THE BEINGS I LOVE ARE CREATURES
Opening MARCH 11th, 2011 7PM
WORK presents Caleb Nussear and Leina Bocar’s The Beings I love are creatures, an exhibition showcasing artists whose practices reconcile certain finite things such as the human body, memory, and loss within the greater objective framework of vulnerability and chance.
The exhibition title is taken from writings of religious philosopher Simone Weil. Working in France during the World War II years Weil developed a brand of mysticism centered on physical abnegation and spiritual austerity. Within the extreme economy of her means, however, is a deep ecstatic undercurrent that ties together fragility and permanence – to the effect of positing chance as a window on the infinite. The collection of work in this show is firmly rooted in the order of finite things, their value a product of their meeting, which lasts throughout the meeting, and ceases when those things that have been associated together are separated.
In The Beings I love are creatures the range of work presented encompasses video, sculpture, and photography, as well as traditionally non-art items such as poems, laundry lists, dirty snippets, and chance found objects – revolving around the diminutive philosopher Simone Weil and her solitary, ecstatic doctrine – that are spatially choreographed across the four gallery walls.
In reference to Weil, the female figure and the spontaneous impulse toward play are highlighted in Leina Bocar’s videos, whereas in the texts of Carter Goodwin circumspection competes with assertiveness as he brings wit sharply to bear on his extensive memory. Caleb Nussear develops semiotic arrays from found, non-functional objects, whereas Faten Kanaan utilizes a personal, comparative mythology to approach issues of cultural identity, spirituality, and man’s relationship with nature.
