CRUSHCURATORIAL is pleased to present OPEN MIND, a two person conceptual video-art and sculpture show about memory, materiality, death, and dreams. Selva Aparicio and Virginia Lee Montgomery present new artworks made across Spain, Texas, dream-worlds, real-worlds, anatomy morgues, and corporate convention hotel rooms. Conceived from a text Virginia Lee Montgomery wrote about Selva Aparicio from the day Selva cut open a cadaver-man’s head, OPEN MIND investigates intimacy, metacognition, and the boundaries of psychic materiality.
Selva Aparicio presents TEJO, an interactive, floor-piece sculpture cast in concrete from the skin imprints of cadavers. TEJO takes both name and shape from a classic children’s game paralleling Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy where one must pass through a series of nine worlds before reaching paradise. Traditionally in the game Tejo, players toss a small object on the ground into numbered squares and then hop through various game-squares marked ‘Safe’, ‘Home’, or ‘Rest.’ In English, a variant of this game is known as “Hopscotch.” Selva Aparicio also debuts a series of copper plates called "GENTLE TRANSACTIONS” etched with the oils of cadavers ears.
Virginia Lee Montgomery presents PONY HOTEL, a surreal six-minute film where she braids together a tale of three ponytails: real, prop, and fantasy. As Business Witch, she drills into dreams with her Dewalt drill, activates cheese danishes, and documents her 3ft blonde ponytail body-prop surrogate sleeping in corporate hotels. VLM also presents one photograph, CHAOS CHAIRS, two series of warped American glitch coins, STATE CHANGE: ROOSEVELT, STATE CHANGE: JEFFERSON, and a short dreamlike text recounting a memory of a memory entitled OPEN MIND.
In 2016, Selva Aparicio and Virginia Lee Montgomery were graduate students at Yale University. Their studios were side by side; Selva the left lobe, Virginia the right. After two years-apart, Selva and Virginia meet again for OPEN MIND: a surreal meditation into psychic materiality.
(LEFT) Selva Aparicio, b. Barcelona, Spain, is a sculptor. She lives and works in Spain. She received her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her MFA from Yale University, Sculpture, 2017. Selva Aparicio makes work about memory, materiality, and intimacy.
(RIGHT) Virginia Lee Montgomery, b. Houston, USA, is a time-based artist. She lives and works in Texas and New York. She received her BFA from The University of Texas, 2008, and her MFA from Yale University, Sculpture, 2016. Virginia Lee Montgomery makes work about memory, materiality, and truth.
