A Creeping Normality

A Creeping Normality
By Claire Elliott & Asa Mease
Opening: Saturday, April 30th 5-8pm

Surrounded by a sea of wheat, a forest becomes an island to its inhabitants. A backyard garden nestled in suburban sprawl can isolate just the same. The domestic spaces that we tend have biogeography distinct from those of our neighbors, and yet with each gesture we make on the land – mowing a lawn, raking fallen needles, planting flowers, or digging up weeds, we further shift the identity of these spaces. Through this practice we are active in the hollowing out of the landscape. Even absence or neglect on our part cannot return it to its origin, as its qualities are always shifting.

Elliott’s paintings of endemic and invasive plant species highlight the unruly bounty at our feet, while Mease’s meandering work in sculpture and paint investigates the signs and signifiers of the Wildland-Urban interface. In A Creeping Normality, the two artists consider new forms of ecological harmony, contradiction, and unease achieved through a sustained practice of observation.

In tandem with A Creeping Normality, the event For the Squash in the Sky (Sunday, May 22nd 12:30-2:30pm), took place as a celebration of spring. Asa prepared homemade soup with squash harvested from his garden, along with rye bread, and Claire made dandelion jelly. Claire led a weed walk around the yard, identifying, discussing, and removing invasive plants. A weed identification packet and Weeds: A Coloring book were produced as part of the event.

A Provocation

Friday, February 4, 20225:00 PM
Thursday, March 3, 20225:00 PM

In Wave – A Provocation, WAVE Contemporary members present gestures of incitement, large and small. These provocations are situated, not within each individual’s practice, but within the practice or ethos of WAVE as a whole. As a dedicated collective, new gestures grow from our collaborative discussions. The process of critique becomes a focal point, and the work from each member highlights this process across various mediums. Just as art is a provocation, critique is also a provocative act, challenging the artist to reach beyond their normal habits, concepts, and thought-patterns. Through critique, WAVE artists seek to both provoke and be provoked, a reciprocity of expansion.

Transgression is always an integral part of artmaking. Wave – A Provocation proposes community as a catalyst for provocation, asking how communities challenge, support and transgress together. Each artist will present a piece that highlights the collaborative efforts of WAVE, an individual work shaped or influenced by critique and conversation within the larger collective. Within Wave – A Provocation, we invite viewers into the critique process and a community of provocation.

On the Verge of Recognition

Well Well Projects, March 2022

Atlas: Collective Show

Carnation Contemporary, December 2021

In Painting, Thinking is Painting

Erickson Gallery, August 2021