Elsewhere Is a Negative Mirror

About

“Journeys to relive your past?” was the Khan’s question at this point, a question which could also have been formulated: “Journeys to recover your future?”

And Marco’s answer was: “Elsewhere is a negative mirror. The traveler recognizes the little that is his, discovering the much he has not had and will never have.”

• Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Natessa Amin and Susan Klein depict spaces that are records of desires, dreams, and memories, and the slippages between them. Both artists are preoccupied with representing lived and shared experiences, and delightfully use bold color, patterns, and geometric shapes to delineate phenomenological narratives and responses. These formal elements contain secret codes, interlocking networks, and personal history. Amin and Klein are interested in how symbols - like experiences - are flexible and contextual, and simultaneously take on numerous meanings, connotations, and interpretations.

Amin, who was born and raised in Pennsylvania in an Indian-American family, grew up navigating the complex relationships formed from contrasting cultures and religions. Her choice of patterns, materials, and color are rooted in her personal history and disparate cultural identities. Allusions to Pennsylvania Dutch craft found in her work, mixed with inspiration from Indian and African textiles, amalgamate into a new and unique visual lexicon. By depicting imagined places and fantastical dream-like environments, with decipherable moments of recognizable imagery, Amin grapples with her identity, responsibility as an artist, and navigation of daily space, ultimately to bend the parameters of history, possibility, and reality.

Klein has a similar preoccupation with ornamentation, bizarre patterns, and hidden codes. Her work is filled with sensitive observations and material responses; they tease you with their shifting perspectives and shifting identities. There is an implied functionality to Klein’s forms and shapes: are they spiritual or devotional markers? Objects for a domestic space? Public space? Futuristic possible architectural plans? Any and all of the above? This ambiguity nestles itself into a sweet spot, in which Klein reflects upon past relationships and experiences while remaining firmly rooted and connected to the present.

Elsewhere Is a Negative Mirror is a reflection on creating connections and empathy, and the ongoing search for things beyond ourselves and the physical world. What do we hold onto, and what do we hold order to?