The Nothing That Is at Brand Library & Arts Center
Brand Library & Art Center presents The Nothing That Is, curated by Yaron Dotan and Christine Rasmussen, November 16, 2019 —January 17, 2020. Exhibiting artists: Holly Boruck, Arminée Chahbazian, Chelsea Dean, Yaron Dotan, Dawn Marie Forsyth, Jenn Fuentes, Kaloust Guedel, Michael Henry Hayden + Anthony Lepore, Larry Kagan, Andrew Paine, Christine Rasmussen, Colin Roberts, Linda Vallejo, Joséphine Wister Faure, and Monica Wyatt.
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
—Wallace Stevens, The Snow Man (line 13-15)
Humans are innately creative. We have the ability to make something out of nothing, with just our bare hands. But lately our newest innovations have become soulless, the human touch lost in the pursuit of purported efficiency and flawless design. In this show, the artists bear witness. Observe closely. Respond with hand-crafted objects. Through shadows, empty landscapes, broken and reassembled vessels, depictions of invisible people, and humans distorted by technology, an understanding begins to form. Delacroix said, "I can paint you the skin of Venus with mud, provided you let me surround it as I will." Likewise, the artists declare: We will give you a human being made of emptiness provided you let us surround it as we will.
They ask viewers to see for ourselves, suggesting, as Wallace Stevens did in his poem The Snow Man, that we behold the "nothing that is not there, and the nothing that is."
The Opening Reception for The Nothing That Is is on Saturday, November 16, 6-9PM at Brand Library & Art Center (1601 West Mountain Street, Glendale, CA 91201). The reception is FREE and open to the public. Artists will be in attendance.