Disturbed Awakening

9.7.19—12.10.19

A state of emergency.
A state of shock.
A state of being.

Disturbed Awakening is a group show curated by Nick Cave that explores three artists most personal and pressing issues. The ones that we wake up to each morning and push or pull our decision making regardless of how directly it is attached to the moment at hand.

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Katrin Schnabl, in collaboration with Anne Guitteau, GYRE (8’ x 8’ x 8’) 2018; post-consumer high density polyethylene (aka drycleaner bag), PVC.

GYRE is the amplification of the vortical structure that makes up plastic on a molecular level. This knitted environment provides a way of exploring this unique dimensional space through the sensory capacity of our bodies, and to open up conversations: about the materials themselves, about repurposing the plastic coverings that most often are intended to be immediately thrown away, about the invisibility of the environmental crisis of this disposable culture and these relationships to fashion as a reflection of deeper cultural shifts.

Photo: Grace Duval, *Shape of Now* Closing Exhibition, Evanston Art Center 2018

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Carley Brandau, Land of the ______ (dimensions variable) 2018; industrial felt, linen thread, wood.

Changing circumstances challenged my pre-existing realities. As a result, fear and shame emerged from the depths of my subconscious. The reality was always there, but I could not see it. With an accumulation of new knowledge and narratives, what I had previously accepted as truth was suddenly uprooted, as was my grasp on myself. As I extracted the old perception, I turned to language as a means for shedding and redefining this newly displaced truth. Through sculpture and language, I materialize the blockage that obstructed me from the place of fear and shame. I magnified and transformed it into a display: a physical, built structure whose scale requires confrontation. My process became about reconsidering what and for whom a word represents, the limits of language as communication, and the need for reparation. Legibility shifts throughout this work as I continue to struggle with confrontation.

This work is driven by two statements. One is by my family, white, who claims that race was not a factor in the 2016 election for them. The other is the idea that white supremacy was built by white people, and white people need to fix it. So my question is: How will white people challenge the structure, when so many of us can’t see that we’re white?

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Shihui Zhou, Human Intersubjectivity (12' x 10' x 8') 2018; found garments, fabric, grommets, steel rods.

An exploration of Human Intersubjectivity, Shihui Zhou collects and captures the status of people’s everyday life; connections made between multitudes of people and activities illustrated through the garments we wear and the forms we occupy throughout our journey and self-discovery. The curtain, clothes and the absence human forms instantly create discussions or even conflicts between the unborn and the born, private and public, interior and exterior, the past and memories, relationships and individuals. The whole dimension become a complex, monumental sphere, both familiar and mysterious, yet intriguing and touching.