Installation view
American Medium
July 12 - August 18, 2018
Exo Womb
Animatronic figure, resin, latex, plastic, mineral oil, rope, human hair, stainless steel
Chatelaine 2
Resin
American Medium
ChatelaineResinAmerican Medium
Formally, the piece is cast resin, made from a relief we created with a combination of sculpted clay, ready-made objects, and 3D-printed figures. Each figure represents women (and to some degree, fertility) during different stages of history: Venus of Willendorf (the first figurative sculpture, made in 28,000 BCE, located in the Natural History Museum in Vienna), a medieval (14th century) alabaster Virgin and Child sculpture located in the British Museum, Henry Moore’s life-size Mother and Child sculpture, and a computer-generated avatar to be used for video games and animation. 3D printing allows us to make exact replicas of these works, but in a completely different scale and material (they are all 3 inches tall).
This impetus for this piece is the chatelaine, a piece of jewelry worn by wealthy “women of the house” in the 17th century. It was worn pinned to a skirt, and had chains attached to keys (that would unlock pantries, cupboards, rooms, safes, etc.), and other useful tools like thimbles and coin purses. Only one woman in a household would have the right to carry the chatelaine—the oldest married woman of the house. To emulate this power, younger girls would wear decorative versions with useless charms—not unlike how young girls now have play kitchens or toy purses to emulate their mothers. We’re interested in the chatelaine as a symbol of both status/power and burden/responsibility. Though it connoted enviable privilege, it was ultimately a tool for unpaid domestic labor.
Exo Womb
Animatronic figure, resin, latex, plastic, mineral oil, rope, human hair, stainless steel
American Medium
A women’s womb is also a great privilege and a heavy burden. Generally, we’re interested in how technology and medical science is changing the way we see, inhabit, and reproduce the human body, from a feminist perspective. This piece was inspired by a video we saw of an experiment involving an artificial womb that carried a lamb fetus to full term. The scientists behind the experiment are looking for a way to allow severely prematurely born babies to continue to develop outside of their mother’s body. But we’re excited by the idea that reproduction could (and will) be possible completely independently of the body, of women’s body’s specifically, and of sex. The practical implications of this kind of breakthrough are clear—it would allow infertile women, as well as male couples, to have children, as well as women who don’t want to use their own bodies for labor. But the larger implications are more complicated… While many consider pregnancy a gift, it also requires huge sacrifices on behalf of women’s bodies, their health, their careers, their domestic lives. How will reproductive technology change societal gender roles and expectations surrounding motherhood? Might (some) women see this as liberation from the burden of continuing the human race? Might these technologies also be adopted for unethical ends and how will the potential for “designer” babies direct a newly accelerated artificial evolution? As our bodies become increasingly inseparable from technology, how will the boundaries between “natural” and “artificial” become complicated?
Chatelaine
Aqua resin, fiberglass
315 Gallery
No Species
Resin, silicon, human hair, plastic
Allyssa Davis Gallery organized by inparadi.se
Edits
Pretty Days and Bas Fisher Invitational co-curated by Anna Frost
Montgomery Bontanical Center
Miami, FL
November 2017
Elephantax™
UV print on handmade paper (pulped New York Times, copper foil, Dr. Bronner's soap label, Every Day Detox Tea, RAW rolling papers, antiaging serum, milk thistle root, rose petals, magnesium chloride bath salts, Electrolyte Plus+ powder, bee pollen).
2017
Saharant™
UV print on handmade paper (pulped Wall Street Journal, copper foil, sunscreen, incense wrapper, price tag, RAW rolling paper, magnesium chloride bath salts, dandelion root, chrysanthemum buds).
2017
Edits.
Silicon, human hair, wire, Silver Brunia, Sorghum, Pampas Grass, Bunny Tails Grass, cinder blocks.
2017
Edits
Pretty Days and Bas Fisher Invitational co-curated by Anna Frost
Montgomery Botanical Center
Miami, FL
November 2017
Edits imagines the breakdown of barriers between species as a means of surviving climate change and enduring space travel. Speculative pharmaceutical advertisements are UV-printed on handmade paper imbued with materials related to self care. The ads promote fictional drugs that use CRISPR technology to genetically modify human DNA to adopt useful genetic traits of other animals. Abrams and Stanish posit a world where capitalism predominantly serves the needs of female bodies. In one ad, a fictional CRISPR-aided drug uses DNA from elephants to delay menopause until well after a woman’s “productive” years as a working professional are over. On the floor, silicon plants that mimic human flesh (replete with human hair and warts) are interspersed in a sculptural flower arrangement. Installed inside of a hydroponic tent located at the Montgomery Botanical Garden in Miami, these works exist in a landscape in which nature is managed by humans, and visitors immerse themselves in non-native plant specimens cultivated from seed from all over the globe—allowing viewers to imagine themselves in a world slightly different than the one they know, perhaps one in which the human body is as designed, modified, and seemingly integrated as the botanical garden campus.
Silhouette
group show at Et al. etc.
San Francisco, CA
June 17 - July 15, 2017
Trap, 2017
UV print on handmade paper (pulped Wall Street Journal, copper foil, green tea, price tag, RAW rolling paper, magnesium chloride bath salts, dandelion root, chrysanthemum buds), UV print on mat board, artist’s frame
22 x 26 inches
Escape, 2017
UV print on handmade paper (pulped New York Times, copper foil, incense wrapper, Dr. Bronner’s soap label, Every Day Detox Tea, milk thistle root, rose petals, magnesium chloride bath salts, Electrolyte Plus+ powder, bee pollen) UV print on mat board, artist’s frame
22 x 26 inches
Human Resources
October 22 - November 20, 2016
Sadie Halie Projects
Minneapolis, MN
Allergic to WiFi I
Financial Times (shredded and pulped), chrysanthemum buds, rose petals, copper foil, copper wire, bee pollen, vitamin B6, ORMEs (Orbitally Rearranged Monatomic Elements), dandelion and milk thistle roots, artist’s frame
17 x 21 inches
Allergic to WiFi II
Financial Times (shredded and pulped), copper foil, bee pollen, vitamin B6, ORMEs (Orbitally Rearranged Monatomic Elements), dandelion and milk thistle roots, artist’s frame
17 x 21 in
Allergic to WiFi III
Financial Times (shredded and pulped), chrysanthemum buds, rose petals, copper foil, copper wire, bee pollen, vitamin B6, ORMEs (Orbitally Rearranged Monatomic Elements), dandelion and milk thistle roots, artist’s frame
17 x 21 in
Cured
Vegan salami casing, dough, Xanax
300 inches long, dimensions variable
Sinkhole Terrain Board
1:24 scale 2005 Ford Escape, 1:24 scale person, resin dragon, glass, insulation foam, dirt, copper, aqua resin
34 x 19 x 19 in
HR
Financial Times (shredded and pulped), watermark, window, Nicorette gum
23 x 29 in
Human Resources
October 22 - November 20, 2016
Sadie Halie Projects
Minneapolis, MN
~
When the gchat notification sounds became frequent enough to interrupt her Soundcloud stream, Isis switched tabs to see who was chatting her, guessing it would be her boss, which turned out to be a good guess. She explained what she had already explained in the group email that morning, and her boss said "fantastic isis" after saying a couple of other things without pressing enter so that Isis found herself staring at the words "Dimitri is typing..." for longer than she felt justified her boss's terse verbiage. Her eyes witnessed the digital clock in the right hand corner of the screen switch from 4:59 to 5:00, which she attributed to her unique ability to sense the digital world through her fingertips, and she cursed both the fact that electromagnetic radiation made her physically ill and that she didn't work a 9 to 5 but instead worked a 9 to 6 and still had an hour left at her job, which was annoying both because it meant she worked 260 more hours, or 10.83 more days a year than 9-to-5ers did, and that when she complained/boasted about having a grown-up-9-to-5 job she couldn't stop herself from adding that, well actually, she worked 9 to 6, not 9 to 5, so it was even worse in her case, and that the usual response was that that was the norm these days.
The day before, Isis had sent her boss an email about her Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity disorder, and had been refreshing gmail all day to see whether he had responded, which, as of 5:00, he hadn’t. She opened the email she sent him, and for the third time reread what she had copied and pasted, trying to mentally embody her boss while she did it, which made her doubt her decision to send it, again, and even more so now that she still hadn’t heard back.
“Having Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EMS) means experiencing recurring stress or illness when near active electric and magnetic fields (EMF) or electromagnetic radiation (EMR) found in the modern environment. The symptoms vary between sufferers, but normally include some of the following: tiredness, depression, headaches, restlessness, irritability, forgetfulness, learning difficulties, frequent infections, blood pressure changes, limb and joint pains, numbness or tingling sensations, tinnitus, impaired balance, giddiness and eye problems.
“Many of the symptoms reported have a lot in common with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), and it is quite common for someone who suffers from one condition to suffer from the other. The best way to mitigate symptoms if you suffer from EMS is to avoid exposure to them. Don't use a mobile or cordless phone, don't use WiFi, and avoid public areas that offer Wireless access. There are a number of further measures that can be taken to help identify and reduce your exposure, such as detectors that can display exposure to sources of electromagnetic fields, and shielding materials that can either block or reflect the fields, enabling you to have a very low EMF home environment,” the email read.
Isis knew that she hadn’t been performing to the best of her abilities recently, and wanted to offer an excuse but also lay some groundwork for some requests she planned to make in the coming weeks: that her 6-person office would agree to use ethernet rather than wifi, to put their phones on airplane mode when not in use, and to subsidize a copper faraday cage for Isis to put around her computer, and if those three things weren’t possible, to allow her to work from home. She had been managing her annoying symptoms on her own the best she could while in the office, adding her own supplements and bee pollan into the fresh pressed juices she bought across the street, wearing copper jewelry which helped block radiation, and doing various other things that she learned were helpful on some EMF treatment blogs, all of which were very poorly designed and outdated, which made sense considering the administrators were most likely allergic to the internet.
By the time it was 5:30, it had already been three and a half hours since Isis had detoxed in the Clearlight Infrared™ sauna that she specifically tried to get a job near, since the radiation canceling sauna is uncommon, but there were a few gyms that had one in Manhattan, and one of them was literally three doors down from the office building where she worked. Isis left the office usually twice daily for 30 minutes sessions to sit naked in the sauna, as recommended, and she assumed no one from the office really noticed her unreasonably sweaty hairline when she returned, due to the constant film of coconut oil that sat on the surface of her skin which she used as an radiation barrier and that made her, at all times, pretty glossy. She figured she would have to wait it out until she got off at 6 to go to the sauna, but then by that point, would most likely not go because it would be too crowded by then.
Isis opened and then closed Instagram on her phone twice consecutively, a habit formed probably from being addicted to memes but also from knowing that cutting down screen time would help with her irritability. Oil was beginning to bead up and harden around the edges of her resin radiation barrier phone case that she ordered from AnOrgonizedEarth on Etsy, and she wondered weather her headaches were increasing because the case was becoming weak in its old age of 1 year, which in tech years is more like 8.
After eventually leaving work and doing some other things, Isis debated weather to drink her second cold pressed juice of the day in the bathtub while she soaked, because she felt she needed to take advantage of the enzymes in the juice while they were still alive and valuable but also feared the proximity of the hot bath water to the plastic cup could potentially release BPA and other harmful toxins into her juice and thus her body, or "flesh prison" as Isis saw others refer to it on the internet, which reminded her to remember to say "flesh prison" out loud at some point in the office.
Isis poured Piping Rock Kaolin Powder, Nature’s Way Alive! Vitamin C powder, and monoatomic ORMUS elixir into her bathwater and inhaled deeply while thinking "I'm breathing deliberately" as she lowered herself into the water, which had been filtered by a CuZn Water Systems Bath Ball Faucet Filter. She thought about how closing her eyes was a good way to relax while she closed her eyes, before opening them after several seconds later or maybe a minute later, feeling defeated by the self-imposed pressure to not think about anything specific while her eyes were closed. When she opened her eyelids, she realized she had left her cold pressed juice out of reach from the tub, never having fully committed to a decision about whether or not to drink it while bathing. Isis felt relief in realizing that her decision had been decided for her, or not decided for her exactly since no one else had decided it, but instead had become something like a fact.
After soaking long enough to assume she had sweated enough toxins out of her body, which she'd read on blogs would take 15 to 20 minutes, she toweled off, walked into her bedroom, turned on her natural Himalayan salt lamp, and laid down on her bed to post a Facebook status update. She spent almost 40 minutes finding the perfect image to accompany "tfw you tell ur doctor ur allergic to wifi" but then deleted it knowing someone would comment in a way that called her out for being a kind of oxymoron. After that and some other things, Isis ordered Seamless, ate it while watching her favorite compilation video of sinks holes, which she loved because it moved her, made her feel sad and humbled and also thankful because she thought sinkholes illustrated the hazardous and sublime effects modern living has on the environment, and plucked her eyebrows.
*This story written by Loney Abrams and Johnny Stanish is an expanded and edited version of a story they wrote for an email-based exhibition with Screen_ in September, 2016.
So much dirt but not enough soil
Knockdown Center
Queens, NY
July 9 - August 7, 2016
footlong
Subway socks, soap
12 x 13 x 5 in.
landfowl, waterfowl, gamefowl
birdseed, corn syrup, Jello, flour, corn husks, ribbon
dimensions variable
au natural
soap, calcium propionate, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbet, corn husks, 3-methyl butanoic (the smell of body odor)
28 x 36 x 1 in.
cafe con leche con pants
soap, coffee, hair extensions, chewed Nicorette gum, Forever 21 jeans
28 x 36 x 1 in.
so much dirt
soap, HD makeup, Smirnoff Ice, cigarette ash
28 x 36 x 1 in.
first body
Financial Times newspaper (shredded and pulped), body hair
17 x 22 in.
brexit
Financial Times (pulped), earl gray tea, band aids
17 x 22 in.
GRDN Doc's® Organocide® All Natural Plant Feritlizer: Prescription Formula 1 + Prescription Formula 2
custom plant food (worm poop, Bud Light Lime, free range egg shells, Los Angeles tap water, fish bones, volcanic ash, seaweed, Yogi Pure Green Tea, aquarium water), gargoyles, 5 gallon beverage dispensers
24 x 18 x 40 in.
coney island white fish
Introduction to Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman (shredded and pulped), beach trash, seaweed
17 x 22 in.
print my DNA when you get there
credit report (pulped), vitamin D, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) therapy lamp, watermark
9 x 6 x 12 in.
GRDN Doc's® Organocide® All Natural Plant Feritlizer: Prescription Formula 3
custom plant food (clam shells, free range egg shells, New York tap water, weed ash, live active culture l. acidophilus, liquid THC, ginkgo biloba), gargoyles, 5 gallon beverage dispensers
12 x 12 x 48 in.
I am what I eat eats
Medicaid manual, crushed Xanax, dried roses, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) therapy lamp, watermark
16 x 9 x 29 in.
Let’s Move!
Index of American Grown by Michelle Obama (pulped), Subway wrappers, GM corn husks
17 x 22 in.
private island
‘Pacific trash vortex’ Wikipedia article (shredded and pulped), beach trash
17 x 22 in.
wargame terrain board
wood, cinder blocks, soil, foam, plaster, miniatures, water bottles, genetically modified food plants, Mars surface prints on vinyl, canned beans, Subway wrapper, Miracle Grow
96 x 72 x 27 in.
So much dirt but not enough soil
on view July 9 - August 7, 2016
Knockdown Center
52-19 Flushing Ave.
Queens, NY 11378
New York based artists Loney Abrams and Johnny Stanish have taken interest in the relationships between an object’s outward appearance, and the object’s intrinsic material makeup — it’s ingredients list, it’s nutritional value, it’s metadata — and the potential for this material to embody FDA politics. So Much Dirt But Not Enough Soil utilizes materials like Miracle Grow, live active culture l. acidophilus, liquid THC, the introduction to Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman (shredded and pulped), yellow #5, ginkgo biloba, Flavor Dynamics’ CHEF-ASSIST® Harvest Spice Flavoring, 3-methyl butanoic acid (the smell of body odor), crushed Adderrol, aspartame, among others.
The exhibition is held within the remains of a century-old stone building, which encompasses three separate rooms, one of which has no roof and is exposed to the elements. Soap wall pieces cast in relief, potentially lathered by rain and humidity, match one another in form, while their varied material makeups describe a society that tends to overprescribe and sanitize. A miniature wargame terrain board suggests a terraformed mars. Seasonal Affect Disorder (SAD) lamps act as light boxes to illuminate handmade watermarked paper. Dispensers filled with DIY plant food include ingredients like worm poop and Bud Lite Lime. And images that link Michelle Obama’s partnership with Subway and her White House garden initiatives are intermixed with Monsanto’s genetically modified alfalfa seeds deregulated by the very same Obama Administration, in handmade paper wall pieces.
Not unlike the consumer’s experience in the grocery store, where food products are accompanied by text listing ingredients and nutritional value (along with marketing copy), the art consumer is presented with language — title, date, dimensions, materials, a press release — that may reveal meaning illegible in the work itself. In the bread aisle, two loaves of bread may look nearly identical in form, but to the discerning consumer, their ancillary texts reveal two distinct products in support of vastly differing production methods, political economies, and consequences: one ingredients list reads ‘flour, water, yeast, salt’ while the other lists fourteen ingredients, more than half of which are names of chemical compounds. This ancillary text places the ethical burden on the consumer to make the right choice; rather than find an alternative to plastic, Poland Spring urges their customers to recycle their bottles. We’ve learned that the products we consume, whether food, drugs, or hygienic products, are defined not by what they appear to be but by what they are made of and how they are produced; they are intrinsically political. In the same way that we can no longer assume a wall piece is made of paint and canvas, we’re both burdened and enlightened by the text, or metadata, that accompany the objects that surround us.
Loney Abrams (b. 1986, Boston MA) and Johnny Stanish (b. 1983, Great Falls MT) both received their MFAs from Pratt Institute in 2013. They’ve been working collaboratively since 2014. Recent solo (collaborative) exhibitions include Gluteus Maximus at Java Projects in Brooklyn, and Polly wants a cracker and distressed denim from Forever 21 at Beverly’s in New York. Recent group exhibitions include Ashes/Ashes in Los Angeles, Regina Rex in New York, and Material Art Fair in Mexico City. Abrams and Stanish also run hotel-art.us, a curatorial initiative that installs temporary exhibitions in unlikely spaces for the purposes of generating documentation for online audiences. Their forthcoming solo exhibition at Sadie Halie Projects in Minneapolis opens October 22nd.