Over the Influence is pleased to present Dream Work, a solo exhibition of Megan Whitmarsh. This exhibition marks a return to the artist’s favored motif of fabric and mixed media and the second artistic collaboration with OTI LA. Dream Work will be on view from 14 August to 18 September 2021.
As the exhibition title suggests, Dream Work evocates the subconscious and meditative undertones of another fantastical state of being, while at the same time, highlighting the artist’s practice in this completely immersive installation featuring a series of textile collages, video and sounds works, and punctuated with hanging ceramic and macrame planters. Whitmarsh celebrates the accouterments of daily life in a variety of textile objects: cigarettes, telephones, eyes, hands, newspapers, and those familiar yet imagined individuals that only appear in dreams. The compositions are painted, sewn and appliquéd: old bedsheets become the fabric for a box of Kleenex, or phone buttons, or earrings. The tacitly of the velvet, cotton, silk, linen, and canvas fabric collages are echoed in the soft melodic mantras and music that accompanies the video works. The audio-visual imagery boundaries on a nostalgic journey that resonances between worlds, a dream work in itself.
The fabrics and mix of materials, as well as the handmade, lo-fi approach, results in open and soft spaces, in inviting and compelling narrative moods, and in a language that is both Pop and personal. For Whitmarsh, making art is an attempt to discern in all the noise of modern culture her own creative force. Her work evinces a melancholy optimism, one that suggests the possibilities of a more deeply felt and meaningful future. Her influences include Niki de St. Phalle, Huguette Caland, Yayoi Kusama, Claes Oldenberg, and Jim Henson.
The three short video installations are made in collaboration with Jade Gordon and feature guest artists Von Doog, Sharin Foo, and Matthew Salata. Conceived as a series of New Age music videos, the three works are intended to be watched and listened to as a meditation or relaxation method.
Dream Work invites pause within each of us and each other, within this physical space, with nature, consciousness, and wherever else it may take you.