October 25 - December 7, 2023
From San Jacinto College South Gallery:
“Artists: J. Bilhan, Evan Coleman, F. Tibiezas Dager, Eric Hernandez, M.A. Guevara, and Christien Vargas
Curated by Junior Fernandez
“Life will dissolve itself in death, rivers in the sea, and the known in the unknown.”
– Georges Bataille, Inner Experience
“All unavailable to themselves, open to the world, cut in air.”
– Dionne Brand, The Blue Clerk
San Jacinto College South Campus Gallery is pleased to present Like dust, I lose all form once I hit water, a group exhibition featuring works by J. Bilhan, Evan Coleman, F. Tibiezas Dager, Eric Hernandez, M.A. Guevara, and Christien Vargas.
The exhibition addresses the melancholic violence that has defined contemporary political identification processes and how these have composed our approach to (non) recognition in the space of the archive. Rather than witnessing through a frame, window, or mirror of identity, these artists invite viewers to dissolve their subjectivity in the porous border between visual and verbal. For how can a structure of feeling devolve into one of language? The oscillation between these two creates an erotic telepathy (a feeling from afar). A shifting between distance and closeness; a drive to desire, to touch, to brush against, and to sense a “past” we cannot hold. Not as subjects seeking a point of origin to which we can return and fill our holes but rather like dust that, in water, abandons all form to flow, avoiding any attempt at signification.
About the Curator
Junior Fernandez (b. 1996, La Habana, Cuba) is a Houston based archivist, artist, and curator. Fernandez has received recognition from Texas Monthly and his artwork has been showcased at Project Row Houses in Houston, TX, and Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY. In 2021, he established the exhibition series named Without Architecture, There Would Be No Stonewall; Without Architecture, There Would Be No “Brick”. Currently, he is serving as the Digital Exhibitions Specialist for the Gulf Coast LGBT Radio and Television Digitization Project at the University of Houston Libraries Special Collections and as Digital Imaging Associate at the International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
About the Artists
J. Bilhan, (b. 1996, Houston TX) born as Joshua Aaron Anderson, grew up in and around Houston. Eventually, he traveled the world and lived in Berlin and Lisbon before settling in New York City in 2022. Bilhan’s artistic practice is multi-dimensional and encompasses language, image, survey, objects, sound, archive, and physical space. His work explores various subjects, including queer epistemologies, sexuality—desire—power, henology, nudism, theology, transcendental states, Real Life, vibe politics, and a platonic poetic techne. As Emilie Carrier wrote, “I am differentiating a space, and I dwell in this space, and how I dwell in this space is techne.” Although not an expert in any one field, Bilhan’s practice is a comprehensive data aggregate, generating new forms of understanding and knowledge that then become art.
Evan Coleman (b. 1995, Houston, TX) is a Houston based photographer. She is interested in the camera as a tool for scrying, theology, philosophy and free-time. Her artwork has been shown in the Contemporary Arts Museum (CAMH), Houston and Project Row Houses.
F Tibiezas Dager (b. 1997, Guayaquil, Ecuador) is a writer and a visual artist based in Lima. Her work analyzes the aesthetic economies of trauma and the intersections between harm and desire. Her main interest when working with media archives is the treatment of the criminal event and forms of rehabilitation. She is the author of the poetry collection Encuentros Homosexuales con Pancho Jaime (Recodo.press, 2021).
Eric Hernandez was born in 1993 in Eagle Pass, Texas. He is an image maker who works in digital media and video. He is interested in regionalism, folklore, violence, and encryption. He is unschooled.
M. A. Guevara (b. 1997, Inland Empire, CA) is a Los Angeles-based artist focused on processing and mechanizing time and fate.
Christien Vargas creates light boxes to collage drawings and images she finds together into various compositions. Vargas was born and raised in Boca Raton, FL, and attended The Cooper Union in New York.
About San Jacinto College South Campus Gallery
The San Jacinto College South Campus Gallery is committed to promoting creativity, critical discourse, and collaboration through the arrangement of multidisciplinary exhibitions and educational programs. The gallery exists to serve the students, employees, and community partners of San Jacinto College with a focus on inclusive initiatives.“
Reception: October 26, 2023 | 2–5 pm
Reception: October 28, 2023 | 4–7 pm
San Jacinto College South Campus Gallery- Marie Flickinger Fine Arts Center
13725 Beamer Road
Houston, 77089 TX
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