Casey Kaplan is pleased to present “Where the threads are worn,” a group exhibition featuring work by twenty-five artists: Igshaan Adams, Yuji Agematsu, Francis Alÿs, Romare Bearden, Kevin Beasley, Louise Bourgeois, Jordan Casteel, Rachelle Dang, N. Dash, Jason Dodge, Haris Epaminonda, Sacha Ingber, Brian Jungen, Caroline Kent, Cindy Ji Hye Kim, Hannah Levy, Mateo López, Tammy Nguyen, Diego Perrone, Mariana Garibay Raeke, Loïc Raguénès, Simon Starling, Diamond Stingily, Johanna Unzueta, and Ella Walker.
“Where the threads are worn” aims to define a beloved, yet unceremonious place by exploring the promise of safe entry within a physical or immaterial setting. To render “home,” the artists in the exhibition consider the experience of self-location, often an elusive pursuit. To truly understand, they must reflect on what is felt and cannot be seen, nor identified. As Igshaan Adams articulates after examining a friend’s aged prayer rug – “Look, there’s where the threads are worn through… A recording of the imprint of his body over all those years, acting on its surface, leaving its mark. This imprint might even outlast the person.” Within its perimeter, a physical home bears witness to familial dwelling, silently recording actions from birth through adulthood. Even still, memory and illusion inevitably bend the fabric of those walls and reveal shadows in their wake.
Spanning photography, sculpture, painting, video, and employing disparate media such as woven beads, daily city residue, worn clothing, animal hide, hair, oil paint, adobe, and silicone, the works in the exhibition share stories of belonging, loss, and renewal, giving form to cultural memory and bringing to life raw and honest experience. Caroline Kent’s stretched canvases convey the abstractness of language, evoking the sensation of both something intimate and foreign. Where language fails, images arise and ultimately serve as an immaterial conduit for a physical place. Rachelle Dang’s installation, “House on Cannonball Street,” fuses personal childhood memories in Honolulu, HI with violent histories of ecological imperialism. A felled tree trunk, based on the cannonball tree, is shown alongside a botanical carrier used by colonialists to transport pillaged samplings for study, illustrating “a continuum of displacement” through the lifespan of a single, harvest seed.
“Home” is not an offer of permanence, but rather a changing landscape that evolves within the scope of personal and collective experience. Within “zip: 09.01.18 . . . 09.30.18,” Yuji Agematsu takes part in a ritualistic gathering of litter in an attempt to both document the daily machinations of New York City and to celebrate the intimate stories that permeate these discarded items. As time flexes, the inhabitants change too. Mariana Garibay Raeke’s painting of a torso depicts a body contorted under the weight of human experience. In her work, the body is a place of dwelling and a carrier of memory, serving as the epicenter for physical and intangible transformation.
A small 1985 oil and charcoal composition by Louise Bourgeois reveals a modest, sloped home; its simplicity is defined by its lack of windows and desolate setting. Perhaps in reference to the artist’s turbulent adolescence between the two World Wars, Bourgeois’ house appears as if it is floating away in an undercurrent of rough waters. In searching for this illusory place of home, the path turns inward, and maybe we, ourselves, are what we have been looking for all along.
“Where the threads are worn” is organized by Emily Epelbaum-Bush, Veronica Levitt, and Rosie Motley
Installation view: Where the threads are worn, Casey Kaplan, New York. March 18 - April 24, 2021.
Installation view: Where the threads are worn, Casey Kaplan, New York. March 18 - April 24, 2021.
Installation view: Where the threads are worn, Casey Kaplan, New York. March 18 - April 24, 2021.
Installation view: Where the threads are worn, Casey Kaplan, New York. March 18 - April 24, 2021.
Installation view: Where the threads are worn, Casey Kaplan, New York. March 18 - April 24, 2021.
Installation view: Where the threads are worn, Casey Kaplan, New York. March 18 - April 24, 2021.
Installation view: Where the threads are worn, Casey Kaplan, New York. March 18 - April 24, 2021.
Installation view: Where the threads are worn, Casey Kaplan, New York. March 18 - April 24, 2021.
Installation view: Where the threads are worn, Casey Kaplan, New York. March 18 - April 24, 2021.
Installation view: Where the threads are worn, Casey Kaplan, New York. March 18 - April 24, 2021.
Installation view: Where the threads are worn, Casey Kaplan, New York. March 18 - April 24, 2021.
Installation view: Where the threads are worn, Casey Kaplan, New York. March 18 - April 24, 2021.
Installation view: Where the threads are worn, Casey Kaplan, New York. March 18 - April 24, 2021.
Hannah Levy, Untitled
2021
Nickel-plated steel, silicone
25.25 x 30.25 x 25''/ 64.13 x 76.83 x 63.5cm
Loïc Raguénès, Demi-jour teint
2017
Tempera on wood
27.75 x 34.25'' / 70.5 x 87cm
Haris Epaminonda, Untitled #275
2008/2009
Polaroid
4 x 4'' / 10.3 x 10.2cm Framed: 22.8 x 18.1'' / 58 x 46cm
Haris Epaminonda, Untitled #384
2008/2009
Polaroid
4 x 4'' / 10.3 x 10.2cm Framed: 22.8 x 18.1'' / 58 x 46cm
Igshaan Adams, By Die Venster In (In through the window)
2020
Sea shells, seeds, glass beads, wooden beads, stones, cotton twine, wire
101 x 73.5'' / 256.54 x 186.69cm
Simon Starling, Project for a Rift Valley Crossing A canoe built with magnesium extracted from Dead Sea water and used on the 30th of November 2016 in an attempted crossing of the Dead Sea from Israel to Jordan,
2015-2017
4k digital video
Projected dimensions variable: 18 min 38 sec
Kevin Beasley, Knees
2020
Trousers, resin
14.9 x 20 x 14'' / 38 x 53 x 36cm
Diego Perrone, I Pensatori di Buchi
2002
Lambda print
49.5 x 59'' / 126 x 149.57cm
Yuji Agematsu, zip: 09.01.18 . . . 09.30.18, 2018
2018
Mixed media in cigarette pack cellophane wrappers (30 units) on wood backed acrylic shelf, latex paint
Wrappers, each approx.: 2.5 x 2.125 x 1'' / 6.3 x 5.3 x 2.5cm Shelving unit: 31.75 x 34.25 x 5.25'' / 80.6 x 87 x 13.3 cm
N. Dash, Untitled
2020
Adobe, acrylic, string, graphite, jute, plaster
94.06 x 27 x 3'' / 238.91 x 68.58 x 7.62
Romare Bearden, Untitled (The Family)
circa 1969
Mixed media collage of various papers and fabric on board
Board size: 17.3125 x 14''/ 43.97 x 35.56cm Framed: 24.25 x 21''/ 61.6 x 53.34cm
Sacha Ingber, pink mold, total silence
2021
pink mold, total silence
87 x 33 x 33.5''/ 220.98 x 83.82 x 85.09cm
Ella Walker, Justine
2021
Acrylic on canvas, powder-coated aluminum
Canvas: 89 x 39.25 x 5.25'' / 226.06 x 99.7 x 13.33cm Installed: 89 x 45.25 x 5.25'' / 226.06 x 114.94 x 13.33cm
Ella Walker, Shall the whole world vanish so soon
2021
Acrylic on canvas, powder-coated aluminum
Canvas: 89 x 39.25 x 5.25''/ 226.06 x 99.7 x 13.33cm Installed: 89 x 45.25 x 5.25'' / 226.06 x 114.94 x 13.33cm
Mariana Garibay Raeke, Outline for a landscape
2021
Acrylic on wood panel
20 x 16''/ 50.8 x 40.64cm
Mariana Garibay Raeke, When the day bends
2021
Hemp, lime, plaster, pigment, steel
17.75 x 14.25 x 15'' / 45.09 x 36.2 x 38.1cm
Francis Alÿs, Untitled
1997
Mixed media on tracing paper
Paper size: 8.25 x 12'' / 21 x 30cm Framed: 12.5 x 15.25'' / 31.75 x 38.73cm
Jordan Casteel, Jordan
2020
Oil on canvas
90 x 78''/ 228.6 x 198.12cm
Tammy Nguyen, It was a changing breathing organism, No. 3
2021
Woodblock print with collage on paper
Paper size: 25 x 15.25'' / 63.5 x 38.74cm Framed: 27.75 x 18'' / 70.49 x 45.72cm
Tammy Nguyen, Three million tons of explosives were dropped
2021
Watercolor, vinyl paint, and metal leaf on paper stretched over wood panels
30 x 24''/ 76.2 x 60.96cm
Tammy Nguyen, It was a changing breathing organism, No. 1
2021
Woodblock print with collage on paper
Paper size: 25 x 15.25''/ 63.5 x 38.74cm Framed: 27.75 x 18'' / 70.49 x 45.72cm
Cindy Ji Hye Kim, Oedipus to Hamlet
2021
Graphite, charcoal, pastel, ink, acrylic, oil on canvas
68 x 50'' / 172.72 x 127cm
Brian Jungen, A Note for Meret
2011
Timber wolf, red fox, Navajo-Churro wool
150 x 20 x 19'' / 381 x 50.8 x 48.3cm
Jason Dodge, American light carrier.
Rachelle Dang, House on Cannonball Street
2020
Wood, glass, metal, air-dried clay, epoxy resin, foam, polyurethane paint
39 x 54 x 30'' / 99.06 x 137.16 x 76.2cm
Rachelle Dang, Cannonball Tree
2020
Epoxy resin, air-dried clay, foam, wire mesh, polyurethane paint
28 x 60 x 20'' / 71.12 x 152.4 x 50.8cm
Caroline Kent, She had this way about her words
2021
Acrylic on canvas
50 x 30'' / 127 x 76.2cm
Caroline Kent, Some words hang in the air, but the air is where?
2021
Acrylic on canvas
50 x 30'' / 127 x 76.2cm
Mateo López, I am Sitting in a Room
2017
Wood, brass hinges
39 x 25.25 x 45.5'' / 99.06 x 64.14 x 115.57cm
Diamond Stingily, Witness to Equanimity
2021
Framed archival pigment print
8 x 6'' / 20.32 x 15.24cm Framed: 8.75 x 6.75'' / 22.22 x 17.14cm
Johanna Unzueta, 2016 NY
2016
Pastel pencils, charcoal pencils, onion extracts, and needle holes on watercolor paper
Paper Size: 12.5 x 12.5'' / 32 x 32cm each Framed: 16 x 16'' / 40.64 x 40.64cm each
Johanna Unzueta, June NY, September Berlin 2018
2018
Pastel pencils, charcoal, watercolor gold, needle holes on indigo and fustic hand-dyed watercolor paper
44 x 21 x 7.5'' / 112 x 54 x 19.05cm
WHERE THE THREADS ARE WORN
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