Chloë Bass June Newsletter
Happy first official day of summer to everyone in the northern hemisphere.
At the end of June 2023, after opening #sky #nofilter at the California African-American Museum* on last year’s summer solstice, I took an intentional yearlong hiatus from showing work in exhibitions. I timed this break to coincide with my sabbatical from teaching. I wanted to focus my year on something other than production and display: studying new forms and materials (film, light, curved glass); returning to performance- and event-based work (which I was happy to share at the Museum of Modern Art, ICP, and the Francis Kite Club); and the introduction of a new phase of work and research.
And now it’s June 2024. My year is up, and I’m back with three extremely exciting announcements: my first show (and a brand new commission) in Canada; my first show in Antwerp; and, nearest and dearest to my heart and home, the installation of my permanent commission for the MTA’s Lorimer L station.
Read below to learn more about each project.
Perspective Alignment
My new stone commission, Perspective Alignment, opened at the Bentway in Toronto at the end of May 2024. This series of 9 engraved stone benches reflects on diverse themes of recovery: mental and physical health, recovery from legacies of historic violence, and even data recovery.
The project follows the visual language that I developed for my 2022 work Soft Services, (commissioned by the Henry Art Gallery) which remains on extended view in Seattle’s Volunteer Park. The Seattle Times recently featured Soft Services as one of five important public art projects to visit this season. I’m glad the work is continuing to resonate!
Perspective Alignment remains on view at the Bentway through October 2024.
Come Closer
I spent the first week of June in Antwerp, where I installed work from my series The Parts as part of sculpture-and-performance exhibition Come Closer at the Middelheim Museum. The exhibition features work from an amazing group of artists, including Andres Jacque, Joan Jonas, SUPERFLEX, Isamu Noguchi, and Temitayo Ogunbiyi.
In addition to installing sculptures in the Middelheim’s landscape, I also worked with Belgium-based dancers and performers to turn a work from The Parts into an ambulatory performance.
Enjoy this photo from our rehearsal day! Performances will take place throughout July, August, and September. The exhibition stays on view through September 29th — but for those of you who won’t be in the Antwerp region, I’m working on a video version of the performance work suitable for showing in other contexts.
Personal Choice #5
Personal Choice #5, my three-wall mosaic commission, was officially unveiled in the Lorimer L station at the end of last week. As a born and raised New Yorker, having my work up in a subway station is incredibly meaningful. I’m grateful, too, that it’s in a station I actually pass through regularly — one that marks the intersection of two trains (the L and the G) along which I lived for 15 years (5 off the L, 10 off the G) of my adult life.
The project features mosaic renderings of found images from the New York Public Library’s picture collection, with metal lettering that spreads a single sentence across three walls: “Whenever I’m pulled under by the weight of all I miss, I feel some consolation that I have known, and may yet know, another life.”
The project was beautifully fabricated by Miotto Mosaics Art Studios (New York) and Travisanutto Artistic Mosaics (Italy).
Thanks to Hyperallergic for featuring the work twice: in a lovely write-up about both my and Jackie Chang’s work; and in this list of shows to see before June ends — which I find delightfully funny, because this work will be up for as long as there is a subway and a Lorimer L station (don’t say forever!).
*Just a note: following a prolonged closure, California African-American Museum has recently reopened with Simone Leigh’s beautiful traveling retrospective. If you’re in Los Angeles, I hope you stop by to see this monumental work, and to visit my sundial.
For those of you who have been with me on the long journey of my work, thank you. For those who have just become aware of what I’m up to, thank you as well. It’s been amazing to feel your energy and support as I venture towards sustainability, certain forms of permanence, and new ways of working and thinking. I have an extremely exciting announcement to share with you next month, too, so stay tuned.
May your summer be off to an amazing start even as the world is full of struggles. I hope the light brings you what you need so that you can do the best for yourself and whoever you consider to be your neighbors: both immediate, and distant.
Always,