Necessary Conditions, 2019
Embossed text on postcard. Site-specific series of five.
Crutch Contemporary Art Centre, Toronto, Canada
Emily DiCarlo, Brandon Poole, Jordan Elliot Prosser, chris mendoza
PERSEIDS, Crutch Contemporary Art Centre, Toronto, Canada
08.16.2019 - 08.23.2019
Exhibition Essay by chris mendoza
To keep pace with the setting sun and provide an illusionary escape from our everyday experience, necessary conditions need to be in place. This set formula of required speed, direction and longitude become an invitation, asking viewers to find the threshold of the day’s transition in their minds and chase its potential through a lens of awe, acting as a poetic tool for discovering momentary transcendence and for framing the ecstatic potential in the mundane.
During her month-long residency at Korpúlstaðir SÍM Residency in Reykjavik, Iceland at the 64th parallel north, DiCarlo mobilized the text-based concept through a daily performance where she would stencil the day’s sunset time on the postcard and airmail it, sending it westward back to the gallery where it would be exhibited, thus fulfilling the necessary conditions to mobilize the work’s concept. The journey of the postcard - a work that unfolds over time and space - stands in for the transcendent, perceptual experience of time seemingly slowing down when flying westward with a setting sun.