Sprout Hinge Nap Wobble
March 12 - May 14, 2022
Curated by Dylan Gauthier, Radhika Subramaniam, Marina Zurkow
Eating in Public/Gaye Chan + Nandita Sharma
Anna Rose Hopkins + Marina Zurkow
Del Hardin Hoyle
Sal Randolph with Anne Randolph
Talks, performances, and contributions by: Ron Broglio, Heather Davis, Matt Evans, Ellie Irons, David Richardson, Tanika I. Williams, Brett Gui Xin
Exhibition design: Universal Solvent Studios
Exhibition fellows: Caroline Galderisi, Luc Kellum
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 12, 5-8 pm
EFA Project Space presents Sprout Hinge Nap Wobble, a group exhibition that explores planetary relationalities at a time of planetary crisis. The vicious systems and willful actions that are responsible for today’s planetary catastrophe have spawned an attendant industry of planning—preparedness, scenario planning, emergency management—that directs itself to the future, to anticipation, to fear, to escape.
But what is happening here, now, within and between us as humans, entangled and intertwined with other planetary beings, all clinging to our globe, forcefully demonstrates that some futures are already being denied, other futures are unwelcome and many are actively being created on the backs of others.
Through a series of arrangements and encounters, Sprout Hinge Nap Wobble explores the material and metaphorical ways in which connections are possible in a climate of uncertainty—neither wholly optimistic nor utterly despairing, neither propelled by urgency nor foreclosed, but held within their vibrating tensions.
SHNW invites the public to inhabit ways of being that are soft, wild, caressing and off-kilter. We ask if and how we can prepare in the now—think with the emergent boldness of the sprout, with the casual yet crucial pivot of the hinge, with the sensual nonchalance of the nap—both as siesta and as the luxurious pile of a rug—and approach the world with a wobble—uncertain, intoxicated, unsteady and open. The artists in the show offer configurations for thought and action that slow us down, attune our ears to fluidity, share without conditions, and sit, live and love.
Eating in Public/Gaye Chan + Nandita Sharma’s plant free store, Take, Leave, Knoll* … *the act of arranging a group of objects parallel or perpendicular to each other (2022) invites visitors to a plant swap—to bring, take, exchange plants, seeds, and plant materials over the duration of the exhibition, thereby continuing their longstanding effort to nudge a little space outside state and capitalist systems. A live video feed, broadcast 24/7 on twitch.tv, relays the give and take to an extended audience.
Del Hardin Hoyle’s Fantasia (2022) is a flexible arrangement of furniture as sculpture that invites improvisatory recombinations. Together with images, plants and textiles, he sets the stage for a multi-modal performance of sound, light, color, and tactile forms.
Sal Randolph’s Slowing Time (2022) is a site-specific, anti-spectacular, “slow cinema” experience that brings the skies above EFA into visual dialogue with riparian environments.
Anna Rose Hopkins + Marina Zurkow’s Languish at the End of the Ocean (2022) is built around an immersive, audio theater piece that invites the audience to lose one’s human sense of self, dissolving boundaries and becoming more oceanic. It poses the question of what it might mean at this time to languish rather than flourish.
The exhibition’s identity and spatial program were designed by the curators and Universal Solvent Studios (U.S.S.), and revolve around an original work of generative art that incorporates works from all the artists in the show into an uncertain exhibition identity.
A catalog will be released at the close of the exhibition as part of the end_notes publication series.
Project Space will be open from 12 pm with durational performance by Anna Rose Hopkins, a plant swap by Eating in Public/Gaye Chan + Nandita Sharma, and a sound activation by Del Hardin Hoyle at 7 pm.
EVENTS
Wednesday, March 16-March 19th, 12-5 PM
Acts of Service: Anna Rose Hopkins
Thursday, March 24, 6-8 PM
Animal Revolution: Ron Broglio and Marina Zurkow
Tuesday, March 29, 3-4 PM
Weedy Talk: Ellie Irons in Conversation with Gaye Chan
Thursday, April 21, 6-7 PM
Performance: Matt Evans and Del Hardin Hoyle
Saturday, May 14, 1-2:30 PM
Atlantic Correspondence – Tanika I. Williams
Anna Rose Hopkins, Salt Table, 2022.
Hallway leading up to the gallery, checkered floor and red lighting. The right sign reads the exhibit name: SPROUT HINGE NAP WOBBLE as well as its open dates: March 12- May 12 2022 and EFA Project Space. On the ceiling there are black hanging letters.
Eating in Public Plant Swap Area by Gaye Chan and Nandita Sharma: the wall and 7 tables are painted a reddish-orange color while the photograph is facing a large set of windows. The tables have various seed packets that are in white and yellow paper slips while others are in plastic wrap.
Slowing Time: Installation by Sal Randolph, there are 10 wall hangings made of a translucent silky fabric, and a large black seating area shaped like a rectangle. On the seating area there is a soft pillowy structure that has an image of a building with a gray sky, above this is the same image projected onto the ceiling.
View of Sal Randolph’s Slowing Time on the right alongside Del Hardin Hoyle’s Fantasia on the left. Fantasia has an arrangement of colorful wooden furniture on wheels. The front facing object is box shaped with a hollow inside and four legs, inside the structure you can see a large leafy green plant in a hand knitted textile pot. Behind it to its right is a long and tall hollow rectangle with vinyl pink material, a braided flower band and a light at the very top.
View of Del Hardin Hoyle’s Fantasia looking on from the right corner of the room. Fantasia has an arrangement of colorful wooden furniture on wheels. The front facing object is box shaped with a hollow inside and four legs, inside the structure you can see a large leafy green plant in a hand knitted textile pot. Behind it to its right is a long and tall hollow rectangle with vinyl pink material, a braided flower band and a light at the very top. At the end of the gallery from this angle are bright open windows.
From Del Hardin Hoyle’s Fantasia is a series of 6 images in a row on the wall, lined between two thin wooden panels to create an open frame. In each image is a mockup of the wooden furniture that is larger in size in front on the floor. The images display a how-to of how to put the furniture together to become one larger piece. The smaller furniture in the wall images are model size and being put together from the perspective of the artist.
Side view of Marina Zurkow’s installation, Languish at the End of the Ocean, there is a soft yellow felt material lining the wall and floor, as well as green fuzzy furniture and a set of black bleachers. In the background there is a spotlight on a set of 7 drawings on the wall.
View of Languish at the End of the Ocean from the right wall, the chairs are more visible and there are neck pillows on each of them. In 3 blue bins in front of each chair are rocks from the beach, and on the wall are 3 silicon hangings. They are a cream color and somewhat pointy, in the shape of ovals. Looking onward from the inner corner of the room, you are facing the spa chairs.
Anna Rose Hopkins’ portion of Languish at the End of the Ocean from the perspective of someone who just entered the room. The walls are painted a dark blue and there is yellow blue and green lighting. On the right side is television playing a video of the ocean and 2 palms on either side. There are also a set of 3 chairs that simulate a spa experience.
Anna Rose Hopkins’ portion of Languish at the End of the Ocean with bright red lighting and fog on the left side of the image. On the right there is a flatscreen TV with blue waves and a figure in the middle, encapsulated in a black circle.
Slowing Time: Installation by Sal Randolph: in this image there is a flag that is a copy of the view that its part of. The fabric flag has printed brownish grayish midtown buildings and it is waving in the wind from an up close shot. You can see the flag pole and the rope that keeps it in place. The focus of this image is the flag while the building in the background is blurred.