Sonia Finley, “No Place, Here” 2nd Floor Lobby

Notes:

The audience in Sonia’s video projection, “Room 715F,” can enter and leave as they want. This is the open invitation of this exhibition, too, as Sonia says in her wall text, “stay for a long time or a short time, or leave and then return later.”

In her video, Sonia and Christian interact in a room with or without an audience. It looks as though they are seeking an entrance into one another. The quality of the video obscures specifics so that at times the two bodies make a single form. But the impossibility of what they are trying to do asserts itself, and they have to separate.

We are invited to sit and read her book “No Place, Here,” which includes photographs and text. The large spandex lumps that we’re encouraged to sit on are made from the same materials and correspond to the forms recorded in her photographs. These forms are bodily and speak to skin, folds, torsos, and backbones. Although made of cheap, flashy material, the forms are transformed by the seductive quality of the photographs.

The show discusses “here,” the experience of being in this place (the gallery) at this moment. The photographs demonstrate bodily forms occupying space, and her book addresses this question directly, asking a viewer (of something) “What was it like to enter this space?”

A miniature silicone version of the lump form rests on the arm of a small white topless box that is installed on the wall of the lobby. How does it interact with its space? Why does it stay outside of it? The tone of this piece feels slightly different, but related.

Three of Sonia’s photographs are placed on the main gallery wall, but pushed to the far left side. The show is careful to leave enough space for the viewer and this wall, usually the main gallery space for artists using the 2nd floor lobby, is left open.

Henry