Space 151 Gallery, SF, CA
Opening September 13, 2018

EXHIBITION

Moving through six installations, visitors are invited to pause, think and experience how we deal with our ‘self’ and ‘others’.

ORIGINS attempts to reconcile the existential paradox we face, occasionally or often, through humour. We are more connected than ever, but ever so lonely. Our most profound human desire is still to be known and to be loved. Particularly in the age of individualization, the age of simulated instagrammable lives, we seem to endlessly ask “I am here, do you hear me?”

This singular production begins with visual and auditory installations. In this initial Echoing Chamber Of Nothingness, various natural elements (soil, water, air) are brought to the forefront of the experience focusing on the non-anthropocentric perspective of life’s origins. Nature helps re-contextualize human insignificance: we are nothing more than biological cells. Two videos also fill the space introducing time as a cyclical and infinite measure. An interactive piece shows ghostly silhouettes fading away, akin to the notion that we all share one destiny: we are born, we die, and it begins again.

It is this continuum that guides the visitors through the rest of their immersive and participatory experience. People are asked to contribute to Mindless Chatter, sharing dreadful thoughts that occupy our conscious minds. Visitors enter Primal Catastrophe, a singular immersive experience plunging individuals in absolute pitch darkness for a moment of personal introspection. Facing ourselves, alone, in total visual deprivation is a rare and unique moment in the modern lives we live.

ORIGINS is an experiential exhibit featuring a collection of installation art built and produced by the art tank and collective, THINK MAKE TANK, its core members Alex Nichols, Magali Charmot, Mushi Wooseong James, resident artist Susann Volzer with contributing artist Kevin Corcoran and participant Amir Hossein Arabkheradmand.