Poly

 

Lakshmi Luthra
Jonathan Bruce Williams

 

May 14 – June 17, 2016

Opening: Saturday, May 14, 6-9pm

 

**Performance by Matt Evans & Jackson Randall, 8pm**

 

Sushi Bar Gallery is pleased to present Poly, bringing together photographs by Lakshmi Luthra and sculptures by Jonathan Bruce Williams.

Lakshmi Luthra creates high-resolution digital prints of composed still-lifes using mundane commodities—discarded objects. These items appear to be remainders of some fictional scene, evoking their past use by living bodies. This series arises from the artist's identification with the objects: their futility, their failure to form themselves into something more than detritus. The objects are in disarray, abandoned to themselves and yet not entirely haphazard, forming secret affinities based on material or visual resemblances. There is no transcendent realm these things mirror; they are only the emanations of human industry, which far exceeds and desperately lags behind its model, nature.

Jonathan Bruce Williams designs elaborate structures, built first as 3D models, later printed as parts, and finally assembled on mechanical platforms which he constructs. The works resemble “organic” continuations of the 3D printer from which their bodies are formed, and the material used to print these forms is itself organic: polylactic acid, or PLA, derived from plant sources. The forms highlight a tension of uncertainty between the organic and the fabricated, in which it is unclear what affects what in which order. Like all plastic constructs, their bodies are built of a repeating sequence of units, a kind of molecular Morse code. These bodies call for a reflection on the order of decoration, functionality, and randomness.

Both the still life photographs and kinetic sculptures embody a tension between the found and the fabricated. Mass-produced found objects are treated meticulously in Lakshmi’s work, whereas Jonathan’s labor on their 3D construction is followed by an automated printing process. Both artists depend at once on the craft of digital tools, as well as the random and automated tactics presented by these tools. In Jonathan's sculptures, an infinite space of digital possibility is disciplined towards non-utilitarian designs, while in Lakshmi's prints, engineered objects which have outlived their utility gain a second life. The two bodies of work softly suggest a new imaginary of the built and discarded. Poly(valent), poly(amorous), poly(ester), the works propose a kind of liberty for the repetitive lives of objects. The polymers appear to be trapped in fabrication cycles that seek a logic to which they might adhere.

A performance of new music by Matt Evans (Tigue, Man Forever, Contemporaneous) and Jackson Randall (Xenomorph.mx, Middle Grey) follows the reception. Mirroring the works in this exhibition, their performance synthesizes the improvised and the structured, merging acoustic percussion with digital logic and continuous form.