Delicate Machines

In October, Central Park Gallery will undergo construction as Jessica and Laurel install their prehistoric-collage-blob-trash-nest research. This nest burrows into more nests of gathered materials that enhance the elemental powers within the animal clowns Laurel and Jessica. There are alternate routes, wormholes, a kimchi buffet, and sophisticated textures in this hoard. Once this environment is built to their liking, the artists will infiltrate it to express a more internal debris; sounds and movements will appear as though they are rituals emerging from the roosts and portals to present an alternative lifestyle that invites multiple personalities.

This installation will coincide with a residency and live performance made at PAM, in Highland Park.

Laurel Atwell (b. 1986, Cleveland, OH) is based in New York. She received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College in 2008, and has since studied with the Universal Healing Tao School for Qi Gong, 2010-present. In New York her work has been presented at Abrons Arts Center, Dixon Place, Center for Performance Research, Draftworks at Danspace Project, Domestic Performance Agency, Movement Research at Judson Church, as well as apartments, parks, bars, and galleries throughout Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens. Atwell has also presented work at Links Hall (Chicago) and Pieter Performance Space (Los Angeles). She and Jessica Cook are currently in residence at PAM in Highland Park and will be in residence at MOMA PS1 in December 2018.

I am constantly working to uncover the multitudes of self, the motivations within the self, and complexity of having the many selves be in constant conversation. My intention is to not only present the deeply abstract states of my own or other bodies/minds, but to create environments where the audience may also begin to tap into their own subconscious. These environments are minimal--a slow-shifting glow, a soft hum, an errant, everyday object--to support the emergence of the unseen and the yet to be articulated without giving in to expectation. I pursue and present other

dimensions using extrasensory perception, astral projection, or highlighting how the psychic mind has seeped into the body to build physical habits expressed in the everyday. This is all the exercise of noticing; accessing what is happening and has been happening in order to shift what will happen into a more chosen realm.

Jessica Cook (b. 1982 Kingston, NY) is an artist that lives and works in NYC. She received a BFA from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance in 2005 and an associates degree from the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine for Massage Therapy. She has shown work at LMAK Gallery, New Museum, Roulette Intermedium, Movement Research at Judson Memorial Church, Spring Break Art Fair, Pieter Performance Space, and many others. She has been performing in New York City for 13 yrs, most recently with Milka Djordjevich/Chris Peck and Kim Brandt. She and Laurel are artists-in-residence at MoMa PS1 this December.

As a multi-disciplinary artist I create environments using texture, pattern, and accumulation. Installations and choreography allow the edges of my limbs to melt within crevices of imagined spaces that examine objects, color, rigidity, and impulse. Much of my work involves facets of sound created by movement, and the movement of objects and materials. I see the performer as a multilateral being, facilitating a subversion of normative ideals through self produced sound layers, visual change and pattern. I’m attempting to strip away rhetoric and technique to configure a new lens and cleaned ear to re-envision the body within its space.