Jacqueline Baum, Stephanie Dinkins, Andres Fischer,
Srinivas Kuruganti, Felicia Megginson, Grace Moon, Andreas Rentsch,
Helen Rousakis, Ashkan Sahihi, Matteo Trisolini
2nd Floor Galleries
Visit the show's Web site at http://ag-art.org
"The whole process of (Alchemy) is nothing but that of dissolving and making hard again: Namely dissolving the body and making hard the spirit." - J.d'Espagnet (18th C. alchemist)
This group show, curated by Grace Moon, brings together 10 emerging artists who use the body as a canvas on which to explore the allegory of transmutation. The artist's, as well as the alchemist's, power to transmute one kind of matter into another lies in his conviction that the whole of the universe is contained in each atom of it's parts. The artists's show us layers of manifestation, of identity, of becoming. Their bodies cross the lines between spirit and matter...experiments in and of The Alchemical Body.
The title of this group show, The Alchemical Body, comes from a book of the same name by medieval Indian scholar David White. In this book White describes an esoteric strand of Yoga, in which the aspirant practiced hatha yogic postures, ate heavy metals, and consumed the purified bodily fluids of his/her teacher in order to attain spiritual liberation and physical immortality. The process was more religious than scientific as they saw that the mineral world and the divine world were united. Though many civilization have pursued Alchemy in ways unique to their culture and age, the commonality in the Alchemical process remains the release of spirit from matter.
also
PORTRAITS
Psychological portraits of world icons in the arts & imaginative
figures by James Saunders
Grand Reception Hall
and
N.Y. HOTEL
STORY
Unique Documentary Photographs of a N.Y Art
Hotel by Natalie Daoust
1st Floor Small Gallery
The Carlton Arms Hotel has a unique way of promoting artists by
inviting a foreign painter, photographer, or sculptor to New York
for few months and allowing them to create their work and their
personal atmosphere. Fifty four rooms have been designed this
way, each one based on various and original themes, from sadomasochism
to an underwater paradise and a Western village.
On 1997, Natalie Daoust was invited to create a room with a theme "a child's dream." A bed in the shape of a car, a television made of plush, a floor covered with a puzzle, and monsters under the bed turned this room into a magical childhood dreamland.
Once this project was completed, Natalie Daoust produced a documentary about the hotel. She lived in every room for a few weeks to absorb them and completely explore the universe of each artist, and then communicated these feelings through photography.
The publication of a book on the "Hotel Story" is already underway.
MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY GRANTS FROM THE NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS. CITY COUNCILMAN KEN FISHER AND BROOKLYN BOROUGH PRESIDENT HOWARD GOLDEN