FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CULT OF SPIRITS

Alexis Palmer Karl and Ken Weaver

performance installation

a conjuring, a ritual, a spell.

at CATLAND BOOKS, May 5th - May 6th 2018

 

" I UNRAVEL THE BINDINGS OF CENTURIES PAST" (Hybridas Morte: Conjuring Ritual Skull),

Resin, salt, rose quartz, quartz, selenite, marble powder 2015

 

 "THE DIVINING WITCH" (Layer Upon Layer Of Missing Answers Swirl in Circles Speaking To Me, Entering Into Depths, Where Meaning Shall Not Exist) Photo on Metal 2018

"THE INCUBUS" ( Reveal to None as Yet- An Expedience to Utterly Vanquish Consciousness While Still Alive)"  Photo on Metal, 2018

 

Stephen Romano Gallery at Catland 
May 5th- May 6th, 2018
Opening 7:00-10:00 pm  May 5
Performance 8:00-9:00 pm May 5th

 

Sculpture, music, live performance, fragrance and photography create an immersive installation, calling forth spirits while sanctifying the ritual object. The installation is about loss as much as it is about creation and balance. We challenge the sterility of western death as we create a space of ritualized music, movement and art, finding the sacred in the modern era. The performance installation is both an act of mourning and a celebration of rebirth. We will harness the elements to create our story; the artists as shaman, as we unfold the tale of life and death and life again.

Large scale daguerreotypes line the walls: the specters caged in metal. True spirits of the artist’s invention, they are hauntingly nostalgic, crying forth from the netherworld. A large pendulum is suspended above a ritual table holding two ritual /scrying bowls, one of life, with flora bursting from it’s ceramic base, the other of death, bone white, and encrusted with geodes and teeth. Hybrid skulls set amidst them teem with lichen and moss- promises of rebirth, or remain austere with white crystals and salt, harbingers of death. 

The installation performance is a volley of light and dark, encompassing the viewer, while demanding self reflection, searching and conjuring. The performance of the LEX Requiem is conceived as a conjuring spell, heightened by the presence of spirit photography and ritualized objects.

 


"VESSEL OF INFINITE LONGING" Ceramic, teeth, bone, resin, Moroccan geode, quartz, selenite. 2018 

 

Gallery Hours:
May 5th - 7pm to 10pm
May 6th - 12pm to 6pm

Opening night performance from 8pm-9pm
With gothic, dark ambient music by LEX and Anda Volley joined by The Love Showdancers, David SloneXimena BalmoriDani Leigh and Fly Fyrce




for information and visuals, please contact:

Alexis Karl alexispalmerkarl@gmail.com

Stephen Romano romanostephen@gmail.com

Alexis Palme Karl's work has been exhibited in the states and internationally, with performances at the Whitney Biennial and Guggenheim Museum, and is represented in New York by Stephen Romano Gallery. Alexis's work explores the reinventing of oracular magic and ritualistic objects and the redefining of the witch archetype.

Ken Weaver has shown his work nationally and internationally with exhibitions at G Module and Gallerie Exprmntl in France,  Schroeder Romero & Shredder Gallery and Stephen Romano Gallery in New York City. His work embraces a heavy metal- meets-baroque sensibility, often addressing the concept of the artist as an immortal being, touching on the spirit realm and further:  into the recesses of collective fantasy and esoteric imagery.