- Appendix Project Space
- Killing it with fire.
Slovenian "fire painter" Sanela Jahić is having her first US exhibition at Appendix Project Space. Passengers from the Relative to the Absolute is the name of the show, and when I spoke with co-curator Zachary Davis earlier this afternoon, he described several exciting works that'll be on view.
The main event is a presentation of fire painting; a mechanized display of flames (pictured to the right). In addition to making things burn, several other mechanical works will be on view. One piece was described as a painting that shows itself in increments by way of motorized lighting. Another is described by Jahić on her website as a "mechanical book"— "an array of plastic cylinders which are individually pushed up and down by [a] matrix of electromagnets positioned below the cylinders." The cylinders rise to form letters, words, and sentences.
A further explanation of Jahić's work is given in the press release:
Distilling the essential powers claimed by various modes of creation - painting's living evidence of touch, or the power of the word to remake the past - Jahić creates for herself situations of enhanced mechanical advantage. At one time, the hand held the charred stick, and the stick touched the world. Here, embodied in elaborate engineering, and suspended at a theoretical distance by inanimate causal series, the basic interaction is elongated and radically transformed.
The opening runs from 7:30-11:30 pm, and at 8:00 pm a performance by Sarah Johnson will take place in Appendix's outdoor performance space, Hay Batch!. After Johnson's performance, Jahić will make flames. Appendix is located "in the South alley between 26th and 27th Avenues off of NE Alberta Street."
