On View

Group Therapy

September 15, 2018 - January 06, 2019

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Centering on interactive projects and immersive installations, Group Therapy convenes works by twelve international contemporary artists that comment on and/or adapt strategies of alternative medicine, psychotherapy, and the wellness industry. The exhibition serves as a platform for public programs led by artist-practitioners, transforming the Museum into a unique kind of free “clinic” in which visitors may engage in therapeutic processes in the experimental context afforded by art. In so doing, Group Therapy reflects on the museum’s role in society and on art’s function within and beyond its walls. Should art be edifying (curative), unsettling (an irritant), speculative (a catalyst)? Is it a placebo or are art’s transformative effects real?

The exhibition begins with works that diagnose social pathologies such as racism, sexism, and political tribalism that affect individual health and in turn fuel the ongoing growth of the wellness and self-help industries. Projects that focus on identification with archetypal characters and symbolic self-narration follow, taking the visitor from observer to participant in voluntary “treatments” based on psychoanalysis and divination. The final passage engages visitors in sensory experiences and visualizations that plug into ancient forms of knowledge and deeper, interconnected consciousness. All in all, the exhibition—like therapy—provides a space in which to analyze the conditions of the present, to question habitual ways of being, and to try new possibilities without prescribing any definitive solutions.

Participating Artists: Wynne Greenwood / Maryam Jafri / Joachim Koester / Liz Magic Laser / Leigh Ledare / Marcos Lutyens / Cindy Mochizuki / Shana Moulton / Pedro Reyes / Ann Leda Shapiro / Kandis Williams / Lauryn Youden

Group Therapy is organized by the Frye Art Museum and curated by Amanda Donnan. Generous support is provided by ArtsFund, the Frye Foundation, the Hugh and Jane Ferguson Foundation, and Frye Art Museum members. Media sponsorship is provided by City Arts.

Liz Magic Laser. Primal Speech (video still), 2016. Single channel video installation. Developed with therapeutic activities conducted in collaboration with Certified Professional Life Coach Valerie Bell. Courtesy of the artist, Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, and Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam.

Shana Moulton. My Life as an INFJ, 2015. Single channel video, decorative objects. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Crèvecoeur, Paris. © Aurélien Mole.

Maryam Jafri. Depression, 2017. Wood, silicone feet, acupuncture needles, glass cupping equipment, photograph mounted on aluminum, organic egg carton. Courtesy of the artist and Kai Matsumiya, New York.

Ann Leda Shapiro. Healing Scroll 1 Split; Healing Scroll 2 Coils; Healing Scroll 3 Strings; Healing Scroll 4 Mums, 2012. Watercolor and gouache on paper. Courtesy of the artist.

Installation view of Group Therapy, September 15, 2018 – January 6, 2019, Frye Art Museum. Photo: Jueqian Fang.

Installation view of Group Therapy, September 15, 2018 – January 6, 2019, Frye Art Museum. Photo: Jueqian Fang.

Installation view of Group Therapy, September 15, 2018 – January 6, 2019, Frye Art Museum. Photo: Jueqian Fang.

Installation view of Group Therapy, September 15, 2018 – January 6, 2019, Frye Art Museum. Photo: Jueqian Fang.

Installation view of Group Therapy, September 15, 2018 – January 6, 2019, Frye Art Museum. Photo: Jueqian Fang.
 

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