Ellen Schafer

Curated by Dr. Anne Luther

November 12 - December 11 2016

Opening Reception, November 12, 2016 from 7pm-10pm.

Elijah Wheat Showroom is pleased to present I reach out and touch another an exhibition of new work by Ellen Schafer, curated by Anne Luther.

Some spaces move our body in a familiar way. We are accustomed to the architecture of a shop, a show room, or a supermarket and the internalization of the way we move our bodies is not questioned. We walk, touch and communicate in mundane modes; the intimate awareness of the space lays out an architecture that moves our body. Simulated here is a system to place our bodies into the familiar awareness of a showroom.

The resemblance to the showroom differs in a very particular way: the objects displayed are made with hand sanitizer, silicone and urethane, all materials, that through their handling take on a resemblance to organic, body-like physique. Our bodies become ingrained in the objects we usually use and that habitually form our everyday routine. We can recognize ourselves immediately in a familiar architecture. Nevertheless the body-like material reminds us of our own material existence: looking at these objects I realize that I can only see part of my own body, I can’t see my back, the top of my head, my cheeks. I am subject to myself because I cannot see, touch, or move around me fully, like I can around these objects.

The work has traces of an interaction with the material object; we can see a geometric print, a connection and moves on the surfaces. The object shows traces of intimacy and thought or maybe our desire to recognize ourselves without the material body of the ‘Other’. In this system that we encounter in the exhibition intimacy becomes a consumer experience, and a moment of personal agency still defined by consumer behavior - we are learning about our body through the familiarity of objects. The inquiry begins as follows: One day I realized that my left leg was branded 'Just Do It', 'Champion', so I reached down and began carving into my right.

Ellen Schafer attended the Roski School of Art and Design at the University of Southern California from 2014-15 and received a BA from the Glasgow School of Art in 2012. She has exhibited in both the United States and abroad, including Various Small Fires (Los Angeles), Shanaynay (Paris, FR), Park View (Los Angeles), CirkulationsCentralen (Malmo, SE), SPF 15 (San Diego), ltd los angeles Hollywood Hills and Actual Size (Los Angeles).