Sunday, July 11, 2027 at 1:00 PM to Tuesday, August 22, 2028 at 1:00 PM
FOYER-LA, Los Angeles
FOYER-LA's current project, co-curated with Sarah Seelinger, A Project on Intuition, explores ways to tune in. Focusing on certain elemental components of how we get there- spiritual essence, interconnectedness, the dark and unknowable, our relationship to nature- the work presses at the edge of these gut feelings. Artists Jay Heikes, Noah Jackson, Simon Klein, Josh Kikr Nash, Liv Rahel Schwenk, Marisha Scott, and Lisa Ryan Smith accept intuitive knowledge as it is: unfinished, imperfect, elusive. There is an aspect of relinquishing control of the overall outcome. Whether this becomes a copasetic relationship or a humbling to materiality or an aspect of alchemy, the work morphs as if guided by something outside of oneself. Lisa Ryan Smith works in the dark with light sensitive materials without a camera. There is preparation: stage building, combining and “working” the chemical materials, checking conditions over time, then a final distillation and a single exposure- an unrepeatable moment- “matter, light and time made visible”. Smith describes her process as, “I am drawn to the tension between control and chance at the heart of this process. I choose the materials, the surface, the conditions. But the moment water meets paper, or solution meets film, something else takes over. The final image is always a negotiation between intention and forces I cannot fully predict or command.” Jay Heikes examines “themes of evolution and regeneration, stasis and corrosion, entropy and transformation.” Heikes allows the materials to become the content and often captures how different materials engage with each other, especially after a chemical change. In our correspondence, Heikes observes: “I always prefer intuitive ways of working but, in researching so many topics, I’m not sure what is influencing what at this point. Nothing seems to be linear and the spiritual always creeps in as a variable.” Heikes’ work, The Brown Note, is a series of five books made with oil and iodine on paper that emulate painting scores. The title is named after the fictional sonic frequency supposedly behind the shitting of one's pants. The books or maybe not books are open to a selection of spreads so that “the viewer gets the feel of an oscilloscope reading, flowing through the pages in a line.” He expresses, "I believe there is a point just beyond corrosion, one of complete alienation between human and material where there are things to be discovered but also the possibility of destruction.” Marisha Scott coined her art practice “Spiritual Liberation Tech”- “to engage and draw down entities unknown, unnamed, but desperately needed during these times”. Her practice is deeply informed by her heritage as both a multigenerational Black Los Angelina and a first-generation Jamaican American of East Indian descent, as well as an homage to her neighborhood of origin, Leimert Park. Scott researches, collects readily available materials from foraging walks and constructs real time altars. There is a before and after to each piece as well as a “moment”. After her performances, she feeds her pieces for months, even years. These “oozing assemblages" change over time and go through stages of desiccation. Her guiding principles are steeped in intuitive knowledge and a complex maze of interconnectedness- within her community and beyond. Simon Klein’s Prepared to Suspend Disbelief, involves the practice of dowsing, water divination, as an exercise in a desire to believe. Klein admits his disbeliefs yet he approaches his seeking/quest with the utmost curiosity. He expresses, “You must ask something of the rods in order for them to work." This conviction becomes the arena in which Klein generates work. The tin types with their reactive material have an element of time. His video recording of his search for water and his marking become a representation of this hopeful desire and its potential futility. Klein shares his writing on the work: “Dowsing is based on desire-You can only find what you want-Artifice as drugs-Craving the ability to make more-The more you know the less it works-Calcified knowledge over thinking-Water as images-Water as photography-Water as a piece of time-Water as inhospitable to life-Water as probability-Water as fleeting-There was no Water where I planted the flags-Pink flags-Emasculating the gesture of claiming…” Liv Rahel Schwenk’s practice begins with a task, an experiment, or a limitation, leading to algorithmic drawings, physically challenging performances, or site-specific video pieces. She draws with her body performing a series of gymnastic movements in an attempt to know and understand the space she is occupying and discovering. Schwenk asked her sister living in LA to record the corner space at FOYER-LA. Schwenk then projected the footage and moved within the layered two spaces: her studio in Struttgart, Germany and FOYER-LA. Utilizing existing architectural components, a window or a radiator as a base to move and respond to, Schwenk crawls, balances and traces her assembled space as renewed material. At times, there are two Livs moving and seeking within a seemingly compressed reconstructed combined space- a space of interconnectedness. Schwenk states, “I manipulate the frameworks of time and space in an attempt to learn something essential about the given space but also about my own limits.” Noah Jackson has a fascination for landscapes that feel simultaneously ancient and recently abandoned. His sculptures occupy an uncertain present. Jackson utilizes supports- modular shelving units as potential bases or plinths for hand built ceramic forms. The horizontal supports and tubular legs are clustered and zip tied, cabled together. These constructed co-dependencies transform seemingly basic utilitarian objects- often not oriented in their functional configuration with precariously balanced ceramic entities. Materials in Noah’s sculptures stop illustrating independence and ask us to admire them. Mass produced plastic units have materiality and form. “Most of the work comes from putting things together that feel like they shouldn't belong in the same timeline. Clay beside molded plastic. Steel beside wool. Industrial shelving supporting something that feels ceremonial. I'm interested in what happens when those materials stop functioning as symbols and instead begin to produce their own logic.” In A Project on Intuition, there continues to evolve a longing for presence, an occurrence of spirit, source- when one is observing oneself. Josh Kikr Nash engages in meditative practices with a focus on Tibetan Buddhist traditions, small-scale farming, and regenerative agriculture, alongside his studio work. Nash's Medicine Mandala began with a call from the garden, where he excitedly described his shrine as a "gift of an idea." Before the altar's components were even made- a small statue of Yutok made from clay harvested from a garden bed, dried flowers and herbs representing the four directions, and an offering bowl- he was already considering how the altar would be viewed: "hung lower on the wall with a natural rock where visitors could sit down and take a moment to engage with the altar space, be present with it." Nash reflects, "As a person, my life purpose is to refine my awareness to the point of being able to liberate it from narratives and misperceptions that cause suffering, and to instead cultivate the soil of understanding that grows love." Intuitive urges gather in circular patterns, folding back upon themselves, reaching further than we can trace or fully know. To stay with it, perhaps, is to remain present, humbled- to grasp some essence of freedom. Connie Walsh & Sarah Seelinger