X, by Jacob Kassay, Opening 6/22 @ von ammon
von ammon co announced X, a solo show by Jacob Kassay. The exhibition will run from 22 June through 31 August. von ammon co is located on Cady’s Alley in Georgetown, Washington DC. A reception will be held for the artist on Saturday, 22 June from 6 - 8pm.
In the gallery, an electric eye relays the movement of a candle’s flame to the overhead track lighting. The capriciousness of the flame represents the relative position of every nearby drift of flammable oxygen. It is a record of air’s flow, direction and intensity. The electric eye measures only absolute presence/absolute absence; while the flame itself is never totally “on” or “off”. The lighting system is a constant projection of the flame’s negative, which creates a sympathetic phase in broadcast.
Paintings make their own recordings of the space. The complex opacity of their surfaces absorb and redistribute the newly augmented light as ambient feedback. Each canvas is a fleeting document of the behavior of the light. In aggregate, what remains is the retinal afterimage—photochemical activity persisting inside of one of several human apertures.