As Above So Below
January 25, 2013 — January 31, 2013
Connecting with nature and spirituality through process and invented ritual is the driving force within both Lauren Payne and Erin Washington’s work. Their processes intersect with a mutual desire to question the unknown. Presenting new works based upon the collaborators’ return to ACRE, As Above So Below will focus on where these disparate methodologies converge.
Erin Washington embraces materiality and labor to examine themes of vulnerability and permanence. Questioning how time structures transitions in ephemera, she creates mixed-media paintings, drawings, and sculptures which unravel time through the performance of their making, and their subsequent degradation. Erin employs fugitive and symbolic materials such as blackberries, lemon-juice, fire, ashes, moss, sugar, bone and saliva. Colors fade or pigments are burned: and the resulting objects emulate the cycles they describe. Her actions and products are in a constant state of flux, highlighting the disharmony between meaning, beauty, and a fundamentally messy universe. However, the temporality of the work’s making counters ambivalence; the immediate process and present-ness the work demands eclipses uncertainty…for the moment. Erin Washington received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. Selected exhibitions include MDW fair, Julius Caesar, Murdertown, Columbia College NY, and Zolla Lieberman. More information at www.erinwashington.com
Lauren Payne’s desire to connect is steeped in creating site-specific happenings and rituals in aims of thrusting the content beyond the personal pursuit of connection into a new mythological context by creating a space for shared experiences. Her work aims to illuminate a new understanding of the metaphysical through photography, video and daily performances. Lauren Payne received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2010. Selected Exhibitions include: ACRE in Miami, Design District, Miami, Florida; My Apocalypse, Hungerford Building, Rochester; Hammes/ Payne, New Capital, Chicago, Is This Thing On, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati; Magic > Nature False Front, Portland; White Lodge, High Concept Laboratories, Chicago; Out of the Woods, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit; Lauren Payne lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. www.laurenpayne.com
Connecting with nature and spirituality through process and invented ritual is the driving force within both Lauren Payne and Erin Washington’s work. Their processes intersect with a mutual desire to question the unknown. Presenting new works based upon the collaborators’ return to ACRE, As Above So Below will focus on where these disparate methodologies converge.
Erin Washington embraces materiality and labor to examine themes of vulnerability and permanence. Questioning how time structures transitions in ephemera, she creates mixed-media paintings, drawings, and sculptures which unravel time through the performance of their making, and their subsequent degradation. Erin employs fugitive and symbolic materials such as blackberries, lemon-juice, fire, ashes, moss, sugar, bone and saliva. Colors fade or pigments are burned: and the resulting objects emulate the cycles they describe. Her actions and products are in a constant state of flux, highlighting the disharmony between meaning, beauty, and a fundamentally messy universe. However, the temporality of the work’s making counters ambivalence; the immediate process and present-ness the work demands eclipses uncertainty…for the moment. Erin Washington received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. Selected exhibitions include MDW fair, Julius Caesar, Murdertown, Columbia College NY, and Zolla Lieberman. More information at www.erinwashington.com
Lauren Payne’s desire to connect is steeped in creating site-specific happenings and rituals in aims of thrusting the content beyond the personal pursuit of connection into a new mythological context by creating a space for shared experiences. Her work aims to illuminate a new understanding of the metaphysical through photography, video and daily performances. Lauren Payne received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2010. Selected Exhibitions include: ACRE in Miami, Design District, Miami, Florida; My Apocalypse, Hungerford Building, Rochester; Hammes/ Payne, New Capital, Chicago, Is This Thing On, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati; Magic > Nature False Front, Portland; White Lodge, High Concept Laboratories, Chicago; Out of the Woods, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit; Lauren Payne lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. www.laurenpayne.com