyeshadow, and nail polish. This bisected body is a puzzle we have constructed for ourselves; the gaps between body parts may be interpreted as the soul, or what society has removed away from us.
Ayin Es’s oil on canvas, “Sucker” gives us a weeping human with blackened eyes. It is a dark night of the soul personified with grace; Mark Steven Greenfield’s pen and ink drawing is a complex, interwoven tapestry, a “Selfie” indeed.
Each of six colored pencil drawings by Eden Yono, “Iniaon/Clone/Right of Femme” feel poignant, entirely askew, yet alive.
Nicole Belle’s ink jet print “Untitled (with ball of yarn)” startles with its alien-invasion-like black ball of yarn emanating from the model’s nostrils; Jennifer Strings presents a piece quite different from her stop-motion animation, a ballpoint pen on Bristol self-portrait, also “Untitled;” while Rory Devine takes us into the comic realm with his untitled “Self-portrait as Towlie, ” with bloodshot eyes and wistful gaze.
Also impactful: Mei Xian Qiu, “Selfie Friends,” a photographic installation depicting many moods and locations; and Chidi Ukwuoma’s “Liminal Space,” is richly onyx colored Earthenware clay with ceramic glaze, a bold eclipse of a sculpture. That latter work is brilliantly different from each perspective in which it is viewed.
This is a provocative showcase that asks the viewer to enjoy, connect, and consider their own nature while experiencing these artists’ own.
The closing reception is from 5 to 7 p.m. next Saturday, November 22nd. Don’t miss exploring.
Durden and Ray is located at 1206 Maple Ave. in DTLA in the Bendix Building, Suite 832.
- Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis and by Valerie Wilcox
