*Refreshments will be served*
"All great, simple images reveal a psychic state. The house, even more than the landscape, is a "psychic state," and even when reproduced as it appears from the outside, it bespeaks intimacy."
–Gaston Bachelard
The home is the beginning of everything. It is the site of many of our 'firsts' in life, and is an early proving ground for those important events which occur later, elsewhere. Our first senses of love, war, betrayal, peace, joy and grief happen in the home, alongside our first understanding of our sense of seeing, tasting, touching, smelling and hearing.
Beginning as a second womb, the home shifts to accommodate our changing expectations of our lives and ourselves. Such a protean space also provides a remarkable framework for the creation of meaning and the spinning of narratives. We will look at how Gaston Bachelard's conception of the house as psychic space works remarkably well as a vehicle for both psychological introspection as well as storytelling. David Batchelor's Chromophobia will provide a jumping-off point for a discussion about how the decoration of the home, with a special focus on color, creates meaning and connects to issues of class and race.
Some particularly domestic (though not at all comfortable) film clips will lead the way into a game where groups create their own narratives for a given interior or interiors.
Pre-Meeting Reading:
David Batchelor (1997), Chromophobia. Chapter 1: Whitescapes.
Gaston Bachelard (1958), The Poetics of Space.
About the Artist:
Nate Heiges has just begun a private exhibition series, Interiors, showcasing the work of a single artist at a time in their own home. He has exhibited at the Carpenter Center at Harvard University, the Suburban in Oak Park, IL, the Austin Museum of Art, the Houston Center for Photography, Franklin Streetworks in Stamford, CT, and Nina Johnson Galley in Miami as well as MoMA PS1, Marc Jancou Gallery, Still House Group Gallery, and Underdonk Gallery all in New York. His work is in the collection of the Drawing Center, New York. Mr. Heiges has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, the T. A. J. Residency in Bangalore, India and the Shandaken Project. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and was awarded an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University in 2010.
About 2MF:
2MF, co-run by artists Sonya Derman and Maria Stabio, encourages pro-emotive and ante-academic conversation in New York City. Collaborating with selected facilitating thinkers & artists, 2MF organizes periodic community meetings – open and participatory experiences – alongside post-meeting discussion aired and archived at Clocktower Radio. More information is available at 2manyfeelings.com.
