Starry Heavens Above Me and Within Me: Lara Ögel
Galerist is pleased present Lara Ögel’s first solo exhibition at the gallery, titled The Starry Heavens Above Me and Within Me, curated by Naz Cuguoğlu, between the dates April 7 and May 27, 2023. The exhibition draws from Lara’s interest in cosmos and alchemy, fungi, and other similar narratives that are in constant flow with her multifaceted practice. The exhibition borrows its title from a quote on Immanuel Kant’s tombstone, which the artist came across during her research. All presented in a cyclical narrative; book covers, audio and video installations, ceramic and marble sculptures unravel the fragile and fascinating spectrums of our very existence and the duality of this narrative that Lara has internalised.
At the core of the exhibition lies Aurora, and from here the blood flows. This site-specific installation is a metamorphosis of a previous work titled Mundessa (2018) where Lara had invited the bed skirt of an invisible bed and the dust from her home to the exhibition space. The bed skirt of Mundessa ascends and transforms into the polar lights, thus connecting the domestic to the cosmic. Dreams, traces left in life, encounters and possibilities are projected onto a lace curtain fixed in an abstract composition. Lara shares with the audience her admiration of and curiosity for this cosmic phenomenon, one which she is eager to witness. The sound of Aurora Borealis echoing throughout the exhibition space beckons us to embrace its enchanting presence.
Lara’s book covers allude to the existential position of the tradition of storytelling within human history. The Silvery Water Books series are abstracted from written language and bear a symbolic expression on their surfaces. Possessing shades of the sky in transitory moments, they invite us to their realm. Named after the book ‘The Silvery Water and The Starry Earth’ by the 10th century mystic and symbolic alchemist Ibn Umayl, the series lure us to hear, to unveil and to intensify their magical language.
The effort to leave a trace in life, to read, notice and recognize the traces that are left, in a sense, means to make a notch in one's existence, to say “I was here”. Arising from such concerns, the artworks titled Arcana and Gravity provide the spectator with dual narrations of our ephemerality and the will to stay alive. The contrast between the stream of moving images and the perpetuity of the marble further emphasizes this dichotomy. The artist welcomes viewers to face the continuous change and transformation within the universe.
The series titled Starry Heavens presents itself in this exhibition as an echo of the long-lasting interest of Lara in fungi. These ceramic works are reminiscent of the embodiment of feelings and thoughts of the subconscious. The ceramics belonging to the sky and the earth evoke dream objects that at times become amorphous or turn into landscapes. The use of metal, gold and crystalline glazes both nods at the alchemical narrative and embraces the tendency of fungal philosophy to transform and heal what remains in the shadows. And thus, the thread Lara weaves, the journey she’s on, the shell she’s constructed carry on, from soil to star clusters to dreams.
Following ‘The Starry Heavens Above Me and Within Me’, Lara Ögel will exhibit her works at Bilsart in collaboration with Galerist between the dates June 1 and 10, 2023.
