“Cocoon” Exhibition

Here Gallery

This event has ended.

“Cocoon” by Erik Bergrin, 2018, Photographed by Justin Sirizzotti

Co-curated by Rick Herron and Dan Halm

HERE proudly presents Cocoon at HERE (145 Sixth Avenue).

As the state encroaches upon us, surveilling and policing our bodies at every turn, artists look for new ways to protect themselves and one another. “Cocoon”, is a brief multimedia survey of work by queer artists who enact gestures of love and safety using a coded language that borrows from bondage, s&m, and kink communities. “Cocoon” highlights the work of Erik Bergrin, whose intricately crafted sculptures conceal bodies and ideas allowed to metamorphose into higher states of being by wrapping them in a tight, wicker embrace.

Co-curated by Rick Herron and Dan Halm with artwork by Erik Bergrin and M. Lamar

Erik Bergrin is a costume designer and maker and fiber artist born in 1983 in NJ, who now works out of Brooklyn, NY. his background is in theatrical costume making and got his training working as a builder and tailor for broadway show costumes. His past shows include places such as AC Institue, Envoy Enterprise, Printed Matter, Pace Gallery, Niagra Gallery, and many more. Eriks work has been featured in magazines such as King Kong, Dazed and Confused, Bullet, Schon, The NY Times, NY Mag, Star, and many more. His work can also be seen in film and television such as Violet Tendences and Americas Next top model. Erik has designed shows at theaters all over NY, including the Public Theater and the Wild Project. He is currently in the process of building a series of very large woven and coiled fiber sculptures based around the process of what happens to the mind during the death process. When he isn’t creating Erik spends his time studying Buddhist philosophy and meditation.

M. Lamar is a composer who works across opera, metal, performance, video, sculpture and installation to craft sprawling narratives of radical becomings. Born May 29th 1984, Lamar holds a BFA from The San Francisco Art Institute and attended the Yale School of Art, sculpture program, before dropping out to pursue music. Lamar’s work has been presented internationally, most recently at The Meet Factory in Prague, The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, National Sawdust New York, The Kitchen New York, MoMa PS1’s Greater New York, Merkin Hall, New York, Issue Project Room New York, The Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco; Human resources, Los Angeles;Wesleyan University; Participant Inc., New York; New Museum, New York; Södra Teatern, Stockholm; Warehouse9, Copenhagen; WWDIS Fest, Gothenburg and Stockholm; The International Theater Festival, Donzdorf, Germany; Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York; Performance Space 122, New York; and African American Art & Culture Complex, San Francisco; among others.