Summer Project Space Exhibition
Gala Porras-Kim: Trials in Ancient Technologies
June 10–August 23, 2018
Work in progress studio: June 10–July 12
Exhibition open: July 15–August 23
Sunday–Thursday, 12–5PM
Opening reception: Sunday, July 15, 4–6PM
Free and open to the public
Known for work that mines linguistics and history, Los Angeles–based Artist in Residence Gala Porras-Kim creates formally beautiful, conceptually rigorous projects, often inventing new forms based on fragments of ancient artifacts. While at Headlands, Porras-Kim will investigate ancient methodologies of decay and documentation, bringing relief to their residual resonance, even as they are incomplete, mysterious, and forgotten.
Porras-Kim will explore three distinct yet related inquiries in her Project Space studio. First, influenced by the planning of ancient Latin American cities that were built in relation to the arc of the sun, she will design and test objects that are activated by their environment and surroundings. Whether responding to weather, time, light or some other environmental stimulus, the objects will only be fully realized in moments of temporary synchronicity. Next, she will create experimental sculptures built to decay, using ancient methods of intentional demolition such as the introduction of salt to break concrete bonds. Finally, she will interpret ancient stone structures and examine current documentation methods and tools in a project centered on the production of large documentary drawings.
Above: Gala Porras-Kim, Untitled (Water Erosion), 2018; © Gala Porras-Kim