Catalyst

Catalyst features the Exhibition, Not Originally from Here, Unless Otherwise Stated, Interviews with artists directly, compared to science articles, and in conversation with each other. More content is coming soon.  

Catalyst: I’m curious about how all the different pieces in your work communicates with the audience. There appear to be multiple layers of language throughout the works, the symbolic language for the dancers, how the dancers move, and what the dancers are wearing plays into what is understood by the viewer. For instance, the dancers usually have their faces covered; why?

KN: I work with the mask as a cover, which edits visual information. I first used masks in the performance Floyd on the Floor in 2007. The masks in this work had numbers appliqued to the faces, which could only be read when a dancer was positioned in a certain way. I was looking at a lot of Hans Arp’s work at the time and some of the number shapes come from a series of his prints. The idea of using numbers to identify the dancers is from a book I read in college. Actually, I think first I read The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood and then read Anthem by Ayn Rand. At the time I saw the future in these books.

Catalyst presents, Not Originally from Here, Unless Otherwise Stated, an online survey exhibition presenting artists and art inspired by science. The title references the science-based connections made to the art by Catalyst founder and artist Dawn Ertl and not necessarily by the artist unless stated otherwise. It also references the artist's location, who may or may not be from LA originally but lives and works here now. Wikipedia was used to do all of the scientific research for the show. The formatting mimics the site's distinctions on science categories. Wikipedia says there are four main branches of science, Formal, Natural, Social, and Applied. Artists were chosen to fit into two of these four science groups, Natural and Social, and put in a relational context with the artist around them. Most of the work selected is not the artist's latest work; instead, they are works I felt connected the most with 2020.

This exhibition will feature work from the following artists and their allocated science relations:

1. Shiva Aliabadi, Social Science, Geography, Anthropogeography

2. Debra Scacco, Social Science, Geography, Environmental Geography

3. Britt Ransom, Natural and Social Science, Earth System Science

4. Kelly Nipper, Social Science, Linguistics-Structures

5. Meeson Yang, Natural and Social Science, System Science

6. Kysa Johnson, Natural Science, Physics, Quantum Mechanics

7. Channing Hansen, Natural Science, Biology, Genetics, DNA Sequencing, and Genomics

8. Diana Thater, Natural and Social Science, Optics and Color Psychology, ColorVision

9. Todd R. Forsgren, Social Science, Environmental Social Science, Political Ecology

10. Christy Roberts Berkowitz, Social Science, Political Science

11. Narsiso Martinez, Natural science, Agroecology

Select artists will also be featured in written or in video format interviews where Catalyst will ask the artist(s) about their work and how the connections they see to the artist they've been grouped with.

Interviewed artists:

Shiva Aliabadi & Debra Scacco discuss the connections between the work, lives, and how geology, anthropology, and environmental themes coexist in their work. Christy Roberts Berkowitz and Narsiso Martinez discuss how political science and agroecology play pivotal roles in their practice. They will talk about what kinds of connections exist within their work as well. Kelly Nipper will tell us about the linguistics-structures that inform her work.