#vanessaholyoak

Between Dog and Wolf

On view by appointment Saturday, March 14th, 4-8 PM The term, “between dog and wolf,” comes from the French saying, entre chien et loup, referring to the time at dusk or twilight when one cannot distinguish a dog from a wolf. Taking the term metaphorically, the exhibition investigates the co-inhabitants of such liminal spaces, invisible in light and visible in darkness, residing in fluctuating social or natural environments. Though Holyoak and Kang are both “dogs” according to the Chinese zodiac system, their identities are constantly in flux, caught between cultural temporalities in the dim half light: now dog, now wolf. In the current climate of intense global political change, with catastrophic natural disasters raging around the world, in the ambiguous presence of a dog or a wolf, are we falling into a dark night, or we are just about to see the sunrise? Between Dog and Wolf brings together recent works from Coffee Kang (b.1994, China), Vanessa Holyoak (b.1994, US) and Antoine Chesnais (b.1984, France), inviting the audience to an intimate experience of liminal space. The five works engage with the concept of sight in various contexts. I SEE MORE CLEARLY IN THE DARK, 2019, by Holyoak and Chesnais, explores the beauty that shadows can hold, in contrast with Western ideals of brightness, whiteness, and general brilliance. XVII.The Star, 2019, by Kang, initiated at the residency Pilotenkueche in Leipzig, in reference to a Tarot card, performs an installation on artist’s personal transnational experience, inviting the audience to a timeless water voyage with hope for a new start. The 3-channel video installation, Almost Crossing/Thresholds, 2020, by Holyoak and Kang, unveils the multiplicities at the thresholds, with repetitive gestures and whispering performed at three different locations. The live performance will be held at the opening and closing reception. In At Night I No Longer Fear The Future, 2020, by Holyoak and Chesnais, a series of sculptural interpretations of objects and signs — references to the Hong Kong protests and the city’s disappearing identities — seek their way out of shipping containers dispersed in a twilight environment, in search of an ambiguous future. Haven, 2020, by Kang, creates an imaginative space consisting of soap sculptures of household objects, drawing from the artist’s childhood memories. Despite the meditative and calming connotations of the material, its temporal and fragile nature suggests the impermanence of what makes up a  “house.” Vanessa Holyoak (b. 1994, US)  and Antoine Chesnais (b. 1984, France) are an artist duo working across installation, sculpture, photography, video, performance and language. They construct uncanny, minimalist environments that allude to notions of memory, intimate and ecological loss, and the cognitive overload of the present. The concerns of their work pertain to a discourse of cultural and environmental displacement, in which liminality, memory, and the phenomenology of embodied experience play central roles in the forging of a self beyond categories, paradigms, and borders. Holyoak holds a dual MFA in Photography & Media and Writing from CalArts and a BA summa cum laude in French Literature, Translation, and Philosophy from Barnard College. Chesnais holds an MFA in Photography from l’École des Gobelins and a BA in Art History from l’Université d’Avignon. Coffee Kang (b.1994, China) is a conceptual visual artist currently based in Los Angeles. She holds a BA in Creative Media from City University of Hong Kong (2016), and an MFA in Photo and Media from California Institute of the Arts (2018). Coffee Kang is now an artist in residency at ESXLA. In her work, Coffee Kang navigates her personal moving and shifting narrative through various media, primarily performance centered pieces, with a melancholy aesthetics. Her practice emphasizes the temporality of the medium and performative process of making, reflecting a state of fluctuation in a larger social context. On view until April. 5