Lala Abaddon “Fractal Realities”
Castor Gallery
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Castor Gallery presents Fractal Realities, the gallery’s first solo exhibition, by Brooklyn-based artist Lala Abaddon. Combining traditional weaving with photography, Abaddon has challenged concepts of deconstruction and reconstruction, painstakingly weaving photographs together to make unfiled and gorgeously colorful pieces. For Fractal Realities, Abaddon takes her process to new explorations in deconstruction, in a site-specific installation in the gallery’s lower level that lets visitors experience her work in a new way- from within.
There is a web that connects all beings and energies and transcends all conceived boundaries of time and space. This body of work is a physical manifestation of just one section of that web. Warped by time and memory, the artist combines the ethereal elements of our waking world with the highly saturated, organized chaos of her mind and dreams, creating windows into other-worldly landscapes. Delving into the constructs of weaving, photography, and painting, her process is about deconstruction, repetition, and the variation of outcomes within her ritualistic practice.
Abaddon’s process is intricate, arduous and meditative. She begins with photographs shot with 35 mm film of her own bedlam miniature paintings, overlayed with earthly elements representing the algorithmic processes of nature. Each image is then printed into a large scale photograph, which is deconstructed by hand with painful precision. The meticulously shredded photographs are then hand woven together into one, utilizing patterns to push and pull space in a unique and unconventional way, in a time- consuming repetitive process that creates a meditation between artist and materials.
The two largest pieces in Fractal Realities continue a deeper exploration into the concept of creating solely for the purpose of creation. Abaddon goes on to further deconstruct the pieces she has spent countless hours creating, by cutting the massive weaves and reconnecting them through a free-formed webbing that includes found and reworked materials. By doing this, she adds a layer of disruption to her otherwise methodical process, splintering off an unexpected outcome.
Fractal Realities is also a mirror to the contemporary human condition, a life ruled by limitless Internet. Through the consistent weaving, unweaving and reweaving, Abaddon attempts to show how one person can lose themselves in all that can be observed and gleamed of the world and beyond. She explores the idea of liminal transcendence, where one may hover between waking and slumber, consciousness
and unconsciousness, alive and dead, from one plane of focus to the next. This is particularly seen in the immersive installation downstairs (Death is to Life as ____ is to ____). With its disjointing projections and free-floating sculpture, the space brings visitors literally inside one of Abaddon’s woven liminal landscapes; from observing to participating, from the second to third dimension.
Abaddon’s influence for Fractal Realities is propelled by a need to relinquish control of reality through the meditative and ritualistic practice of her art. She believes that life is for the now, and has decided to use her work to create beauty out of horror and to find strength from the pain and complexities of life.
Lala is currently an artist in residence with the Artha Project in New York City. She is honored to have donated work to auctions benefiting Slideluck and the Happy Hearts Foundation in 2014. She is well focused and extremely motivated to bring a truly unique experience for her upcoming opening.
Media
Schedule
from February 26, 2015 to March 29, 2015
Opening Reception on 2015-02-26 from 18:00