18th Street Arts Center is pleased to present the exhibition The Practice of Disguise of new work by US-based, Taiwan-born artist Ling-lin Ku, on view in the Atrium Gallery at 1639 18th Street, Santa Monica (Blue Building) from November 15 – December 17, 2021.
Gallery hours are Monday – Friday from 11 AM – 5 PM at 1639 18th Street. Masks are required.
The exhibition is in the Blue Building (1629), but please check in at the office in the Green Building (1639) to gain access to the Atrium Gallery.
Please make a reservation to view the exhibition: https://thepracticeofdisguise.eventbrite.com
Seeing and not being seen, revealing and concealing, although at first appear to be binary opposites, are in fact forms of disguise. Using camouflage in the military as a starting point, in the exhibition The Practice of Disguise, Ku works at the intersection of digital camo and Gilles Deleuze’s concept of the body without organs. This notion describes contrasting ways of perceiving reality in a state of late capitalism, through a childlike exploration of shifting surfaces and social appearances versus a darker and more primal exploration of the body’s interior life. The horizon of the body without organs is one where the body contains a multivalence of potential traits, connections, affects, and movements that spin out into the virtual realm. Ku’s work explores how our perceptions entangle with our real and potential bodies in a fractured, digitized environment of social representation, surveillance, and desire. Through proximity, scale, texture, material, and hybridization, Ku upends our relationship to what we think we know about our social constructs and our own identities. The work slips in and out of categorizations, proposing new ways in which we come to understand the world.
This exhibition features Ling-lin’s new work created during the residency at 18th Street Art Center, including a multi-channel video and sculptural installation that reflects on the revealing/hidden moments in the intersection of the virtual and tangible world, familiarity and the uncanny, otherness and selfness. In the current age of information, extreme self-exposure, and the constant mediation of fact, Ku explores the ways in which disguise has figured in contemporary art, and our relationship to representation in our modern era.
In addition to the exhibition, Ku will present a specially curated new video, to be livestreamed on November 19th at noon.
The Practice of Disguise – Artists in Conversation with Ling-lin Ku, Ara Oshagan, and Cynthia Madansky
November 19, 2021 – FB Live at 12 noon
An artist conversation shared among LA-based photographer and installation artist Ara Oshagan, New York artist and LA-born filmmaker Cynthia Madansky, and multimedia sculptor Ling-lin Ku exploring the seemingly binary yet in fact the blurry relationship of seeing and not seeing, revealing and concealing through creative approaches, personal experiences, and social-political lenses.
The Practice of Disguise – Behind the Scenes
December 3, 2021 – FB Live at 12 noon
An experimental video trailer by Taiwanese artist Ling-lin Ku, produced under the framework of her solo show entitled The Practice of Disguise, features a behind the scene look at her time as an AiR at 18th Street Arts Center. The video will present footage around her studio and process, interviews with staff members and artists, the exhibition, as a visual collage along with other researched images.
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18th Street Arts Center se complace en presentar la exposición The Practice of Disguise del nuevo trabajo del artista de Taiwán Ling-lin Ku, quien reside en Brooklyn. La exposición se exhibe en la Galería Atrium en 1639 18th Street, Santa Mónica (Edificio Azul) del 15 de noviembre al 17 de diciembre de 2021.
Ver y no ser visto, revelar y ocultar, aunque al principio parezcan opuestos binarios, son en realidad formas de disfraz. Utilizando el camuflaje militar como punto de partida, en la exposición The Practice of Disguise, Ku trabaja en la intersección del camuflaje digital y el concepto de Gilles Deleuze del cuerpo sin órganos. Esta noción describe formas contrastantes de percibir la realidad en un estado de capitalismo tardío mediante una exploración pueril de superficies cambiantes y apariencias sociales en contraposición a una exploración más oscura y primaria de la vida interior del cuerpo. El horizonte del cuerpo sin órganos es uno en el que el cuerpo contiene una multiplicidad de rasgos, conexiones, afectos y movimientos potenciales que giran hacia el reino virtual. El trabajo de Ku explora cómo nuestras percepciones se entrelazan con nuestros cuerpos reales y potenciales en un entorno digitalizado y fracturado de representación social, vigilancia y deseo. A través de la proximidad, la escala, la textura, el material y la hibridación, Ku cambia nuestra relación con lo que creemos saber sobre nuestras construcciones sociales y nuestras propias identidades. El trabajo entra y sale de las categorizaciones, proponiendo nuevas formas en las que llegamos a entender el mundo.
Esta exposición presenta el nuevo trabajo de Ling-lin creado durante la residencia en 18th Street Art Center, la cual incluye una instalación de esculturas y videos multicanal que reflexionan sobre los momentos reveladores / ocultos en la intersección del mundo virtual y tangible, la familiaridad y lo siniestro y la alteridad y la individualidad. En la era actual de la información, la autoexposición extrema y la mediación constante de los hechos, Ku explora las formas en que el disfraz ha figurado en el arte contemporáneo y nuestra relación con la representación en nuestra era moderna.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ling-lin is a Taiwan born, US based multimedia artist. She received her MFA from University of Texas at Austin and BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. In addition to being an artist Ling-lin has a background in music and law. Ling-lin has been exhibited her work nationally and internationally; her recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Play without Play, Wayfarer Gallery, Brooklyn, Off the Map, Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum, Austin, and Dead Warm, Sawyer Yard, Houston, and Gargoyles, Zona Franca, Barcelona, Spain. Ling-lin has selected into residencies including International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in Brooklyn, Salzburg International Summer Academy, Austria, 18th Street Art Center, Los Angeles, Ox-Bow artist and writer residency, Saugatuck, MI, Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Taos, NM, and Haystack Open Studio, ME. Ling-lin has received many awards; she is one of the four recipients of Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts awarded by the American Austrian Foundation, winner of Umlauf Prize in Austin, and Artadia Fellow in Houston.
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Ling-lin es una artista multimedia nacida en Taiwán que vive y trabaja en Estados Unidos. Recibió su Maestría en Artes Visuales por parte de la Universidad de Texas en Austin y su Licenciatura en Artes Visuales por parte de la Virginia Commonwealth University. Además de ser artista, Ling-lin tiene experiencia en música y leyes. Ling-lin ha expuesto su trabajo a nivel nacional e internacional; sus recientes exposiciones incluyen Play without Play, Wayfarer Gallery, Brooklyn, Off the Map, Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum, Austin, y Dead Warm, Sawyer Yard, Houston, and Gargoyles, Zona Franca, Barcelona, España. Ling-lin ha sido seleccionada en residencias que incluyen International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) en Brooklyn, Salzburg International Summer Academy, Austria, 18th Street Art Center, Los Ángeles, residencia de artista y escritora Ox-Bow, Saugatuck, MI, Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Taos, NM y Haystack Open Studio, ME. Ling-lin ha recibido muchos premios; es una de las cuatro ganadoras del Premio Seebacher de Bellas Artes otorgado por la American Austrian Foundation, ganadora del Premio Umlauf en Austin y Artadia Fellow en Houston.
SUPPORT/APOYO
This exhibition is generously supported by Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles and the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan.
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Esta exposición está generosamente apoyada por Taiwán Academy en Los Ángeles y el Ministerio de Cultura de Taiwán.
