'Chance, on the edge of a line'

'Chance, on the edge of a line', features work by Hanna Hur, Natalie Labriola, Susan Michod, Jiha Moon. This inter-generational group of artists brings a unique perspective to ideas of sight and spirituality, from the physical act of seeing to the inward exploration of the mind’s eye. They are linked to the exhibition through their shared practice involving the realms of chance, luck and fate as frameworks for understanding the complex and ultimately uncontrollable interworking of the self.

Through profound attention, intuition and meditation, Hanna Hur conjures and produces poetic works on linen. Using china marker and colored pencil, Hur lightly marks her canvases. She employs reduced symbols and color planes, such as a simple circle as a stand-in for the passing of the moon, to represent the faint boundaries and delicate interconnectedness of self and spirit.

Natalie Labriola’s work investigates her ongoing research into matters of health and healing, specifically through the lens of New Age practices. In her aluminum wall work, Labriola borrows imagery from automated handwriting samples collected by the psychic medium Baron Ludwig von Guldenstubbe in the late 1800s.  On the floor of the gallery, anti-microbial foam mats have been altered, cut and cast with dyed calendula petals and juniper berries, creating diagrammatic graphics taken from medical detoxification posters.

From her series “Shrouds” (2001-2004), Susan Michod’s psychedelic and hypnotic portraits dance at the intersection of suffocating and exposing. They pull the viewer into its mesmerizing surface, while simultaneously pushing through the veil of pattern. The viewer and the figures inside the paintings are thus both trapped in this complex play of repulsion from and engagement with the form. The artist has said about the works, “They are the eyes through which you view the storm. They are the silences between the lines.” Michod’s “Shrouds” portrays a self in continual change.

Jiha Moon was born in Korea and now lives in Atlanta, GA. Moon exploits common symbols and materials from the interwoven histories and cultures of her personal narrative. Melding southern folklore, traditional Asian iconography, and American popular culture, Moon composes works out of ceramic, synthetic hair and found objects that bend our perception of these intersecting identities.

Susan Michod, 'Alberian Shroud CVL' (2005), Acrylic on canvas

Susan Michod, 'Interlock Shroud' (2005), Acrylic on canvas

Jiha Moon, 'OHHHALRight' (2015), Porcelain, underglaze, glaze, wire, fabric, synthetic braided and hand knotted hair, shells, pony beads, Hanji beads

Jiha Moon, 'OHHHALRight' (2015), Porcelain, underglaze, glaze, wire, fabric, synthetic braided and hand knotted hair, shells, pony beads, Hanji beads

Jiha Moon, 'Baba' (2015), Ceramic, wire, Synthetic hair, digitally printed fortune cookie sayings, leather, Bells, Hanji beads, found objects

Jiha Moon, 'Baba' (2015), Ceramic, wire, Synthetic hair, digitally printed fortune cookie sayings, leather, Bells, Hanji beads, found objects

Jiha Moon, 'Blue Saja' (2017), Ceramic, wire, Synthetic hair, Jean, wire

Jiha Moon, 'Blue Saja' (2017), Ceramic, wire, Synthetic hair, Jean, wire

Natalie Labriola, 'Automatic Writing Samples (1892)' (2016), Heat-pressed ink drawings on aluminum

Hanna Hur, 'Desire' (2016), China marker, color pencil and string on raw linen

Hanna Hur, 'Desire' (2016), China marker, color pencil and string on raw linen

Hanna Hur, 'Mother' (2017), Dyed string

Hanna Hur, 'Sleep Sun' (2017), China marker, color pencil and string on raw linen

Natalie Labriola, 'Detoxification Mat with Calendula and Juniper Berries' (2017), Anti-fatigue foam mats, celluclay, pigment, dyed calendula petals, juniper berries

Natalie Labriola, 'Detoxification Mat with Calendula and Juniper Berries' (2017), Anti-fatigue foam mats, celluclay, pigment, dyed calendula petals, juniper berries

Documentation by Patrick Harkin