Looking Forward while Looking Back
With works by Ellen Bleiwas, Brigitta Varadi and Ren Zi.
Curated by Elisa Gutiérrez Eriksen
May 1 - 14, 2020
Virtual Exhibition
The new iteration of the Looking Forward while Looking Back series, On Repetition and Deptch, presents the works of NARS Alumni Ellen Bleiwas, Brigitta Varadi and Ren Zi.
The works of these artists are deeply rooted in an infinite search for interiorness, for the unseen, and the ritualistic. They exist in a permanent threshold –a constant tension between movement and stillness, between the inside and the outside, between the other and the self.
Through repetitive, meditative gestures, these artists shape and create works that encourage slowness, sensory perception and the exploration of the various meanings of life.
As our daily lives have become spaces of repetition and pause, the practices of these artists lead to a perspective in which our daily actions can become generative, even magical.
About the artists:
Ellen Bleiwas
Ellen Bleiwas’ sculptural practice is rooted in space, the body, slowness, and sensory perception. She draws upon tunnelling and interiority to create holey enclosures that can be gradually permeated, framing heightened experiences with self. She probes materials including latex, clay, beeswax, and industrial felt, repeating single actions until process generates form. Bleiwas holds an MFA from York University in Toronto (2017), and a Master of Architecture from McGill University in Montreal (2010). She recently completed a residency at the NARS Foundation (2020) with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Brigitta Varadi
Exploring the Invisible features a room-size installation of nearly 2,000 ceramic tiles and 19 felted-wool panels. The minimalism of Varadi’s art and rawness of her materials belies an intensively laborious process. Instilled with a meditative rhythm, she repeats the same gesture several thousand times as a tile is formed, or wool felted. Brigitta Varadi explores the unseen, everyday rituals of working life. In 2019, Varadi visited Shelburne Farms as a BCA artist-in-residence where through a series of workshops, she led community members in creating handmade tiles as she engaged them in conversations on sustainability and cultural heritage.
"Exploring the Invisible" is at the Burlington City Arts and Shelburne Farm, from February 21 - June 7, 2020.
Ren Zi
Ren Zi’s investigation into the construction of reality through the myth is premised on philosophical idealism, the Taoist concept of entangled dualities, + Halberstam’s theory of queer failure.
Also informing their approach are temporal models, quantum, superstring + chaos theories, complexity, cosmic flux, science-magic confluence, agency + disobedience. Which likely accounts for a practice that resists categorization – while centered around the digital atelier, their oeuvre encompasses mixed-media objects, installation, video, sound, the textual + performative.
Since assuming mantle of "the ghost of Singapore future”, the artist has embarked on a survey of the country’s alternate futures within the context of its contradictory narratives + the Anthropocene.
Due to COVID regulations, attendance is limited for the opening reception.
NARS Foundation Galleries are open to the public from 12pm - 5pm, Monday - Friday. Please contact info@narsfoundation.org with any other inquires.
