{"id":5776,"date":"2020-05-22T10:35:33","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T07:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kim.lv\/?p=5776"},"modified":"2022-01-10T14:49:10","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T12:49:10","slug":"all-flesh-is-grass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kim.lv\/en\/all-flesh-is-grass\/","title":{"rendered":"Group show All Flesh is Grass by Una Hamilton Helle, Eltons K\u016bns, Uma Breakdown, Erik Martinson"},"content":{"rendered":" <\/p>\n

All Flesh is Grass<\/strong><\/p>\n

Una Hamilton Helle, Eltons K\u016bns, Uma Breakdown and Erik Martinson<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

exhibition, online reading group, online screening, and artist film program<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

June 4 \u2013 August 23, 2020<\/b><\/p>\n

Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In Clifford D. Simak\u2019s novel \u2018All Flesh is Grass\u2019 (1965) a small town becomes inexplicably isolated from the rest of the world by an invisible and impenetrable barrier. The central character Brad Carter, a near bankrupt business owner, becomes an interspecies conduit with the entities responsible for the shield encasing the town. The beings are extra-terrestrial in origin and take the form of purple flowers. Carter takes on a role of ambassador of sorts, in order to speak the flower patch\u2019s message of peaceful coexistence for all in the universe. The phrase \u2018All Flesh is (as) Grass\u2019 is also commonly used as an epitaph for many who have passed on and joined the soil, acknowledging life\u2019s cycle and interconnection.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The meeting place of interspecies communication and mortality is central to the 1978 film \u2018The Kirlian Witness\u2019 (aka \u2018The Plants are Watching\u2019) directed by Jonathan Sarno. Self described as \u2018the first botanical thriller\u2019 the film is a murder mystery where the key witness is a plant. The protagonist Rilla begins to unravel the circumstances of her sister Laurie\u2019s untimely death by delving into her sister\u2019s fondness and connection to plants. She locates a copy of the book \u2018The Secret Life of Plants\u2019 (1973) by Peter Tompkins\u00a0and Christopher Bird to better understand her late sister\u2019s fascination. This leads Rilla to one plant in particular, a \u2018silent\u2019 witness that she begins to understand through experiments with Kirlian photography and other methods. Tension builds when two men in Rilla\u2019s life become the prime suspects. She must navigate their aggressive male chauvinism, and the resulting dangers. Retribution for Laurie is found in the end, thanks to Rilla\u2019s diligence and the help of the perceptive plant.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The exhibition \u2018All Flesh is Grass\u2019 at Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga, will be structured around questions of plant consciousness\/agency and interspecies communication\/empathy. Engaging with these concepts as \u2018mysteries\u2019 the project will utilize play as a form of enquiry. \u2018The Kirlian Witness\u2019 and its context of 1970s (pseudo) science will be the departure point, paired with measured critique and expanded questioning. The method is a collaboratively developed immersive game that envisions the space at Kim? as a set, and a site for experimentation. Reference points include techniques\/approaches from: LARP (Live Action Role Playing), LAOG (Live Action Online Games), TTRPG\u2019s (Table Top Role Playing Games), MMO’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Games), and TV adventure games. The exhibition features: a public research lab with scrolls containing data pertinent to the development of the project; sound from a modular synthesizer; a self directed guided meditation; a soil tray; and a potted Ficus lyrata in front of a green screen. Additional \u2018prop\u2019 elements will enter the space over the course of the exhibition as the project and game design evolves. The resulting game(s) will consider both physical and online play scenarios, and will be publicly play tested by the conclusion of the exhibition. Perceived limitations of interspecies communication will be seen as grounds for speculative potential, and all engagement with living entities, fictional or otherwise, will be approached with respect.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018All Flesh is Grass\u2019 is a collaborative project by: Una Hamilton Helle, Eltons K\u016bns, Uma Breakdown, and curator Erik Martinson. During the exhibition Of Animacy Reading Group, convened by Nella Aarne, will host online sessions focused on pertinent texts to the project. A pdf publication will be made at the end of the project to track collective research and present new writing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further public events include: an online screening of \u2018The Kirlian Witness\u2019 (aka \u2018The Plants are Watching\u2019), with a video introduction by Kier-La Janisse, founder of Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies; and a finissage screening featuring works by John Baldessari, Elise Florenty & Marcel T\u00fcrkowsky, and Charlotte Pryce.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Public Program<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Of Animacy Reading Group x All Flesh is Grass<\/b><\/p>\n

June 30, 19:00 (EEST)
\nJuly 21, 19:00 (EEST)
\nAugust 11, 19:00 (EEST)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Online screening, date to be announced<\/b><\/p>\n

The Kirlian Witness<\/i> (aka The Plants are Watching<\/i>), Jonathan Sarno, 1978, 73:00, USA<\/p>\n

Presented with a video introduction by Kier-La Janisse, founder of Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Artist film program, date to be announced<\/b><\/p>\n

Screening together:<\/p>\n

Teaching a Plant the Alphabet<\/i>, John Baldessari, 1972, 18:08, USA (courtesy of VDB)<\/p>\n

Conversation with a Cactus<\/i>, Elise Florenty & Marcel T\u00fcrkowsky, 2017, 45:00, FR\/DE<\/p>\n

PWDRE SER: the rot of stars<\/i>, Charlotte Pryce, 2018, 6:44, UK<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Participant Bios<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Una Hamilton Helle<\/b> (NO\/UK) is an artist and art worker with an interdisciplinary and research-led practice. Her long term project Becoming the Forest looks at questions around ecology, black metal, topography and plant sentience through exhibitions, events and a publication. She has also worked with gaming techniques, LARP and world building as ways to look at empathy, embodiment and collaboration with human and non human entities. Her most recent projects include creating a site-specific sound installation for Waltham Forest Borough of Culture (UK), a video essay for New Art Gallery Walsall (UK) and a text-based adventure game for Celsius Project Space (SWE), as well as events at London Short Film Festival, Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo), Het Bos (Antwerp) and [Space] (London).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eltons K\u016bns <\/b>(LV) has studied English and Literature at LCC International University and New Media Art at Liep\u0101ja University. K\u016bns’ body of work focuses on the ambiguity of the real\/virtual space via the medium of perceptually sculptural objects operating on the threshold of screen space perception. K\u016bns has participated in such group shows as Well Now WTF? (Silicon Valet, online, 2020), SOOZ V1.9 (Sooz, online, 2015), FR\u20ac\u20ac \u20aeHI\u20a6G$ (STCFTHOTS, Leeds, England, 2015), GIFbites (Dar-ol-Hokoomeh, Shiraz, Iran, 2014).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Uma Breakdown<\/b> (UK) is the name under which the Gateshead based artist and researcher Ralph Dorey writes on horror, art and play. Dorey received an MA from the Royal College of Art in 2008 and a PhD from Northumbria University, Newcastle in 2020. Their research is concerned with queer, ludic, feminist approaches to art via the tangential tactics of tabletop role playing games, horror cinema, and experimental literature, with an emphasis on \u2018\u00c9criture f\u00e9minine\u2019, the philosophy of Georges Bataille, and the writing techniques of Kathy Acker. As a practicing artist Uma Breakdown has recently presented material at SERF in Leeds, Res., South London Gallery, and Whitechapel Gallery, all in London. Recent publications include: \u2018PaperWork Issue 3: iilwimi lipsing\u2019 (2018) edited by Jessa Mockridge and Catherine Smiles, \u2018The Body That Remains\u2019 (2018) edited by Emmy Beber, \u2018Alembic\u2019 (2018) edited by Sarah Jury, Helen Kaplinsky and Lucy A. Sames, and \u2018Lossy Ecology\u2019 (2017) edited by Louisa Martin.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Erik Martinson <\/b>(CA\/LV) is a curator and writer living in the UK. His research stems from speculative beginnings, drawing from the fictional and esoteric as fertile ground for intersections with contemporary artists\u2019 practices. His projects often operate on a sliding scale between the metaphoric and the literal. Investment is made in the actuality of speculative scenarios, the possibility of impossible things or knowledge, as much as how these concepts might apply and draw connections to lived experience and social\/political realities. Selected projects have been hosted at: The Images Festival, Toronto (2012); A Space Gallery, Toronto (2012); Pleasure Dome, Toronto (2012); Art Gallery of Mississauga (2013); Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2015); Chalton Gallery, London (2016); LUX, London (2016, 2017); Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (2016); The Ryder, London (2017);\u00a0Toronto International\u00a0Film Festival\u2019s Wavelengths\u00a0Series (2017); Close-Up Film Centre, London (2018); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2018); Process Experimental Film Festival, Riga (2018); Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn (2018); North Norwegian Art Centre, Svolv\u00e6r\u00a0(2019); Cubitt Gallery, London (2019); Lofoten International Art Festival, Svolv\u00e6r\u00a0(2019); Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2019); Rupert, Vilnius (2019); and Baltic Analog Lab, Riga (2019).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Patrons: Vita Liberte, K\u0101rlis \u0136irsis<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Supported by: Ministry of Culture, State Culture Capital Foundation, Riga City Council, EricaSynths, Curatorial Research Residency (Nordland Kunst- og Filmfagskole \/Goldsmiths, University of London), KRASSKY, Satori, Arterritory.com, Green Print, Kokmui\u017eas alus, Gardu muti<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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