I've Only Known My Own
Nadège Grebmeier Forget, Ursula Johnson, Autumn Knight, Michelle Lacombe, and Mikhel Proulx

March 30 - April 16, 2016
She Works Flexible - Flex Space, Huston, Tx., USA
Curated by : Nicole Burisch

I’ve Only Known My Own is a group exhibition of new performance works that explore how the materiality of the body is translated or communicated through measurements, process, technology, and documentation. This exhibition looks at how the matter of the body might become a tool or force that generates or expresses its own (il/logical) systems, and thinks through how this material embodiment might function as a form of resistance. Rather than presenting a fixed set of works, the exhibition evolved over the course of its three-week run, with objects, props, and works being set in motion during the presentation of each of the 4 performances. Inhabiting the quasi-domestic architecture of the gallery, the artists worked within the rooms of She Works Flexible’s Flex Space, gradually interacting with the space and leaving traces behind.

I’ve Only Known My Own was presented by the Core Residency Program — The Museum of Dine Arts (Huston), Glassell School of Art in partnership with Dan Fergus, Brasil Café, and She Works Flexible. Nadège Grebmeier Forget’s project received support through Diagonale’s LA SOUPÉE.

IOKMO Publication | It is intended to offer a bridge between this exhibition, and the one at Optica in the spring of 2017.

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Murs de vent
from the series On on One's for so called fans

« Nadège Grebmeier Forget's ongoing series One on one’s for so-called fans involves private performances that are then translated through oral accounts and performative re-tellings, and continues the artist’s investigations into the role of documentation and technology in mediating access to her performing body. While she initially limits the audience for her work, setting parameters around when and how she is seen, Grebmeier Forget then relinquishes control, relying on her chosen witnesses to transmit (sometimes inaccurately, but always personably) the story of what they experienced. The decadence and generosity of her performances are contrasted with her more austere architectural interventions which use forms that reference gallery spaces and display strategies. These spaces, while empty, are nevertheless invested with the presence of the actions that they once hosted. »

This work includes : a private performance for two, a mutable installation transformed three times during the duration of the exhibition (before, during and after the private performance), a public retelling by Katie Anania et Taraneh Fezelli (witnesses to the private performance) and an audio recording of the storytelling recorded by the artist during the public presentation.

Images : Lynn Lane