Jessalyn Wakefield “BEASTS I - IX”

Songs For Presidents

poster for Jessalyn Wakefield “BEASTS I - IX”

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Songs for Presidents presents BEASTS I - IX, Jessalyn Wakefield’s debut New York solo show. An audio and video installation, BEASTS I - IX seeks to translate the experience of private terror into group witness. The project was originally presented in web form on amihuman.net. The installation at Songs for Presidents recalls sensations from the early Internet: the late night secrecy of sneaking dial up minutes, Deep Web crawling, and the unsettling violation that accompanies encountering a complex and inexplicable website — what happens when information is organized, but not for you.

Delving deep into grief, mental illness, and delusion, Beasts I-IX paints a powerful and sympathetic experience of the commonality of the terror of being. Designed to stimulate obsession and a raw experience of self, Beasts I-IX draws influence from contemporary poetics, the unreleased final film of Marilyn Monroe, and the psychoanalytic work of Adam Phillips, creating an outrageous and haunting portrait of contemporary psychology.

Originally trained as a typographer and letterpress printer at the San Francisco Center for the Book, Jessalyn Wakefield (born 1986, San Francisco, California) arrived at film by way of poetry. Her live performances and her art books have been part of shows in Paris, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Toronto. She currently lives in Los Angeles. Her website is www.amihuman.net

BEASTS I – IX is curated by Chloë Bass, and is the fourth show in Songs for Presidents’ inaugural year. Website: chloebass.com

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Schedule

from February 27, 2015 to March 29, 2015

Opening Reception on 2015-02-27 from 18:00 to 21:00

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