*the three following works were exhibited as part of a virtual exhibition, endlessly, hosted by kiarascura gallery. view the rest of the show, including artworks by Kesiah Manival, Andrea Barnes, Benni Quintero, and Kiki Green online at KIARASCURA.COM
(1)1
steven chen x Liamtime tightening over bundled selves (janus)
1 x 2.4 in
cat tears on q-tips, catnip oil, glycerin soap, 99% isopropyl alcohol
over the span of a week, steven chen (human) collected Liam’s (cat) tears with q-tips each time they shed. as the liquid dried, it left behind a rust-colored residue / stain. In time tightening over bundled selves (janus), the q-tips arrange in a noncuple helix delicately or crudely encased in glycerin soap (an ice-like, liquid-like elsewhere). the formal result references some diagram of causal structure in minkowski spacetime (see fig. 1.1), in which the light cones emanating from the (present) self express the range of the observer’s potential spatial occupations in the past (downward) or the future (upward). the work’s title refers to the schematized observer as a bundle of selves, rather than a single self, that observes towards either temporal direction from the vantage of the present. thus, the compression of possibility occurred onto the (present) self figures as a sort of tightening at the edge of collapse.
“this morning I fell through layers of time until it caught me, reddened, hotted up, became dense enough to slow me down, decided to slow me down. Or you might say it tightened.”
“this morning I fell through layers of time until it caught me, reddened, hotted up, became dense enough to slow me down, decided to slow me down. Or you might say it tightened.”
—harry dodge, my meteorite
didactic:![]()
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(2)2
steven chen x Liamlife (death)
2 x 7 in
cat feces, cat litter, glue, grape bunchstem
(3)3
steven chen x Liamohioan tectonics (stacked)
3 x 3 in.
clay cat litter with febreze scent, glue
in conceiving ohioan tectonics (stacked), chen reimagines the state of ohio, their birthplace, as a bordered fragment of the lithosphere. they make the original sculpture by kneading cat litter medium into the shape of ohio, then leaving it to dry into a crust. after the sculpture has “cured,” chen (human) proceeds to hold Liam (cat) above the sculpture, from a height of approximately 2 ft, and drops her. Liam lands on the sculpture, and ideally causes a network of tectonic fissures to spread throughout its crust, along which fragments are derived and then reconvened in a bitter attempt at restoration. in the sculpture’s final iteration, the fragments stack in a way that reminds of neolithic monuments, the fauvist totems of Ugo Rondinone, cairns.
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(3.3)︎ steven chen x Liam
/august 2020
/august 2020