Phantom Limb: 2022 Graduate Fellowship Exhibition

Exhibition

Phantom Limb: 2022 Graduate Fellowship Exhibition

When

June 10–July 2, Tues—Sat 12–5PM

Where

Kala Art Institute

Price

Free

At Kala Art Institute
2990 San Pablo Ave, Berkeley

Opening Reception June 10, 6–9PM

Organized by curator Naz Cuguoğlu, and featuring work by Headlands’ 2021-22 Graduate Fellows, representing six MFA programs from around the Bay Area:

Brett Amory (Stanford University)
champoy (UC Berkeley)
Mercy Hawkins (UC Davis)
Sylvia Hughes-Gonzales (Mills College)
Ebti (California College of the Arts)
Kristen Wong (San Francisco State University)

From the curator:

And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be / Are full of trees and changing leaves.

– Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (1927)

It is true that grief takes many different forms — a living organism that shapeshifts, multiplies, and tunnels through time. With a labyrinthine temporality, as matter gets deformed and memories get distorted, one’s experience is an ongoing loss, a surpassing disaster. Phantom Limb is about the rituals of collective mourning, in the form of flowers turning into dust in the middle of a sidewalk. It is also about poetics and fragility of space while looking through a window in Egypt or California and wondering where home is. It is an invitation for empathy and to take courage to look at the mirror with the disruption of appearances inherent within its very own form. Fragmented and broken into pieces, it is an alien-galaxy full of otherworldly masks and plants, a tool for healing, a painful but beautiful decay, and a possibility for an after-life as nature regenerates. It is about what it feels to be alive right now in this moment, an invitation to feel the air and the wind and to meditate on the interconnectedness of everything. The phantoms of the loved ones are in the room, and you can still feel the pain though the limb is long gone — and the journey to the lighthouse continues slowly but surely.

Photo: Installation by Brett Amory at Spring 2022 Open House. Photo by Tom Ide.

Gallery

Phantom Limb: 2022 Graduate Fellowship Exhibition. Photo by Perry Doane.

A large sculpture, an arrangement of flowers, and artworks on a wall

"Phantom Limb," exhibition view. Photo by Perry Doane.

An arrangement of flowers on the floor, with wall-hung artworks behind

"Phantom Limb," exhibition view. Photo by Perry Doane.

An orange and black painting with mirror

Brett Amory, "The See Took the Whale," 2022; oil, acrylic, ink, and plexiglass on wood panel. Photo by Perry Doane.

A structure of black and orange walls, partitions, and mirrors.

Brett Amory, "Sex Magic Suicide," 2022; wood, mirrors, plexiglass, latex paint, screen print, window tint. Photo by Perry Doane.

A painting with a silhouette of a person

Brett Amory, "black_Ghost," 2022. Photo by Perry Doane.

A structure of orange and black panels and mirrors

Brett Amory, "Sex Magic Suicide," detail, 2022. Photo by Perry Doane.

Sculptures beside a large projection with text readin g

Left & right foreground: champoy, "Surrogate ( or Something From Before For Something Else Later On )," 2022-present; mixed media installation with cardboard, fabric, feathers, bamboo, raffia, etc. Center: champoy, "Surrogate: Part I," 2022; color video with sound; Right, rear: champoy, "Para Sa Umaabot," 2021; digital print on fabric. Photo by Perry Doane.

Fore: champoy, "Surrogate ( or Something From Before For Something Else Later On )," 2022-present; mixed media installation with cardboard, fabric, feathers, bamboo, raffia, etc. Rear: champoy, "Para Sa Umaabot," 2021; digital print on fabric. Photo by Perry Doane.

Sculpture with plastic objects attached like plastic toy bones and large teeth.

champoy, "Surrogate ( or Something From Before For Something Else Later On )," 2022-present; mixed media installation with cardboard, fabric, feathers, bamboo, raffia, etc. Photo by Perry Doane.

Boots attached ot the ceiling with straw where legs would be

champoy, "This Message Has No Body," 2022; leather boots, raffia, mirror. Photo by Perry Doane.

Person in a cardboard mask with white face and long red tongue pushing a gong, a child in a raccoon mask beside.

champoy, performance during the opening reception of "Phantom Limb". Photo by Perry Doane.

Images of windows and landscapes printed on transparency and hung overlapping from metal racks.

Ebti, "Windows of Sehnsucht: Studio 14 window/pyramid; Studio 14 window/mango; Studio 14 window/night," 2022; photographs on acetate, seamless stand, photo paper roll, projection, light stand.

Left: Kristen Wong, "true love (after anna nicole)," 2022; Archival inkjet print, Brett's nicotine, crayon. Right: Kristen Wong, "holly's flowers," 2022; archival inkjet print, crayon, my nicotine, gouache. Photo by Perry Doane.

Photo collage of the inside of a refrigerator with scribbled marks and colors

Kristen Wong, "holly's flowers," 2022; archival inkjet print, crayon, my nicotine, gouache. Photo by Perry Doane.

Scribbles over a photo of beer in a fridge

Kristen Wong, "holly's flowers"; detail. Photo by Perry Doane.

Photo collage of leaves with colored marks and scribbles

Kristen Wong, "mental landscape (interior)," 2022; archival inkjet print, crayon, pencil. Photo by Perry Doane.

Photo collage of a broken window with scribbled marks and colors

Kristen Wong, "mental landscape exterior (escape)," 2022; archival inkjet print, crayon, pencil. Photo by Perry Doane.

Sculptures resembling plant forms with string and nets

Mercy Hawkins, left to right: "Where the Sun Meets the Sea," 2022; "The Sun, the Gale and the Shadow," 2022; "The Grass Harp," 2021; "Still Life for Graves," 2021; "The Marriage of Sea and Grass," 2021; "The Wind Touches You On Purpose," 2022; watercolor, color graphite on yupo, fiber, thread, wood. Photo by Perry Doane.

Mercy Hawkins, "Still Life for Graves," and "The Marriage of Sea and Grass," detail. Photo by Perry Doane.

Closeup of sculpture in multiple colors with dangling thread

Mercy Hawkins, "Still Life for Graves," detail. Photo by Perry Doane.

Closeup of sculpture in multiple colors with dangling thread and net

Mercy Hawkins, detail. Photo by Perry Doane.

Gold tinsel curtain, with a person walking through.

Sylvia Hughes-Gonzales, "...with a face of golden pleasure," 2022; tinsel and air. Photo by Perry Doane.

Gold tinsel curtain draped on a pair of banana flowers

Sylvia Hughes-Gonzales, "...with a face of golden pleasure," 2022; tinsel and air; detail. Photo by Perry Doane.

Flowers arranged in a rectangle on the floor.

Sylvia Hughes-Gonzales, "Invitation to grieve," 2020-ongoing; collected flowers, collected grief; flowers collected from walks through neighborhoods of Oakland and Berkeley. Photo by Perry Doane.

Sylvia Hughes-Gonzales, "Invitation to grieve," detail, 2020-ongoing; collected flowers, collected grief; flowers collected from walks through neighborhoods of Oakland and Berkeley. Photo by Perry Doane.