Both Andrew Schoultz and Swoon Studio are contributing to Urban Dawn II in Beyrouth in the related exhibition “Street Arts Street Smarts” thru November 13th curated by Rasmus Ejaas Fischer and art platform curator19.90. Andrew Schoultz is also currently painting a large wall in the city. Pictures soon !
Full list of artists : ALEX DIAMOND / ALEX SASTOQUE / ANTON SAVITSKY / ANDREW SCHOULTZ / ASHEKMAN / BASE23 / CAMILLE ADRA / CHAD MUSKA / СHAD THE MAD / DALEK / DANNO / DAN WITZ / DEM189 / ECB / ELLE / EL MAC / EPS / ETHOS / EXIST / FINOK / FRANS SMIT / GILF / GRINO / HARIF GUZMAN / ICY&SOT / JAV DEMSKY / JOHN NEWSOM / LORO VERZ / M3ALIM / MIKAEL TAKÁСS/ MORTEN ANDERSEN / NÆBLERØD / NOOTK / OLEK / PHAT2 / QUEEN ANDREA / RETNA / REPAS / RICHARD DUPONT / RICHIE CULVER / RUNE CHRISTENSEN / SANTE D`ORAZIO / SHELTER SERRA / SHEPARD FAIREY / SPAZ / STRØK / SUP-C / SWOON / TED LAWSON / TIM OKAMURA / VEXTA / YAZAN HALWANI / ZED
Since the 1800s, people have described experiencing the deaths of others.
Since the 1800s, people have reported experiencing loved ones’ deaths almost psychically, feeling that they, too, were moving into the beyond.
This phenomenon, which has gained anecdotal support from people around the world regardless of background or religious belief, is often referred to as a “shared-death experience” or “empathic death experience.”
Empathic death experiences don’t always look or feel the same, though similarities between individuals’ accounts help sketch a vague outline of events. The light at the end of the tunnel, for example ― now a hackneyed image associated with the sensation of dying ― originated from the testimonies of people who had undergone near-death or shared-death experiences.
Brooklyn-based artist Caledonia Curry, better known as Swoon, was not familiar with reports of shared-death experiences. That is, until she lived one.
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In an interview with The Huffington Post, the artist described an almost paranormal experience. Her mother, she said, had been sick for months, and Swoon had spent a great deal of time at her bedside caring for her. One evening in 2013, Swoon claims she heard her mother’s voice, felt her very presence, even though they weren’t in the same state.
“I was having really intense dreams about her the whole morning,” Swoon explained. “I kept waking up and falling back asleep. At one point, I thought I was awake and looked out the window. I saw a bunch of snow falling and I thought, ‘Wow, snow in June. That can’t be good.’”
From there, the experience only grew more surreal. “I opened the window, and the snow started to come through my body, transforming into points of light that bloomed into these intricate snow blossoms. I heard my mom’s voice talking to me, and I was filled with a very profound sense of wellbeing and love. I woke up weeping, my face covered in tears. I thought, I think that was my mom dying. My sister called a few hours later.”
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Swoon had experienced dreams before that she says could be described as prescient. Mostly, however, they were “subtle, little events” ― parallels that might raise an eyebrow but could be shrugged off with the morning’s coffee. This experience was something more powerful and impossible to shake.
Even after the evening of her mother’s passing, the sensation lingered. “I had this feeling of a little buoy inside me. I felt held. I couldn’t grieve as much as I expected because I had all this love and light inside me. It makes you question your sanity.”
The intensity of that feeling ― almost as if she were possessed ― compelled Swoon to do some research. “You don’t want to feel crazy,” she said. It wasn’t long before she discovered that her abnormal experience wasn’t actually all that abnormal. “It’s not a common phenomenon, but it does happen,” she added. “Sometimes, when someone very close to you dies ― a family member or friend ― you will share part of their dying experience.”
In 2012, psychiatrist Raymond Moody compiled some of the most common impressions of those who claimed to have felt a loved one’s passing. Their stories involve rooms changing shape, dying people communicating telepathically, bystanders leaving their bodies and witnessing another dimension, becoming engulfed by a bright light that feels like love, and visions of accompanying a dying person through a tunnel towards a great light where they often pass by deceased loved ones.
“The core elements of my experience were described by others,” Swoon said. “As a visual artist, to have people telling these stories, describing this stuff that is so beautiful ― the light and tunnels and meadows and magical places ― I couldn’t resist.”
L’artiste singapourienne Dawn Ng a réalisé ce printemps 2016 l’installation HOW TO DISAPPEAR INTO A RAINBOW pour la Fondation d’entreprise Hermès dans leur espace Aloft à Singapour, à l’occasion de la réouverture de leur flagship.
Cette interrogation poétique se matérialise sous la forme d’une installation globale qui métamorphose l’espace en un véritable terrain de jeu coloré. Cet univers chromatique conceptuel invite le visiteur d’Aloft at Hermès à une expérience personnelle et méditative.
Interview de l’artiste publiée à cette occasion sur The Artling : lire
Dawn est également connue pour sa série de photographies A THING OF BEAUTY (2015) dont vous pourrez retrouver une sélection à la galerie en septembre.
The course of human history is marked by appalling crimes, and slavery was certainly one of the greatest ones. Samuel Gélas exhibition Negrocide exploring five centuries of slavery and its impact on black culture will be opening in Galerie LJ in Paris. Inspired by the neologism ‘negrocide’ coined by the Guadalupe-based art critic Jocelyn Valton in a critical text she has published in 2015, Gélas created a powerful body of work exploring this shameful part of human history. The term itself is derived from words ‘negro’ and ‘homicide’, and it refers to all the mass murders that happened between the 15th and 19th century against Africans who were enslaved during the transatlantic slave trade.
Samuel Gélas – La Ferocite Blanche
A Crime That Has a Name
Jocelyn Valton’s critical text introducing the term ‘negrocide’ first appeared as a reaction against the statement of François Hollande in January 2015 describing the Holocaust as the largest genocide ever committed. This statement has sparked a reaction of many black intellectuals, including Valton and Guadeloupean artists Joëlle Ursull, who have signed the open letter to the president highlighting the genocide of Africans during five centuries of slavery and refusing to accept the hierarchy of crimes. Inspired by these debates and the idea that this heinous crime finally has its own name, Gélas has created a series of introspective paintings questioning his origins and all of the Caribbeans who are descendants of former African slaves centuries ago.
Samuel Gélas – Espoir Demancipation
The Language of Samuel Gelas
Representing various tortures that slaves suffered daily, such as lynching, hanging, dismembering or mass raping, the paintings evoke the slavery in its extreme violence that is forever engrained into ‘the black code’. Using colors that symbolize skin and blood, Gélas translates slavery into the inhumanity portraying it through metaphors that refer to the world of animals and objects. In a time when the question of compensation for slave descendants is becoming a part of public speech, this body of work seems more relevant than ever. Often combining narrative figuration and pop art in his paintings, Gélas’ pictorial language is both playful and critical towards the society we live in. Interested in phenomena of society and media, the majority of his works focus on the question of the human nature and issues of urban, social and cultural violence represented through animal metaphors.
Samuel Gélas – Crime Contre L’ Humanite
Samuel Gelas Exhibition at Galerie LJ
The exhibition Negrocide is Gelas’ first solo show in Paris. His works were previously exhibited at solo shows at Salon Montrouge in 2012 in France and at ArtBemao in Guadeloupe in 2013. In Paris, his paintings were presented in group exhibitions at the Gallery Nathalie Obadia and Galerie LJ. The exhibition Negrocide will be on show from April 28th till May 28th, 2016 at Galerie LJ.
Editors’ Tip:History of Slavery: An Illustrated History of the Monstrous Evil by Susanne Everett
Explore further the history and horrors of slavery. The book History of Slavery describes the development of slavery, the trans-Atlantic trade that brought 11 million slaves from Africa to Americas in the course of 300 years and the life of slaves under inhumane conditions. Dealing with the historical controversies that have surrounded the study of slavery, this book approaches the problem in strictly objective terms. This comprehensive publication features 300 archival pictures, including 40 in color, as well as eyewitness accounts and other documentary evidence. The author Susanne Everett also revisits the history of the abolition movement and its impact, as well as societies that did not readily accept it. Highlighting that the slavery is a vital issue today, this book is a comprehensive account of human bondage and essential for everybody interested in this shameful part of human history.
Featured image: Samuel Gélas – Crime Contre L’ Humanite (detail). All images courtesy of LJ Gallery.
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Both Andrew Schoultz and Swoon Studio are contributing to Urban Dawn II in Beyrouth in the related exhibition “Street Arts Street Smarts” thru November 13th curated by Rasmus Ejaas Fischer and art platform curator19.90. Andrew Schoultz is also currently painting a large wall in the city. Pictures soon !
Editors’ Tip: History of Slavery: An Illustrated History of the Monstrous Evil by Susanne Everett
