Now and Now and Now

OPENING FRIDAY, novemBER 8, 2024 FROM 2 - 6 PM

IPSHITA MAITRA

FRANCESCO TORI

LINDA ZAMBOLIN

SILVIA GAFFURINI

STEVIE KINCHELOE

L. MIKELLE STANDBRIDGE

TAMARA REYNOLDS

MELODY JOY OVERSTREET

GREG SMITH

ALEXANDRA TERLESKY

EL NIDO BY VC PROJECTS: 1028 N. WESTERN AVENUE, LOS ANGELES, CA 90029

EXHIBITION DATES: NOVEMBER 8 - 14 DECEMBER 2024

EXHIBITION HOURS: THURSDAY - SATURDAY FROM 1PM - 4 PM

REMEMBER, REMEMBER

THIS IS NOW AND NOW AND NOW

LIVE IT. FEEL IT. CLING TO IT.

I WANT TO BECOMING ACUTELY AWARE OF ALL I HAVE TAKEN FOR GRANTED

— SYLVIA PLATH

AN EXCERPT FROM THE DIARIES OF SYLVIA PTAH CIRCA 11 SEPTEMBER 1950

A GROUP EXHIBITION EXPLORING PHOTOGRAPHY, OBJECTS, POETRY, AND SOUND

CURATED BY VICTORIA CHAPMAN AND STEVIE KINCHELOE

THIS EXHIBITION TAKES US ON A JOURNEY THROUGH THE INTRICATE LAYERS OF THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE, RENDERED THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY, POETRY, SOUND, WRITING, AND OBJECTS. IT DELVES INTO THE ESSENCE OF THE PRESENT MOMENT— FLEETING. PROFOUND. EVOCATIVE.

PHOTOGRAPHY, WITH ITS POWER TO FREEZE TIME WITHIN A SINGLE FRAME, SERVES AS OUR INITIAL PORTAL. THROUGH REFLECTIVE COMPOSITIONS, THE DIALOGUE CREATED BETWEEN THESE IMAGES, CAPTURE THE SUBLTE INTERPLAY BETWEEN SIGHT AND MOTION, INVITING CONTEMPLATION ON THE EPHEMERAL NATURE OF EXISTENCE.

LIKE A DELICATE THREAD, WRITING AND POETRY CLIMB THE WALLS OF THE EXHIBITION. DRAWING INSPIRATION FROM THE CONFESSIONAL TRADITION OF SYLVIA PLATH, THESE EXPERIMENTAL YET RAW WORDS AND VERSES UNRAVEL PERSONAL NARRATIVES, REFLECTING THE COMPLEXITIES OF CONTEMPORARY LIFE.

OBJECTS, BOTH ORDINARY AND EXTRAORDINARY, PUNCTUATE THE EXHIBITION WITH THEIR SILENT STORIES. THEY EVOKE HISTORIES LIVED AND FUTURES IMAGINED, GROUNDING US IN TANGIBLE EXPRESSIONS OF MOMENT AND MEMORY— BOTH INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE. EACH ARTIFACT OFFERS A GLIMPSE INTO PERSONAL ARCHIVES, A PHYSICAL DIARY, INVITING VIEWERS TO FORGE THEIR OWN CONNECTIONS BETWEEN WHAT HAS PASSED AND WHAT IS TO COME.

THIS IDEA OF CONNECTION BETWEEN PAST AND PRESENT EXTENDS FURTHER WITH THE INCLUSION OF KINTSUGI— THE JAPANESE ART OF REPAIRING SHATTERED POTTERY WITH LACQUER AND POWDERED GOLD, SILVER, OR PLATINUM. RATHER THAN TOSSING OR CONCEALING DAMAGE, KINTSUGI HIGHLIGHTS BROKENNESS AS PART OF THE OBJECT’S HISTORY, CELEBRATING ITS IMPERFECTIONS. THIS PHILOSOPHY RESONATES WITH MUSHIN OR “NO MIND,” WHICH EMBRACES CHANGE IN A NON-ATTACHMENT ACCEPTANCE OF FATE, SHOWING THAT OUR BROKENNESS CAN BE TRANSFORMED INTO SOMETHING EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL.

NOW AND NOW AND NOW IS MORE THAN A COLLECTION OF ARTWORKS, IT IS A TESTAMENT TO THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF ART AND HUMAN NATURE. IT CELEBRATES THE PRESENT MOMENT— FRAGILE YET RESILIENT, FLEETING YET ETERNAL— WOVEN INTO A VIBRANT TAPESTRY OF VISUAL, POETIC, AND NARRATIVE FORMS.

– VICTORIA CHAPMAN

A red-shoulderd hawk soars—

a garter snake

caught in its talons

vanishing in the sky—

a fine thread.

— MELODY JOY OVERSTREET

the finch

its feathers lift in the wind,

laying under the tree in dignified

unawareness. small eyes closed, wings

tightly folded, utterly still.

gone the morning after.

— ALEXANDRA TERLESKY

WEEK 1 - ARTIST PROFILES: SILVIA GAFFURINI

Now and Now and Now features work by Italy-based artist Silvia Gaffurini. Her two pieces are part of a series titled Lampada della Permanenza (Lamp of Permanece), 2021-22 - Eighth Lamp, inspired by John Ruskin's 1849 book The Seven Lamps of Architecture. Silvia’s "Eighth Lamp" concept imagines a contemporary continuation of Ruskin’s exploration of architectural ideals.

In Ruskin's work, each "Lamp" represents a principle that examines history's remnants through a lens of visible and invisible layers. Silvia’s ongoing project builds on this idea, investigating the potential for memory's redemption and rebirth. She describes her work as "a visual report on the state of abandonment of once ‘load-bearing’ walls." These remnants, though deteriorated and unstable, are more than debris; they are pieces of a shared history we must remember.

Silvia uses semi-transparent paper to obscure lost details, symbolizing the veil of time. Beneath this layer, hand-drawn embossing of imaginary architectural forms brings forth the poetic and enduring essence of these ruins. Her work reasserts the importance of these structures in our landscapes as markers of identity and symbolism.

As curators, Stevie and I wanted to engage in revealing a new stage of Silvia Gaffurini’s work, adding another layer to its presentation. In one display, we framed her work and placed it upon a book and a hide, while in another, we fastened it with string, unframed, to a book by Sylvia Plath. With Silvia’s blessing,  we were able to provide a certain movement and dialogue, aligning with the exhibition's themes of being and the now.

It is an honor to collaborate with Silvia Gaffurini, whose work has been gaining significant recognition across Italy, where she has exhibited extensively and received numerous awards. Recently, Silvia completed a residency in China, where her work will be exhibited next year. To the best of our knowledge, this marks the first time her work is being shown in the United States. We are thrilled to showcase it in this exhibition and to foster the reflective conversations it inspires among our guests. -VC

Q & A

Below is an email Q&A with Silvia. We communicated between English and Italian, using Google Translate to bridge the language gap.

VC: What inspired this body of work?

 SG: The project ‘The Eighth Lamp’ is a work articulated in several photographic series. The intention is similar to that of John Ruskin in his text ‘The Seven Lamps of Architecture’: to depict architecture, in this case the remaining ruins, as allegories. Following Ruskin's approach, I have divided the project into chapters, each of which is represented by a ‘lamp’.

VC: Which lamp from John Ruskin's book inspired you the most?

 SG: The ‘Lamp of Permanence’ series - realized between 2021 and 2022 - represents the first chapter of the ideal book I am writing through images. In a sense, I am continuing in my time the value intent outlined in the reference book. This series is not inspired by a specific chapter of John Ruskin's text, but gathers and interprets those elements of care, respect, beauty and memory that belong both to Ruskin's book and to my professional history.

 The photographic images that make up this series are intended to condense apparently contrasting values: fragility, melancholy and weakness are intertwined with resistance and permanence, represented by these architectural remains, tenaciously clinging to the earth, surviving in the fields of Molise. Paraphrasing Ruskin's text, these remnants of the past “...express a kind of affinity with the human condition, through a measure of obscurity equivalent to that which is present in the lives of men... mostly through the impressiveness of their shadowy zones…”.

 It is precisely the strength of their stubbornness that captures my interest, because in their defiance of oblivion the ruins redeem time and instil hope in me, a rare sentiment in a world as unstable and fluid as ours. They become a symbol of a wider disconnect between people and their environment, an echo of the carelessness that condemns the past to neglect.

 VC: Can you share something about setting up the shot to capture the image of this series that you are sharing with me?

 SG: Photographing these remains, these fragments of walls, required considerable physical effort. In order to get the ideal shot, I had to reach the best positions on foot, often crossing uncultivated, uncomfortable and sometimes inaccessible terrain.  

 VC: Are there any particularly noteworthy technical aspects other than paper rifling?

 SG: After taking the photographs, I made visual notes in a notebook, stylizing contemporary inspired architectural drawings in pencil. Subsequently, I developed the files using digital photo editing software, integrating the previously realised architectural drawings and superimposing them on the photographs, thus creating an ‘ideal’ trace for the subsequent manual engraving. (Recently, for the new chapters of The Eighth Lamp, the creation of the drawings is done with the support of Artificial Intelligence software, which generates architectural drawings in real time using text-to-text and text-to-image models).

 VC: Can you tell me about the front and back of the work?

 SG: To understand the front and back sides of these photographs, it is essential to consider the importance of the medium and light, aspects that reflect the concept behind my work. Metaphorically speaking, the real medium is not simply the paper, but rather the photographic shot printed on it. The paper I have chosen, which is transparent and resistant (300 g/m²), allows me to manually perform the embossing technique to highlight the drawing that is the identifying language of my artistic practice.

With the embossed drawing, the concept of rebirth and redevelopment is best perceived by observing the ‘front’ of the photograph, especially when it is lit from the side with a grazing light, which highlights the relief and also amplifies the tactile perception. Conversely, on the back side, the photograph vanishes, leaving only the concave sign that, in the simplicity of its lines, sublimates the concept.

 VC: Can you tell me what kind of camera you use and what is your printing process?

SG:  From a technical point of view, I used a Nikon D750 camera and, in the case of this series, I used a Nikon 35 mm lens. The printing process of my works takes place in a professional fine art printing workshop in my city, using inkjet printing technology. However, because the support paper I have chosen is particularly slippery and difficult to print on, special technical measures are required. The printer, in my case, adopts a specific technique that involves selective profiling of the printing machine, to ensure an optimal rendering of the image on this very special substrate.

 The ‘Lamp of Permanence’ series represents a set of conceptual, sensorial, metaphorical and technical experiences that reflect my need to explore the value of redevelopment, searching for an invisible link between past and future. Through this investigation, I intend to explore the potential of what has gone before us, suggesting new alternative spaces that art and technology can reveal, metaphorically regenerating our history and projecting us into the future.

-Victoria Chapman and Silvia Gaffurini, 2024