Battling The Pacific Northwest SADS With ONN/OF!

UK companies may have invented a earplug for you to shine directly into your brain to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder, but in Seattle, an exciting group show (featuring some REDEFINE favorites like Mandy Greer and No Touching Ground) is here to create warm fuzzies and give Seattlites a place to bathe in the energizing light of one another. The impressive gathering will be curated by Susan Robb, Sierra Stinson and Jim Demetre, with a focus on light, installation, and banishing the wintry blues.

Here are some sample images of what you might expect on January 28th and 29th!
ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS; LOGO BY DANIEL CARRILLO AND SUSAN ROBB

Shaun Kardinal

Shaun Kardinal sews patterns and geometries into found materials, like a collage artist coming face to face with a weaver. The concept is certainly not mind-blowing, in retrospect, but no one else is doing it, and as such, Shaun’s works are little postcards of satisfaction. (Stay tuned for a more in-depth post about Shaun’s work, in isolation!)

Justin Lytle

Justin Lytle self-describes himself as being “interested in the deconstruction and re-evaluation of the found and familiar to reveal the beauty that lies within individuals that comprise a whole.” It’s no wonder, then, that this still image from one of his videos feels like a fractal web — though it is not — and shows the many iterations similar forms can take on within a singular composition. Like cotton candy, like clouds, like cell membranes… they all follow those same rules. (Editor’s Note: Correction, brought to our attention by Mr. Lytyle himself. This still is not from a video, but from a relief sculpture. Even better.)

Zack Bent

Mmm, lard hardening from oil into a white, creamy solid, condensed into a tasty morsel for your easy enjoyment. Says Zack Bent: “This past summer I was making lard for the first time and was inspired by aesthetic transformation that occurred. The process requires you to render pig’s fat by heating it until it becomes liquid. It is then strained off into jars where it slowly transforms from a clear golden liquid to a thickened cottony white substance. As a video this occurrence may go unnoticed or seem too slow for comprehension. However, I am interested in how this phenomenon contrasts our typical interaction with video, which has increasingly become more and more frenetic. In terms of the content, the slowness of the transformation also provides a mediation on change and growth. What might be perceived as stagnant may in fact be developing before our eyes.” (A similar approach was taken to this Eric Chenaux video I posted earlier this week.)

Graham Downing

Visit the website for a full schedule and more details!