Emergence

Here is a site-specific installation work I made for a transitional/conceptual exhibit at Moxie Dada gallery. The show opened Today Friday October 9, 2009. There will be a closing reception on November 8, 2009. This occasion closes not only the exhibit but the actual gallery, which is transitioning from an emerging gallery to.. an opened new beginning full of potential and possibilities? The theme hence revolved around the notion of death and resurrection, a kind of metamorphosis from one state to the next. I was contacted and invited to participate in this very special occasion which definitely appealed to me. The idea of an art gallery being conscious of itself, and creating a form of ritual to celebrate its own death, burial and rebirth was fascinating.

I started working with the concept and very quickly a visual form of this idea came to mind. I wanted to portray a metamorphosis, or emergence. I thought very literally of a cocoon or womb out of which life emerges. Here are some initial concept studies...

I wanted the new life to be vibrant, and so I imagined it as bright blue footprints coming out of a cocoon. To imply a new beginning, this vibrant blue life form would erupt from its old shell, leaving it behind like a shed skin, heading out the exit door.

I then decided that the shell wound not be a coccon but rather a seedpod, so to speak. Instead of bean-shaped I decided to make it spherical. Also, while originally I was going to use my own footprints, it became much more conducive to use my son's. This is the piece as it is now installed.

Today was also the Gala opening of the Irma Freeman Center for Imagination, on Penn Av. I was invited to participate in this as well, maybe since the focus of this first exhibit was in part the work of Irma Freeman herself, and in part the work of artists who work with salvaged, reclaimed and recycled materials. Interestingly enough I made a piece that is also related to emergence, and in fact I called it "Emergence of the POK Man" since it is made out of clay I collected from the Allegheny Cemetery, and depicts a gesturing shaman who has "emerged from the clay". It simbolizes a process by which inert and lifeless matter re-aquires life force, as energy cycles through stages of life and death.

While I will describe this piece in detail in my next post called "Art from scratch", I wanted to mention it here because I think it is interesting that the theme of emergence has come about recursively. Much like in the recent Goddess-themed pieces I made, this was not an intentional or particularly consciouss descicion, but the theme happenned to become predominant at the same time, in two separate works, in accordance to "random" (but really synchronous) external inputs. Looking back at it, it seems all the more interesting to me that the theme of "emergence" came imediately after the birthing-Goddess headspace I got myself into. This is as if first I was dealing with a motherly womb-like thought that grew and has now bloomed into a new life. It almost makes me wonder wether there might be a true form of rebirth happenning in me, in some metaphorical way; in one or another layer of my life. This is an exciting and intimidating thought. What exactly could be emerging in me/from me at this time?

I like to at least entertain the idea, and maybe, the idea itself will then nurture the seeds of a new emergence. Or maybe, this is nothing more than just another step.