There’s nothing like trying to wrestle with the current state of affairs…seeking some offering of relief while staying fluid- practicing non-attachment and finding connection with others. The work in FOYER-LA’s current project, yoking, explores places of interconnection- the act of joining- such as individuals, ideas, or groups. Whether that be a formal discussion- one dealing with gravity or suspension- inaccessibility to an interior- the interface of mechanics and the body- medicinal healing- illusionistic space. The project didn’t start with the body, yet the body is ever present. It began with ideas around impermanence as a way to circumnavigate current affairs. Impermanence moved into confluence after my son’s retelling of a surfing incident. There is an unpredictable and additive power when two bodies of water merge - an unusual confluence. In yoking, the project conjoins the work of seven women artists: Leslie Brack, Christine Elfman, Ellie Krakow, Sheng Lor, Sandra Peters, Dena Robertson, and Katrina Umber. The act of yoking creates fixidity and strength through its historical usages- the idea of work in unison, a body formed by the junction of two becoming one or more.
Leslie Brack’s intimate paintings of mundane quiet occurrences- ice cubes melting, water pooling at a surface edge- create temporary unions before flowing onward. The viewer has to slow down, get close to these isolated vignettes of time passing. Seemingly nothing, an empty glass plate, is holding nothing, a solid form of water dissolving. The holding of sameness yet also difference exposes a vulnerability filled with anticipation, dissipation, maybe even a sense of loss. Brack’s whisper of a domesticated space references human scale, yet the body is absent.
Similarly to Brack’s paintings, futility haunts Ellie Krakow’s work- apparatuses morph into bodies or bodies become appendages and dissolve into the implication of an object. Failed function is paired with gestures of vulnerability, bodily forms are bound with elements inspired by medical instruments and hospital architecture. Wet materials, like clay and gypsum, are stand-ins for the body- their weight mimics how gravity pulls on flesh. Ellie Krakow’s sculptures “inhabit a tender and strange space between flesh and technology, between the known and the sensed.”
Christine Elfman explores the liminal space of moving stillness, ambiguous clarity, and intentional chance in the unfixable image made through its own disappearance. She works with the photographic process called anthotype, which uses light-sensitive dyes harvested from plants as actinic material. The photographs, not fixed chemically, emphasize the temporality of all things. Elfman’s ephemeral, surreal work ignites our attention and relationship to time and impermanence. Her imagery depicts the body- its presence and its absence. There are inaccessible interiors- form or volume is implied, but at times these are formless, or in a state of transformation. Elfman reveals, “I make photographs that turn the subject inside out, that make this tension between holding on and letting go the explicit subject of the photograph.”
Sheng Lor’s sculptures and drawings arrive at an inversion, bringing the inside to the outside simultaneously re-constructing new interiors and volumetric presence. Her work draws from the histories and acts of fugitivity, especially those parts that are secret and silent. Lor, a textile artist, has been wrapping, “carefully cocooning” old looms, obfuscating their mechanism of production into resting objects that seem to idle in some in-between space. “Lor’s work proposes the withholding of skill and craft as a metaphor for resisting captivity in a world in which Asian, women, and immigrant labor remain largely invisible and exploited. Lor considers the act of creation as both a site of resistance and a form of survival.”
Sandra Peters’ work “focuses on architecture and urban space, aiming to achieve integration of and reciprocity between sensual, structural, and conceptual elements.” In yoking, Peters challenges the assumed aspects of a three-dimensional representation of a cube by utilizing soft, pliable material and hanging the work on the walls. The weight and malleability of the chosen fabric reposition our spatial understanding of the cube. Peters places zippers at the edges, allowing the cube to be opened and closed. The sculptures sit in a sensual space of alteration; deflated, skin-like layers seemingly discarded or available to inhabit. Sandra Peters reflects, “These environments are shared by people from diverse backgrounds, allowing for a common experience amidst varied sensibilities.”
Dena Robertson collages pieces of raw canvas together, which naturally fold, turn, and hang into abstract sculptural paintings. She describes this space as “the overlooked and the mundane tucked in the crevices where vulnerability lies.” When experiencing Robertson’s work like Peters’, the viewer becomes aware of themselves considering a two-dimensional wall piece and/or a three-dimensional sculpture. The work establishes a relationship to gravity and offered support. Robertson incorporates collected decomposing natural materials and combines them with contrasting bold colors to highlight the underground, the unseen. I find myself trying to adjust my focus and enter Dena Robertson’s paintings similarly as I wish to “put on” Sandra Peters’ zipped cubic forms.
In the project yoking, Katrina Umber exhibits her two practices: photographic work which weaves together personal timelines as a way to inscribe light and experience, and her Green Witchery practice; as a holistic and multi-dimensional healer tending to inner and outer landscapes from her abundant garden in Los Angeles. Umber’s art and healing work engage the alchemy of spirit, remembering Earth Magic and our intrinsic bonds. The Garden of Reclamation Drying Rack holds medicinal plants and herbs planned to be used in a participatory Sacred Grief Ritual Workshop.
The work in yoking folds in on one another, generating a layered interactive space; a space of confluency between exterior and interior, visible and non-visible. Through the act of yoking, forming temporary unions, the works of these women are finding a way to be steady within change. Caroline Strauss in Slow Spatial Reader, describes this regenerative entwining as, “The ‘spatial’ is never a discrete condition, nor is it ever neutral. It is always relational: woven within much larger systems, unfolding across multiple timeframes, and tied to lives beyond one’s own.”
