10th October - 7th November, 2015
Opening 10th October at 7pm
Performance by Alicia Frankovich at 7:30pm
Alicia Frankovich
Timur Si-Qin
anonymous kusōzu paintings
"The configuration of maximum wholeness [is] at the same time that of maximum division or entropy."
In a continual condition of cosmological expansion, in one theory, the universe ends by moving toward a state of maximum disorder. Within this expansion however, processes that consume energy also redistribute it in other forms.
"There’s a reason the treadmill has a “cool down” setting."
This exhibition brings together three works, by Alicia Frankovich, Timur Si-Qin, and a series of Japanese Kusōzu paintings. These works, in interrelated and contrasting ways, all participate in a transformation of energy and material flowing from one state to another, in a transformation of time, and in the condition of the "end" against the presence of the living.
"A sudden stop in physical activity can cause pooling in your legs, your blood pressure could drop and you could get very dizzy.”
What is constant are these exchanges, each pushing against still points in a moving world, dripping with movement, crazy from the sweat.
Also: http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/2015/11/heat-death-at-mavra/
Anonymous Japanese artist
Kusozu: the death of a noble lady and the decay of her body
Watercolour painting in 9 parts, ca. 18th century
(reproduction displayed)
Timur Si-Qin
An Expansion of Time Before Death, 2010
Digital video, 18min 54sec
01 In the first painting a court lady in a kimono is seated indoors at a low red table, with a scroll in her left hand, upon with she has written her farewell poem: she is pallid, and her expression is preoccupied.
02 Here, she has died, and is laid out on the floor covered to her shoulders with a blanket, with a lady and a gentleman in attendance.
03 In this painting, her body is out doors, naked apart from loincloth, on a mat, the lower part of which is folded up over her legs; her skin now has flesh tones.
04 Putrefaction has set in, her lower body is covered with loincloth.
05 Her body is decaying in the advanced stages of putrefaction.
06 The putrefying body is now carrion for scavenging birds and small animals.
07 The flesh has almost all decayed revealing the skeleton. There are wistaria flowers in blossom above her body.
08 Only a few fragments of bone, including the skull and fragments of rib. hand and vertebrae remain visible.
09 The final image is of a memorial structure upon which her Buddhist death-name is inscribed in Sanskrit.
Alicia Frankovich
variations on The Opportune Spectator, 2015
Performance