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Krowswork is pleased to present Elemental Forces, a solo exhibition by Suzy Poling. Her prolific and distinctive body of work spans video, photography, collage, sound, sculptural installation, painting, and performance, all of which align in this exhibition, united by the physical and psychical chemistry of light. BLACK AND WHITE: Humans and Stones In stark black and white, a group of photos and a masterful video call attention to the Earth. Tar black mixes with chalk white over hands, rock, and bodies—out of which come cosmic geometries and mystical enchantments. Powders, fluids, crystalline forms, and bodies mix in tightly framed fugue-like compositions. We witness the silhouetted beauty of a painted woman in a rite of passage, in which Poling has managed to simultaneously conjure the grandeur and intention of a West African ritual, the spooky hard-edge of Murnau’s Nosferatu, and the ecological grounding of the ancient art of alchemy. COLOR: Seers Unseen The warmth of the Earth vibrates in diaphanous color. Something is emerging out of a primordial brew of chemical reactions, synaptic feedback, spontaneous decay, and eruptive volatility. In this science fiction landscape the cycle of psyche is elucidated—from primal entropy to spiritual rebirth and back again. Poling is a clear heir to Harry Smith, in terms of color, form, and artistic impulse, simultaneously layering and disintegrating the material so that it might be re-assimilated by the rhythms of a greater pattern we can now begin to discern. PSYCHO-ECOLOGICAL DREAMSCAPE Like Meliés’s Trip to the Moon, flickering light illuminates geometric objects that hang unapologetically in the space: tangible metonyms for our connection to the magical transformations of life within the systematized order of space. The effect of art like this on the human psyche is as profound as it is underestimated. Step into and be changed by this environment, where geometric objects reflect and refract the universal order. ABOUT THE ARTIST: Suzy Poling was born in Michigan, went to College in Chicago and is currently based in Oakland and Los Angeles. She has had solos shows at Cal Poly University, Queen's Nails Projects, ZG Gallery and DNJ Gallery. Her artwork has been featured in Harper's Magazine, Wired, Beautiful Decay Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and in multiple magazines and on blogs. Poling has lectured at the De Young Museum, Headlands Center for the Arts, Cal Poly University, San Francisco Art Institute, California College of Arts, Columbia College and Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. She has presented site specific multi-dimensional performances with reflective mirrored sculptures, video and sound at the Berkeley Art Museum, Machine Projects, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, 23five Incorporated, The Lab, Southern Exposure, San Jose Museum of Art, Transmodern Festival, Disjecta, and Portland Institute of Art. She also performs under the moniker called Pod Blotz.
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