It feels like the quiet after the storm today at whitespace. The four Brazilian artists of “From Cosmology to Neurology and Back Again” returned home last night after a very successful opening. However the show is still up and definitely a must-see exhibition.
Sissi Fonseca performing "Placebo" (photograph by Julie Sharpe)
Just last Friday, hundreds of visitors gathered for the opening reception of “From Cosmology to Neurology and Back Again,” curated by Dr. Jerry Cullum and featuring 22 artists. Despite the scorching heat, the opening was one of our most well attended to date.
Hydrophiletic-Z, a garden piece installed by visiting Brazilian artists Rachel Rosalen and Rafael Marchetti, was a hot topic of conversation. The artists spent all day under the hot sun assembling the intricate mechanisms, and the result was a complex net of interwoven tubes meant to represent the mixture of organic and electric living systems.
One of the evening’s highlights was Sissi Fonseca’s performance Placebo, which touched on the idea of how people across cultures believe in the power of pills or amulets to protect themselves against evil and illness. Moving gracefully in a glimmering white dress, Sissi lit an incense wreath, poured a semicircle of salt around her, and began to toss large quantities of protection symbols (pills, cayenne peppers, charms from the major world religions, garlic heads and the like) around her and into the crowd. The audience participated, reaching out hands enthusiastically to receive these objects. The performance’s conclusion was especially dramatic, as members of the crowd were invited to throw buckets of water at Sissi as she stood motionless in the dimming light of the courtyard. Her rituals, pills and amulets were not enough in the end to protect her, and she was left emotionally stripped down and broken.
Don’t miss your chance to see this fascinating and thought provoking show. “From Cosmology to Neurology and Back Again” is on display now through Saturday, August 4, 20112.
"Outside the whitecube" by Kelly O'Brien (photograph by Julie Sharpe)
"Hydrophiletic-Z" by Rachel Rosalen and Rafael Marchetti (photograph by Julie Sharpe)