Joseph Wilcox’s Boutique Anarchy products capitalize upon the passion for revolution during challenging times of political unrest. Batik fabric flags, indigo tea towels and unique essential oil blends are all for sale at high-end retail prices on an Etsy page where all proceeds support the Black Rose Anarchist Federation. Each item is marked by a bold, cleanly rendered anarchist symbol in a wide variety of colors and buzzworthy product names. Boutique Anarchy acknowledges and exaggerates the recent trends in charitable shopping, while cognizant of its problematic nature. As if taking something to another level could force something to implode, Wilcox asks, “could Commodity Anarchism help to abolish all oppressive systems, and with it, cultural commodification?” 

Azadeh Gholizadeh’s sculpture resembles miniature utopian cities. Formally trained in architecture, the forms Gholizadeh assembles with common economical materials approach scaled models of chalky-futuristic buildings, facades and aerial views. Cloud motifs thread throughout the artist’s history, positioning her worlds in the sky via mirrored reflections. Sun in the garden sets an idyllic scene, where clouds are viewed below the floating body of the edifice, philodendron vine emerges from the cupola and wraps down towards the sun, marking thin edges with hints of yellow. Multiple layers of paradise as form, perhaps as many as Jannah. Two volumes (top and bottom) of the heaven form are level, but the center volume (or the garden volume) is unbalanced and fragile. Perceptual weight resting upon an unstable core, this volume exemplifies strength and delicacy in tandem rather than in opposition. 

Gülşah Mursaloğlu has long been romantically fascinated with the experience of ubiquitous matter overtime. Ongoing Centuries of Meanderings Around the Serpent Column from Delphi (Fragments II) presents the narrative transformation of the calcite. A carbonate mineral derived from decomposed organisms, a variety of temporalities assist in the evolution of calcite. With time, heat, pressure, human and nonhuman involvement, calcite becomes limestone, and limestone becomes marble. The original installation, Ongoing Centuries of Meanderings Around the Serpent Column from Delphi, was commissioned by the non-profit art organization Protocinema, for the exhibition For Rent, For Sale curated by Protocinema and Ibrahim Cansizoglu at a former Matzo Factory in the Galata neighbourhood, Istanbul, Turkey in September 2017. This was the first work by Mursaloğlu to respond to a particular site or place. Now represented in Artificial Life the work speaks to multiple temporalities of that place and its global relationships as material. 

Anna Showers-Cruser’s hybrid-form artworks consider expressions of gender identity, where the material list unlocks the layers of signification. Gracious HostX Gift reflects on the artist’s origins and multicultural codes, combining conventions of hospitality from Southern Living and queer culture. With form akin to a diptych fresco/altar or the spread (legs)pages of a book, the sculpture creates a humbled devotional space for honoring generosity and self-love. Gift-giving signals a representation of the self, and a relation between host and honored guest. The gesture of generosity is continued throughout the evening of the opening reception, were amuse-bouches or “mouth-amusers”, both edible and non consumable decorative goods are served. Consenting to what is offered is to participate in the social game of etiquette. 

Jeff Prokash presents a new experimentation with objects, furthering his interest in the freedom of reinterpretation in order to suggest new relationships between the viewer and the built environment. For Artificial Life, Prokash displays a set of minimal sculptures that will shift in arrangement throughout the duration of the exhibition. Individual pieces recall architectural forms, working largely with concrete and composite cast materials that reveal variations of surface tension. Known for his fascination with the conventions of object preservation and archives, this work departs from meticulous material signification to create a network of complex meaning and focuses on a meditative aesthetic practice that is inherently relational and has the capacity of building meaning over a much longer timeframe. 

Matt Mancini’s sculptures re-contextualize representational objects and images through careful material treatment, often employing image transfer techniques and casting with concrete. Each work reads like a muted annotation, ambiguously humored with a dystopian tone or quiet affect. His artworks in Artificial Life are nostalgic for pleasurable experiences, an alternate meditation for the broken-hearted or heavy-minded. Often taking inspiration from music like myself, Mancini experiments with material context like genre-mashing and appropriation to make new interpretations.

This is to say that the images, objects, and gestures in Artificial Life can occupy a mutual space -- both physical and metaphysical -- to extend linkages and elide contexts. The exhibition as a format is a strategy for activating said spaces between works and exercising power in shifting meaning and relevance, and provoking new thinking about material and social issues.