I shall wash your shadow – Athene Galiciadis & Ruby Sky Stiler
An exhibition based on an on-going conversation between the artists and Claudia Groeflin Ziltener
10th June – 15th July 2017
Opening 9th June, 6 – 8 pm
I shall wash your shadow presents new works by Swiss artist Athene Galiciadis and American artist Ruby Sky Stiler. The title of the show derives from a passage taken from Alejandro Jodorowsky’s novel The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky, (2008):
“Now that your aura is well combed, I shall have to wash your shadow.” …
Every instant, your body tells the time – and this is important, because every hour has a soul, a different energy, that demands that you use it in a different way. If you force your hours by doing what does not suit them, then you live badly and you become ill.”
In reference to this passage the exhibition is about finding equilibrium and a quality of truth, both materially and metaphorically. The work explores the conflict and symbiosis between fragility and strength and wrestles with the idea of creating a cohesive form from disparate parts. Against the backdrop of each artist’s personal quest to achieve balance, the works in the exhibition are multifaceted, geometric and organic, black and white, blindingly bright, sturdy and tender.
Galiciadis presents new sculptural works continuing her on-going engagement with Plexiglas and ceramics, and working for the first time with aluminium. Her work oscillates between organic fluidity and geometric control, which gives voice to the artist’s search for independence and freedom, while acknowledging the boundaries life has set. In the work Sundial Galiciadis explores the idea that our physical bodies function as a sundial, which tells the time of the day in relationship to the position of the sun – and which we can utilize as a tool to find harmony.
Ruby Sky Stiler has established a visual language in which historical periods, art movements, and spatial dimensions readily coexist. Her signature wall reliefs transform an inventory of studio castoffs into rhythmic puzzles. They draw attention equally to their surfaces and to the discrete shapes contained within, accumulating patterns and textures to create dense portraits or geometric configurations. Each component carries its own history, oftentimes visible in notes scrawled in pencil, or of outline marks only to be rethought. Here, Stiler presents three female figures derived from the same initial outline. The repeating forms function as alter egos or fraternal twins, they allude to shadows and mirrors and invite the viewer to search for their distinctions.
This exhibition came about through a continuing conversation between Athene Galiciadis, Ruby Sky Stiler and Claudia Groeflin Ziltener.
Athene Galiciadis, born 1978 in Zurich where she lives and works, holds a BA in Visual Arts from the Ecole Cantonale d‘Art de Lausanne. Recent exhibitions includeWhen Forms Become Attitude, curated by Kiki Seiler-Michalitsi, Kunst Raum Riehen (2016), Your Memories Are Our Future, Manifesta 11 Parallel Event, Palais de Tokyo and Acrush, Zurich (2016), Old Friends New Ideas – Old Ideas New Friends, Milieu Artspace, Bern (2015), like a virgin, solo, BolteLang, Zurich, Associations New, SALTS, Basel (2014), Planetaria, solo, Galerie Emanuel Herve, Paris (2014)
Ruby Sky Stiler, born 1979 in Portland ME, lives and works in Brooklyn. She holds a BFA from The Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, and an MFA from Yale University, School of Art, New Haven. Recent exhibitions include The Times, Flag Art Foundation, New York (2017), Profile and Parts, solo, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York (2016), Ghost Versions, solo, The Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield (2015), Sunbreaker, solo, Locust Projects, Miami (2015), Tyger, Tyger: Lynn Chadwick and the Art of Now, Berman Museum, Pennsylvania (2015), Me and Benjamin, curated by M + B, Galerie Xippas, Paris