arturo abreu, James Bantone, Jason Hirata, Deborah-Joyce Holman, Flora Leite, Gabriela Mureb, davi de jesus do nascimento, Yná Kabe Rodríguez Olfenza, Maya Quilolo, Sung Tieu, and Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino.
Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino
RENTAL/FATHER, 2023
One or more objects rented from the artist’s father.
Variable materials and dimensions.
Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino
RENTAL/FATHER, 2023 (detail)
One or more objects rented from the artist’s father.
Variable materials and dimensions.
Gabriela Mureb
Machine #3: belt, 2013-2021
0.75 hp electric motor, rubber belt, pulleys, inox clamps, galvanized steel shelving brackets.
40 × 140 × 30 cm.
Gabriela Mureb
Machine #3: belt, 2013-2021
0.75 hp electric motor, rubber belt, pulleys, inox clamps, galvanized steel shelving brackets.
40 × 140 × 30 cm.
James Bantone
Chronic Oversharer, 2021
I S E custom made leather boots by Jazil Santschi, polyester thread, wood, zippers, acrylic.
80 × 30 × 44 cm each.
Yná Kabe Rodríguez Olfenza
Uma construção (Ou faltam paredes na casa das pariceiras), 2017
Variable materials and dimensions.
Yná Kabe Rodríguez Olfenza
Uma construção (Ou faltam paredes na casa das pariceiras), 2017 (detail)
Variable materials and dimensions.
Yná Kabe Rodríguez Olfenza
Uma construção (Ou faltam paredes na casa das pariceiras), 2017 (detail)
Variable materials and dimensions.
Yná Kabe Rodríguez Olfenza
Uma construção (Ou faltam paredes na casa das pariceiras), 2017 (detail)
Variable materials and dimensions.
Yná Kabe Rodríguez Olfenza
Uma construção (Ou faltam paredes na casa das pariceiras), 2017 (detail)
Variable materials and dimensions.
davi de jesus do nascimento
colher de colher fumo e esgarçar piaba fresca ou cajado de caboclo d’água, 2023
(from the "águas guardadas" series)
Oar shovel, flood wood patching heron’s neck.
86 × 29 × 4 cm.
manuel arturo abreu
mamajuana, 2021
Sacred roots, red wine, honey, glass, saran wrap.
Variable dimensions.
manuel arturo abreu
mamajuana, 2021 (detail)
Sacred roots, red wine, honey, glass, saran wrap.
Variable dimensions.
manuel arturo abreu
mamajuana, 2021 (detail)
Sacred roots, red wine, honey, glass, saran wrap.
Variable dimensions.
Sung Tieu
What Do You Let Go?, 2021
Plastic flower, polished and unpolished stainless steel.
66 × 48 × 5 cm.
Flora Leite
Reconciliation, 2014
Shell, water, basin and main components of sea water diluted in proportions equivalent to marine average (magnesium sulfate, potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride).
10 × 40 × 40 cm.
Deborah-Joyce Holman
Thicc and Slippery, 2020
Ink on human teeth, wire, aluminum, mirror.
7 × 7 × 7 cm.
Maya Quilolo
SORTE, 2023
One horseshoe used by an animal hung alongside each doorway.
Variable materials and dimensions.
Maya Quilolo
SORTE, 2023
One horseshoe used by an animal hung alongside each doorway.
Variable materials and dimensions.
Maya Quilolo
SORTE, 2023
One horseshoe used by an animal hung alongside each doorway.
Variable materials and dimensions.
In the first part of The Object Relation, his fourth seminar, psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan introduces the imagery, the function, and the semiotics of a “hydro-electric factory in the middle of the current of a large river” to elaborate on a handful of concepts—among them and of particular interest here: reality and abstraction. Invested in demonstrating a need for a greater understanding of the relations between the symbolic and what we grasp as the physical realm, with the text, the author opens a space for reconsidering the semantic perception of things.
A river can indeed be an object that affords countless allegories beyond its material composition and properties. It is a stream from which, although being a geographic feature, commonly enough instrumentality is offered for other-than-material narratives to be imagined. Yet, in the example given, Lacan focuses on how, on the contrary, the energy accumulated by the water flow through a power plant usually is defined by that solely.
In this debate, he intends to locate the point of analysis of an object such that it can touch a sort of abstract or, as he states, mythical notion of reality. A ground capable of trespassing signifiers like the station mentioned and, instead of ignoring them, negotiating with its emblems. Such symbolism, notably, does not coincide with fantasy. It (rather) acknowledges etymology, materiality, fiction, abstraction, and interpretation as components of reality. Within this territory, energy lies in capital, river, and work, as observed by Lacan, as much as in stillness, pause, silence, and laziness—like, for example, in the ontology introduced by Beyoncé in ENERGY1.
CRY ME A RIVER brings to Simian a group of artists who, to address spirituality, violence, labor, and institutional critique, amplify the symbolism of objecthood with processes that invest in the sculptural potential of reinterpreting existing things. The exhibition includes works conceived in the last ten years by manuel arturo abreu, James Bantone, Jason Hirata, Deborah-Joyce Holman, Flora Leite, Gabriela Mureb, davi de jesus do nascimento, Yná Kabe Rodríguez Olfenza, Maya Quilolo, Sung Tieu, and Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino.
The title of the show is borrowed from the homonymous song that, although composed and recorded by others before and after,2 was initially written to be sung by Ella Fitzgerald in 1955.
Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino
1 See ENERGY (2022) by Beyoncé.
https://genius.com/Beyonce-energy-lyrics
2 Secondhand Songs lists 647 official recorded versions of Cry Me a River.