Current
Radiant Energy
Heather Culp and Caroline Hwang
June 6 — 30
Opening June 6, 7 — 10pm
Through the photographs, fabric pieces and installations of Radiant Energy, Heather Culp and Caroline Hwang create a space for reflection, meditation and beauty in the gallery.
Hwang will exhibit fabric works exploring geometry and refined color, using materials and techniques associated with craft and applied arts. The patchwork wall hangings are reminiscent of classic quilts, drawing inspiration from abstract art and key textile-based artists. She manipulates the fabric, allowing the natural weft and weave to create moiré effects and movement while exclusively sourcing dyes found in and refined from nature, such as madder root, indigo, beets, and logwood. The time-intensive processes used to create these pigments imbues these forms with particular richness.
Culp will exhibit photographs and mixed media which celebrate the natural world and rituals of well-being. She has printed images on hemp from the Sangre de Cristo mountain energy vortex in New Mexico and created the installation, We were only waiting for you to wake, only wading through a tide pool of polarity, informed by an ancient Chinese ritual altar designed to transition spirits to a higher vibration. The large landscape photograph incorporates colors of the seventh ray; shades of violet and indigo increase one’s powers of intuition and assist in meditation. Culp’s work resonates with a sense of art as play through pieces such as Cosmic Meditation (a musical seashell) and Outside-In (a drawing which reflects the viewer’s aura colors). Her orgone pyramids are based on the research of Wilhelm Reich and serve as positive energy generators.
Research and observation has shown that specific colors bring balance to our physical and emotional systems—chromotherapy can be used to achieve the same results as acupuncture to unblock meridians in the body. When color enters the body through the eyes or skin, it stimulates the pituitary and pineal glands which produce certain hormones that trigger a variety of physiological processes. In a pleasant way, describing the mechanics of a complementary medicine is a bit like describing the nuts and bolts of aesthetics. Language is stretched and doesn’t quite measure it. Color, radiant energy, is a healing force. All color is light and here at Beginnings —, we’re into it.
About the Artists
Heather Culp has exhibited at galleries such as at Kathryn Cullen and Gavin Brown's Enterprise in New York, Lennox Contemporary in Toronto, and Compact Space in Los Angeles. She is the recipient of the Magenta Foundation's Bright Spark Award for emerging photographers from the US, UK and Canada. Currently she is an artist in residence at R.E.A.C.H. (Rural Earthship Alternative Community Habitat) in northern New Mexico.
Caroline Hwang has exhibited at galleries and institutions such as Beaver Projects (Copenhagen), New Image Art (Los Angeles), Clementine Gallery (New York), and Cheim & Reid (New York). She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Generously supported by
