WITHIN

September 25 – November 5, 2013

Heather Cassils, Ashley Hunt, Mariah Garnett, Taisha Paggett, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Guru Rugu, Roberto Sifuentes, and Julie Tolentino.

Curator in Residence: Chloë Flores

Reception: Wednesday, September 25th, 6–9pm

Cypress, CA, September 2013 – Cypress College Art Gallery is pleased to announce Within, an exhibition and program of events that explore the perceiving self, embodiment, and the corporeal production of knowledge, with artworks by Heather Cassils; Ashley Hunt and Taisha Paggett; Mariah Garnett, Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Roberto Sifuentes, Guru Rugu, and Julie Tolentino, curated by Chloë Flores.

Body-based perspectives and processes circulate widely in contemporary aesthetic fields that consider the body as a medium, subject and object. However, discourse on the subject is nominal within the field of art. This lack of discourse raises questions about the perceived value of mind/body awareness in the production and reception of artists work, and complicates efforts to position corporeal perception and response within an art context. Within contributes to and comments on these rare, but developing discourses by examining the ways notions of embodiment form and inform artistic production. This exhibition presents the following works for consideration: Mexercize (2013) by Garnett, Gómez-Peña and Sifuentes, a performance video installation and conceptual exercise program; Par Course C: Formation, Drill, Maneuver (2013) by Hunt and Paggett, a group of public participatory sculptures that guide one through “movement-thought exercises;” Guru Rugu’s Greatest Hits (2013), a room for listening and contemplation with audio mediations led by Rugu; On Our Backs: After Raised by Wolves (2013) by Tolentino, an interactive installation based on moving bodies and host to one-to-one open studio explorations; and Becoming an Image (2012) by Cassils, a collection of photographs and audio installation from a growing body of work intersecting sculpture and performance. Each project shows the significance of kinesthetic, somatic, and haptic awareness in the exchange of artistic ideas, and reveals a variety of relationships that stem from experiences of transference and embodiment.  

Within will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue featuring artist pages and essays by Chloë Flores, Melinda Guillen, and Megan Hoetger. 

Download Within Catalog (pdf)
Download Within Catalog Cover (pdf)

Special Programing
In conjunction with the exhibition, Within will present a program of art, artist lectures, movement and somatic-based workshops, and performances open to the public to experience.

Tuesday, September 17, 1:30pm: After Raised by Wolves by Julie Tolentino, artist lecture.

Thursday, September 26, 12:30pm: Hana van der Kolk leads rPC(d) (radical Pleasure Center (for dance)), a collaborative lab and audience-less performance in which we move, sweat, and play in a collective space of celebration.

Thursday, September 26, 2:30pm: Guru Rugu presents a live videotaping by Emily Lacy of his Queer Posture Meditation and other therapeutic experimental goodies to soothe the Mind, the Body, and whatever else we seem to be forgetting! 

Tuesday, October 8, 1pm: Diana Markessinis presents Relating to Space: Inside and Out, a lecture that will explore the idea of how we interact with art and the possibility of altering that interaction with body awareness. 

Friday, October 18, 11am: Guru Rugu presents a live taping for his monthly radio show, Guru Rugu’s Experimental Meditation Hour on KCHUNG Radio.

Friday, October 18, 12pm: Rebecca Bruno and Odeya Nini lead U N W I N D: a dance class to become. Guided movement meditation for every body accompanied by live active sound and vocal scores. This session promotes internal awareness and physical potency.

Friday, October 18, 2pm:  Nick Duran leads Physical Practice, a guided somatic lesson with a central focus on presence, feeling and perception, relevant for anyone who wants to develop a more intimate relationship to their body. 

Thursday, October 24, 12-7:30p: Julie Tolentino, On Our Backs: One-To-One Open Studio Exploration. Tolentino and participants engage in a public exploration of On Our Backs: After Raised by Wolves through floating meditation, stretching and score-exploration. A unique score, inspired by each encounter, will be developed for other viewers to explore over the duration of the exhibition, and added to the Raised by Wolves archive.

Thursday, October 31st, 2pm Brian Getnick and Megan Steinman lead Bad Handshakes, a workshop. Has anyone ever given you a dead fish to shake? On the other hand, have you ever felt an instant connection to someone or something with only a touch? Brian Getnick and Megan Steinman share playful and handy techniques that they are using to develop a critical collaboration on emotion and exhibition making. In this 40-minute workshop you will learn to use movement and collaboration as part of your writing process in order to remove blocks and relieve the anxiety many of us feel while developing critical analysis.