Time being what it is. For the time being.

What is a Time Being?

Stretched, lengthened, squished, time-looped, mediated, frozen, layered, and ever-changing—the figures and bodily parts in this exhibition reflect on humanity’s relationship with time, history, and identity.

All of the artists in this exhibition do something strange with the figure. Somehow they make it weird, whether through exaggerations of scale or the flattening of time and space. Some pieces feel as if they could be moving forward, or backward, at any moment. Other works speak to our relationship with time itself, by reflecting on memories and stories and how we perceive our own histories and identities. Do these things shift continuously, or is there any permanence within our own selves?

As we near an end to the pandemic, as we wrangle our lives back in some ways, we can’t undo the fact of this past year. It remains inside us, inside our physical selves. The unusual experience of feeling unmoored from time and being physically separated from others, combined with mediated forms of communication, has made life feel unreal. We will carry that experience until it dissipates. As with any wound, eventually it will cease to exist, it will be reduced to a scar. In the meantime, we need to reflect, to process, and to feel our way through the final part of this transition. Samantha Wall said, “It just is, until it’s not.” We can sink into despair or take solace, depending on the moment.

Bean Gilsdorf’s work freezes moments in time, collapsing multiple familiar images into a single space. Reflecting on memory, repetition in media, and the diminishment of women throughout history, the artist takes an image of Jackie Kennedy from the day of JFK’s assassination as a key component of contemplation. Few images have been made to bear the weight of so many meanings and associations, ranging from fashion to politics to national trauma, and even to a vast labyrinth of conspiracy theories. As viewers of Gilsdorf’s work, we must wrestle with the compression of so many meanings into one image. Does this make the meaning clearer or more real to us as viewers, or negate it through too many iterations?

Lisa Jarrett’s works examine Black femme culture through the lens of hair and beauty rituals. How do routines, products, and beauty standards affect the self-reflections, representations, and stories of those who identify as Black femme? Hair connects us to our mothers, our ancestors, our histories; it speaks deeply of who we are, how we are seen, and how we see one another.

Jaleesa Johnston’s figures are based on her movement performances. She collapses time, as Gilsdorf does, but instead of working with historical photos, Johnston repeatedly draws her own image. Different versions of herself appear to meet simultaneously. In her drawings and video works, representations of the Black body vary from clear figures to complete abstractions that the viewer can only glimpse, each form too close to be distinct.

Elizabeth Malaska’s work layers female figures within domestic scenes. Each tableau’s story is also layered, incorporating gestures and poses that recall historical moments as well as objects and clothing that are common contemporary markers. The tensions between these different eras suggest longer and more complex narratives, leaving the context up to each viewer. Are these cyclical time loops, or myths that speak to universal truths?

Maya Vivas’s sculptural ceramics are queered future bodies engaged in self-evolution. Each figure navigates different stages of augmentation, and all are in continual unspoken conversation with one another. They ebb, flow, bulge, and retract. Are they growing or shrinking? Are they birthing or being birthed? The swirling figures feel as though they could be from ancestral times, but contemporary cultural markers propel them into the present.

Samantha Wall’s figures reflect a fragmented interiority influenced by the events of the past year. We see into the body as if looking through an X-ray, but instead of sinew and bone, affective forms are revealed, sculpted by what they touch and what touches them. We are shaped by discourse, current events, and familiar bonds; however, being deprived of social interaction has created a hunger for other bodies, as well as a fear of them. Her figures reflect our longings and our conflicted feelings about touch.

Time Being is supported by The Ford Family Foundation. Oregon Contemporary Art Center is also supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Robert & Mercedes Eichholz Foundation, VIA Art Fund and Wagner Foundation, the Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund, the James F. & Marion L. Miller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Oregon Arts Commission, the Oregon Arts and Culture Emergency Fund, Oregon CARES, and the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Other businesses and individuals provide additional support.

Venue: Oregon Contemporary
On View: June 18 – August 8, 2021
Photos by Mario Gallucci