Last week (Oct. 8-12), second-year MFA students from the CalArts School of Art presented the exhibition, Superflexible, featuring work by artists from the Art, Photography & Media and Art & Technology programs. Given three weeks to prepare, MFA students took the opportunity to experiment.
This exhibition centered around the idea of “play,” and the works took over the Main, L-Shape, D300, D301, Lime and A402 galleries at CalArts.
During the opening Thursday night reception (Oct. 11), the exhibition included a number of performances by the MFA candidates.
Highlights included:
- At D301, onlookers observed Lucinda Trask’s durational piece I Am in Your Building. The sculpture and performance included the artist and two performers in different states of meditation on mundane objects. The act mimicked the stillness of the paintings and sculptures in the gallery, adding life to the space.
- At the L-Shape, the surprise of the evening was Molly Jo Shea emerging from her pouch sculpture dressed as an anthropomorphic marsupial character. She had reported to have been waiting inside for 30 minutes. The hybrid stand-up act and puppet show was inspired by her trip to Australia and recent research on extinction. Her performance ranged from informative to hilariously tragic, and included commentary on “placental chauvinism” and modern dating.
- At the Main Gallery, Dana Carly wrapped up the reception with CPBPDance (coplar book projection dance). Choreographed by CalArts Dance students — Shannon Hafez, Nadia Muhammad and Emara Neymour-Jackson—CPBPDance was a continuation of Carly’s personal exploration of her mental health that incorporated writing, sound, and video. “Each time we seek to understand another’s way of perceiving, we peel off layers and layers of judgement,” Carly writes in her program notes. “To dance someone’s dance is to embody their struggle and beauty. It is to relate; it is an action towards a more open society based on mutuality and acceptance.”
Other featured artists included Santiago Acero, Daniel Andres Alcazar, Nick Angelo, Diego Barrientos, Beck + Cole, Yiwen Cheng, Courtney Coles, Kira Doutt, Norris L. Duckett III, Phillip Farra, Nick Hanson, Luke Harnden, Serena Himmelfarb, Vanessa Holyoak, Hanieh Khatibi, Siheun Kim, Taehee Kim, ZZ Krebs, Lucas Lacámara, Looksorn, Lyndon Macgregor, Antoine Midant, Silvi Naçi, Alicia Piller, Yuqing Qiao, Alexander Rafalovich, Ieva Raudsepa, Justin Serulneck, Bradley Thompson and Kelly Wall.
Browse through the photo gallery, above, to view some of the highlights and artwork from Superflexible.
— Brigitte Ugarte