Obsessive Tendencies

Obsessive Tendencies

An Installation Experiment in Four Acts

October 13^th 2010 – May 29^th 2011

The Sylvia Kania Gallery is pleased to host an ambitious new series by gallery artist Jess-Lauren Lipton. Obsessive Tendencies is an eight month series of four installations exploring fixations, compulsions, reactions, and time. Each installation is created by an implied character, a persona, who uses the physical space as an attempt to structure their world and make sense of the monsters within. Sound specific to the installation echoes off the walls. At the center of each room sits a chair allowing the viewer spend time in the space.

Mea Culpa (October 13 – November 28^th) explores how we obsess over one another and how fragile our sense of self can be. The room is a saturated crimson brown covered in black and white photos of a woman. The relationship between her and the photographer is never explained. They may be lovers or perfect strangers, but she is the focus of the photographer's passion and affirmation of their existence. The one-sidedness of this relationship makes it tenuous and potentially dangerous.

The second installation is Fortress (December 8^th – January 30^th). A life size child's fort engulfs the space. The walls have been scrawled with thoughts and drawings, poetry and prose, of a mind seeking the comfort and security that these forts often afforded children. A music box repeatedly plays 'My Favorite Things.' The viewer is invited to crawl inside and lounge among the pillows and blankets.

Time is the central theme in the third installation Somme Nous les Jouets du Destin (February 9^th – March 27^th). At the opening reception over 300 white tea cups will be filled will tea and left in the space. Over the course of the installation they will begin to evaporate at their own pace, all starting in tune with each other and then forming and reforming relationships within the room. Each tea cup will go through it's own life-cycle within the context of the larger group.

The final installation in the series, Narcissa on the Brink (April 6^th – May 29^th) utilizes analogue photography to document the psychological break in a young woman. She is experiencing the stages of grief where the underlying trauma left unidentified. Whether she is allowing herself to be photographed or is unaware of the camera is unclear. So is her location. The white walls could be that of her own apartment or an institution. The chair at the center of the room allows the viewer to place themselves in the role of casual observer and psychologist.