Artist(s): Sara Magenheimer
Date: February 25, 2017-March 4, 2017
Sara Magenheimer’s first institutional solo exhibition, I Collect Neglected Venoms, transformed The Kitchen’s first-floor theater into a multi-sensory installation ruminating on questions of language and consciousness through video, sculpture, theatrical lighting, and a diffused custom ocean scent. Centered around the two-channel video Best is Man’s Breath Quality, the installation explored language’s ability to reproduce itself through culture and fundamentally shape perception. The video’s narrator, an ancient jellyfish, commented through an authoritarian voice-over on the state of human consciousness and perception. The disembodied nature of the human voice and the shifting psychological states present in the video were emphasized by the abstracted movements of genetically modified fluorescent fish projected onto the stage via a live-feed. Bookending the run of the show, Magenheimer presented two performances that illuminated multiple modes of perception through a collage of shared language and personal vernacular. This exhibition was curated by Lumi Tan and Tim Griffin.
