POLARITY: The Tension of an Emerging World
Our world is changing.
Amidst the events of the ongoing pandemic, we find ourselves at a crossroads. Behind us, the Ways of Before—the structures built for us by capitalism, by patriarchy, by rigidity, and by an unwillingness to accept who and what cannot conform.
Ahead of us, the road is clear. The rising dawn unfolds, a wayshower of golden sunlight, whispering the quiet hum of uncharted possibilities. This hum is building, mounting, ricocheting within us, clawing with gentle insistence, bartering for its freedom.
Can you hear it?
“POLARITY: The Tension of an Emerging World” unveils the secrets of that hum. Headed by a talented team of artists and innovators from both Level Ground and beyond, “POLARITY” explores the push-and-pull of a global paradigm shift and a collective need for healing, as seen through the eyes of those seeking to lead a new way forward. Through a fascinating exhibition of visuals, music, art and performance, “POLARITY” perfectly captures the strength, power and innovation of the human spirit, and the resilience of our optimism in the face of the unknown.
Let this be a moment of joy for you. Let this be a space of healing, release and celebration. The sun has not set—it is rising, and the road is clear.
Bri Stokes, Curator, 2022
Meet the Artists
Langston Alimayu
lives and works in Los Angeles, Ca. They are a self-taught multi-disciplinary artist who works primarily with acrylic paints but also creates through sculpture, animation, performance art, and as a recording musician using the moniker “Sweet Lang”.
Katayoun Bahrami
is an Iranian multidisciplinary artist living and working in Los Angeles. Her artistic interest focuses on the interaction between women's bodies as targets/performers, affected by boundaries that act as a catalyzer between the two. Bahrami employs photographs, videos, textiles, installations, and mixed-media works to express her ideas.
Artist Statement
My research is a narrative of my personal experience of exile. I work through a series of photographs, textiles, and mixed media to amplify women's roles; I create to give voice to the voiceless. Through employing various materials that respond to the context of my research, I reflect on the metaphoric voice of materials in space and translate the gesture of patterns. I construct along with weaving and crocheting across the history of Iranian feminism. I am inspired by Persian mystical literature and feminist poems to portray meaning in my work. I confront Iranian misogyny laws and disturb the sense of exile and border.
Woman, Life, Freedom, Mixed Media, 2019
Kennedy Francis
I am a mixed-media artist who uses surrealist themes and juxtapositions to relay my emotions throughout my journey of becoming a first-generation college graduate. Assimilating into a white suburban community as a young black girl largely shaped my identity. “A Tale of Two Cities” depicts the anxiety following the pressure to continue breaking barriers as someone from a low-income background where education is deemed a necessary privilege. The contrast between the center collage and background painting highlight the isolation experienced while navigating predominantly white institutions and the struggle to adapt in a different world.
The pandemic was a reminder that life is short and was a source of inspiration to lean into my passions. While this piece grieves the time lost trying to appease these institutions, I celebrate the knowledge I have equipped and communities I have encountered along the way.
Chiho Harazaki
was born and raised in the countryside of Japan. After moving to the US and discovering tape art in college, Chiho became fascinated with using various kinds of adhesive tape for her art. Tiny pieces of tape, cut by precision knife and scissors, create each detail used to compose a whole picture. Her works are at times evocative of traditional arts such as woodcut and paper cut, while other pieces fuse Western pop art. Her exploration of tape art includes work in small and large scale, in two and three dimensions, and on various kinds of surfaces, often embellishing objects with intricate patterns. Informed by her experiences living in both Japan and America, Chiho’s subject matter includes a variety of cultural, historical, and narrative elements as well as social comments.
Adaptation
42" x 72"
Electrical tape on paper
Expression Series (5 pieces)
12"x12" each
Electrical tape on paper
Chloe A. Joseph
Everyday I feel like I am blooming into new versions of myself, and I want this transformation to shine through in my artwork and poetry. Although I don’t have the answers for what my future may look like, especially in a time where our communities are still recovering from the on-going effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, I hope my work becomes an insight into my state of mind and sense of self-worth in difficult times.
These self-portraits and the accompanying poetry showcase a slow, but ongoing blossoming and growth. Through this cathartic work I’ve been learning how to both encourage and challenge myself, and how to trust my own process along the way. Having the opportunity to submit my work to Level Ground Co.’s show, Polarity: Tensions of an Emerging World, has given me the drive to push myself even further, especially in meeting and viewing the journey of my fellow artists.
Coffee Kang
(b.1994, China) is a conceptual artist based in Los Angeles. Working with an expansive range of media, including photography, performance, sculptures, and installation, Kang welcomes the unknown and unpredictable during making and embeds the performative and the temporal to be part of the work. Kang holds a BA in Creative Media from the City University of Hong Kong (2016), and an MFA in Photo and Media from the California Institute of the Arts (2018). Kang's works have been showcased internationally in Vienna, Leipzig, Budapest, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Los Angeles at The Box, Last Projects, The Schindler House, Nomad Pavilion, LaunchLA, and Room to Create. Kang was an artist in residence at Pilotenkueche, Eastside International, and Level Ground.
Title:
Blueprint of 2020
Medium:
Cyanotype on Fabric
Dimensions:
5x7’
www.coffeekang.com and Instagram handle: @coffeeekang
Dvorah Marie
is a performance artist with classical training in theatre, dance, vocal. performance and circus arts. She loves fusions of genres, mediums and cultures. Her professional experiences include film, dance, circus, photography, music, and interactive theatre. She is a SAG union member and writes, produces and directs various projects. Dvorah's passion is to create positive change through art, storytelling and entertainment.
Apricity is a short film based on a poem that emerged as we did from lockdown. In contemplation of the word that has become obsolete, the observation of consciousness in our new reality post isolation became the content of Apricity. The newly found sensitivity to things past ignored, desire for human connection and love, and the acceptance of a fluid reality are all expressed in this work. Given by way of a man's life in reverse, the work showcases that which has become more important in life, beyond the confinements of the work-centered society in which we had been existing. The poem was published in Unafraid Magazine among other female poets.
The Wall of Fears, Rage and Tears is the first part of a large-scale project called Mind’s Eye, which is currently being designed. It is an interactive and immersive theater, film. and mixed media experience. The goal of the project is to create a consciously transformative experience created in a way that causes the audience to question what is “real” vs. “not real” in an effort to stretch the way we see things in our Mind’s Eye. The Wall on display here, is facilitated both as research and in discovery of the effectiveness of the experience of writing personal fears, rages, and sadness on the wall. It is a means for the audience to leave their interference behind.
Rebekah Mei
is an artist and educator with a deep love for the wisdom of artists and their power to affect change. Raised in China, Hong Kong, and Thailand, Rebekah has found her home in Los Angeles.
For more than 10 years Rebekah has used her degree in Art Education to lead workshops designed for participants of all ages, inside and outside of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
A passion for life-long learning has led Rebekah to design her own self-directed M.F.A. program in Matriarchal Art Practice. This program -- based on the overlooked labor of caretakers -- incorporates performative art practice, collaborative research projects, and domestic craft.
Rebekah's artwork is rooted in identity and often features printmaking, collage, mixed media, and found objects.
Links
Bianca Nozaki - Nasser
is a Los Angeles (Tongva land) based multimedia artist. Born to a Syrian-Lebanese father and Japanese American mother, much of her work draws on her own experience navigating familial legacy, transnational culture, material language, and the politics of artifacts. Bianca is also the Strategy & Creative Director at 18MR, a national digital-first Asian American advocacy organization where she works on campaigns to mobilize over 170,000 members around social issues.
Kevin Patrick
(b. 1993) has been sketching and drawing ever since he could pick up a pencil and put it to paper. He had an option to paint his final project for a class at Cal State Dominguez Hills, and will be displaying his work tonight. He is excited and honored to be part of this artist collective which amplify queer/POC voices.
I’D GIVE ANYTHING FOR YOU TO REALLY SEE ME, 2021
Acrylic on Canvas
Influenced by the short story “Space Traders” by Derrick Bell, this is my version of an ending to the story. I also referenced the pop cultural revival of Black Girl Magic post pandemic and after the murder of George Floyd. There’s a sense of something cosmic and ethereal when I think of the power black women have, and how much they have gone through to now be celebrated in every shape. I used this title because of the black women who sometimes are only viewed with a stereotypical gaze. Those who want so desperately to be seen and heard in a world that is, at times, so willfully blind.
Eva Montealegre
In my paintings I examine the body, the dark and mysterious corners, the stopping places, and launching pads of the soul. I’m deeply affected by the style of the original artists, the cave painters. My process initiates with a vision that is inspired by historical drawings, photos and scientific research. I use oil paints mixed with plaster, sand, rice, metal and organic materials to create texture and movement as the foundation or under-painting. From there the transformation begins. I begin with a plan but the final outcome is an exploration of an intense relationship with color, texture, and the original inspiration.
A fascination for the time space continuum elicits my awe. I am developing a series of paintings inspired by the James Webb photos to discover an image where science and art meet. These images will invite the viewer to confront the power of simple beauty, the incunabula, rites of passages, epiphanies, and rebirth.
Suzanna Missenberger
is a Jamaican born and based Visual Artist. She began her artistic career in Kingston, Jamaica primarily as a street artist illustrating and examining themes around Caribbean community and gender identity. Presently she explores woodwork, mask-making and mixed media. Her work centres the relationship between cultural displacement and the natural environment, ecology, and the recovery and exploration of indigenous heritage, both retained and reimagined. By combining traditional artistic elements with her dynamic and free-flowing artistic expression Suzanna aspires to create artwork that is symbolically-affective in the context of the diaspora and the displaced.
Belief kill and belief cure, the mask and photo series, were inspired by the scenes at “Uptown Mondays”, a weekly dance in Kingston, Jamaica. The island has learnt how to loudly celebrate death and darkness alongside life. I thought of how many people were gathered there together, seen and unseen. What was missing in ordering our own unique madness, and who was begging to be seen again,urgently.
Jupiter Mitchell
When I think about all that's happened in the last two years, I can't help but feel like it's the emergence of a new way of living. Our systems-all the way from the government to even the way we think and process emotions are very apparently falling down and breaking apart, and now it's like we have to figure out something new and sustainable for us. This poem is hope-a reminder, that this is not the end. We keep going, and though the road is hard, the taste of freedom will always be worth it. Freedom for the soul has always been a challenge, and it's something we have made strides towards throughout history. Every minute, every second of each day gives us the chance to create a new meaning for our lives and to simply be better than we were before. The story of Us-the human race, isn't over. It is just beginning.
Kiki LaPomme
is a multimedia artist currently residing in San Diego, California. Her most recent body of paintings explores her relationship with the Pacific Ocean - something that has been at times imagined, experienced through media, physically realized, and then nearly impossible. Since the beginning of COVID-19 we have especially come to consider the outdoors as a safe space.
These works question if our complex attachment (or lack of) to the largest body of water on our planet is something many people experience in patchwork and how the longing for such connection benefits and shapes our lives
Malibu?
Oil, Acrylic and Pastel
11x24"
Rye Reuel
is a multidisciplinary creative, designer and archivist of emotions. His approach to reimagine objects as an experience aims to bridge the gap between conceptual art and product design where as his immersive and interactive installations do the same but on a larger scale.
Self Portrait, 2022
Acrylic, Wood, LED
Everything is temporary.
You are temporary.
The version you see before yourself today is not who you were 6 months ago, 2 years ago, a decade ago. It will also not be the same person you see in a year. 3 years. 12 years.
Ask yourself.
What version of you are you today?
Who will you be tomorrow?
Katie Shanks
is a Los Angeles based fiber artist. While they received their BFA in Drawing and Painting, over the years however, they have enriched their practice taking scenic byways through millinery, fashion, installation, and performance—embracing the multifaceted nature of the work and always pursuing new mediums to best communicate feeling and convey meaning.
Take Shelter in Madrid—The Rain in Pain Falls Where it Will
Mixed Media Fiber, 2022
This installation is an exploration of mourning made manifest. In the wake of a dear friend's recent passing, the artist combines the materials of his daily life, with remnants and reminders of their shared passions and adventures, and patterns derived from his own artistic imagery to create a space in which to contemplate connection, loss, the impact of a life, and what it means to be left behind.
Like the bird—I AM aware.
I AM aware of palm trees and powerlines now—and your fascination with them as subjects means I never fail to notice interesting intersections of the two now.
I AM aware of every unassuming little brown bird that crosses my path—and have a smile for each one.
I AM aware of the steady rhythm of my footsteps out on the trail to Sespe—and the weight of the water that we carry both inside and out to get through each day.
I AM aware of your encompassing presence—and the gaping hole you’ve left.
I AM aware of both the vast distance that separates us—and that you are in us…in our memories of the past, in our feelings right now, and in the rituals we build to honor those connections in the future.
Ruoyi Shi
Escape
2021
4 minustes 36 seconds video
https://vimeo.com/642928039
While I was staying at a farm in Upstate New York last summer, two pigs from our barn secretly escaped. Somehow they managed to squeeze themselves out between the gap of the chains. They must be desperate, as they looked like two inflated balloons, and it seemed quite impossible for those two overweight balloons to float over the fences. Neighbors used apples to help me seduce them back to the barn, and we almost failed for not having enough apples.
They were huge that day, fluffy and gigantic— two drifting obese souls, full of the spirits of rebellion and adventure.
I was told that they always wanted to sneak out. Thus I decided to help them with my Escaping Guide 101, starting with a Compass-making Tutorial. With the kitchenware I gathered and the small fragments I collected from the farm, the direction North was easily found, and they will no longer get lost.
The tutorial is for everyone.
I knew they didn’t truly live inside the fences. They were wished to live a free and happy life.
Website: https://www.shiruoyi.com/
Instagram: @ruoyishi
Foroozan Shirghani
My work focuses on the human body expressing alienation from our present- day, constantly changing, fragmented lives. People have either abandoned their bodies, consumed by technological development, or else they are oppressed under socio-political ruling and capitalism systems. I represent the irreversible psychological damage these forces cause by twisting my subjects with fear, isolation, anger, despair, and eventually obedience.
Links:
Bri Stokes
is a writer, editor, producer and poet. A native of Los Angeles, Bri is a journalism student at UCLA, and is deeply passionate about social reform and the work that must be done to build a more humane world for women of color. Her writing, which explores themes of femininity, love, loss, mental health and spirituality, has been featured in various publications such as BuzzFeed, Visual Verse and The Myriad. She is a former poetry editor at the now-disbanded Hecate Magazine, and the curator of “Polarity: The Tension of an Emerging World.” Her most ardent hope is that this showcase helps evoke feelings of joy, optimism and perspective amidst the strife and uncertainty of our changing world.
Links:
● Instagram: @bri_stokes_writes
● Twitter: @bristokeswrites
Cedric Tai
At the beginning of the pandemic I produced 'An ADHD Guide for/by Artists', (Free digital zine here: https://tinyurl.com/ADHDguideFor-ByArtists) and I co-created a large public poster that went up on LACMA as part of We Rise’s campaign about neurodiversity, and am getting known locally for my unorthodox but successful 'ADHD Conferences for/by Artists' (These ‘performances of conferences’ are actually outdoor hikes where we get our bodies moving, eat protein, and talk candidly in small groups about mental health in an accessible way, potentially as a form of anti-capitalist solidarity.) Part of my art practice and praxis involves exploring which top down paradigms aren't working and how we can make space for sustaining collective well being.
I’ve partnered with neuroscientists, academics from critical psychiatry, with artist collectives, disability justice social media influencers, and somatic therapists, and am looking to talk & share with more artists who work at the intersection of joy/play, accessibility/space-made-in-open-invitation, and futurist thinking around a revolutionary world (particularly around mental health). Although sometimes I have to trick myself into being more courageous, I’d love to connect with other filmmakers/artists/writers/etc. who are embarking on something one might call ‘Neuroqueer Film? From the number of folks who already work on film sets but not perhaps as the director/writer, it seems to me like there’s a lot we could potentially chat about?
Ricardo Tomasz
I, Ricardo Tomasz, am a multi-disciplinary visual artist actively engaged in multiple mediums at any given time.
My artistic process is very thorough by design -- I will take hundreds of elements of text, photographs, found objects, etc., and curate and coalesce them through both physical and digital alteration. For the End of the Pandemic series, from which the 2 photos, “America” and “Woman With Roses" come from, I captured approximately 120 photos, and narrowed them down to the best ones.
In my work, regardless of medium, I lean into one underlying element, which is the use of storytelling to elevate the viewer into a higher mental state with a widening of their perceived world. I want to encourage the viewer to themselves participate in the great democratizing process of art-making. The art-making process is available to all and replenishes our individual and shared mental reserves through the precious natural resource of art, which can inspire people in ways other commodities cannot.
The artist invites viewers to take a page of the "Screenplay of Hope” piece, for free.