Constraints Constructed

Stephan Quinci Zoe Darsee Daniel Kokko Andreas Maan Camille Haimet Will Barnard

Closing performance: Saturday, April 14th, 5-8pm

A power symbol, stitched with masculinity; the modern suit has remained stylistically unaltered for centuries. Artist and fashion designer Nicole J. Waller (b. 1994, Gothenburg) takes the tension between the continuity of this garment and the continuous refitting of contemporary understandings of gender and sexuality as the starting point for Constraints Constructed. J. Waller has developed this exhibition while in residency at East of Elsewhere. Constraints Constructed will be the first fitting of their multi-media installation conceived during their time spent in the space. Using the suit as their core motif, J. Waller seeks to unthread the structures that constrain self-expression and constrict the full experience of gender.

The exhibition space is transformed, with floating fabrics and deconstructed tailors patterns hanging from the ceiling and covering the floors. To produce the installation, J. Waller uses oils on canvas to create abstract paintings which are enlarged and digitally printed onto fabric. The original pieces are then reworked and modified with both metals and netting. Stitches are added and removed, their scars stretching across the canvas. In contrast to the way that a suit hides its internal flaws to present a false image of external perfection, J. Waller explores the sites of damage that lie within the subconscious mind, despite a projection of stability.

Much of J. Waller’s work falls within a continually shifting spectrum of opposites: light to dark, masculine to feminine, subconscious to expressed, anchored to unbound. As each constitutive piece of the show becomes an expression of the artist’s state of mind while creating it, together the work approximates the range or scale of J. Waller’s lived experience. J. Waller aims to foster an immersive experience for the viewer in their everyday sense that identity and its many past iterations is anything but static. Further, J. Waller investigates their hypothesis that clothes both determine the way the world sees us, and simultaneously change the way that we see the world.

Throughout the exhibition, collaborating artists will be invited to spend time in the installation, responding to the space and developing a creative dialogue with J. Waller. The closing performance will be a culmination of the ideas that have been shaped and styled within the physical and conceptual environment. J. Waller’s work does not dictate a view, rather it encourages self-definition. The space will be open to the public for the duration of the show for reflection and reaction to the installation.

Andreas Maan is a DJ, producer and musician whose work ranges from techno to ambient and post-punk. With friends, he runs Patterns of Perception, a mix series and deep techno club night based at OHM Berlin and about:blank. He is also part of Peachy Friend, a new post-punk outfit in collaboration Marie Dior (a.k.a. Deocsis). As a producer, his soundscapes go from ambient to deep, dark, and driving.

Daniel Kokko is a dancer, performer and sound artist from Sweden, currently based in Berlin. His performances focus on the limit between the human body and the machine body. Spatial composition of voice and music are central methods to his work. His performances are influenced by Butoh, a japanese dance movement aimed at transforming the human body. Two other key influences are Katherine Hayles’ idea that we are already cyborgs in networks with intelligent machines and Donna Haraway’s cyberfeminism and the idea that the limits where human ends and machine or animal starts is where monsters – cyborgs and centaurs – are born. Kokko performed at this years CTM festival.

Stephan B. Quinci is a Berlin-based dance and performance artist. Quinci graduated from Kenyon College in the U.S.A. with a double major in Dance and History (BA). His personal works have been performed and installed at the America College Dance Association (ACDA), the former MINT Gallery (Ohio), Scenario Pubblico (Choreographic Center Sicily), and the Pepoli Museum in Trapani. Quinci has worked and trained with numerous contemporary choreographers, performance and visual artists in the U.S. and Europe such as Tim Miller, Isabel Gotzkowsky, and Roberto Zappalà. As a contemporary artist his aesthetic and works derive from research based intellectual and physical pursuits defined by soft legato demeanor, sculptural studies, release, and suppleness.

Zoe Darsee is a poet and book designer from Texas and now based in Berlin. Alongside Nat Marcus, Zoe is co-founder of Tabloid press, an interpretive “publishing” house, intended to stimulate and integrate social environments within poetic communities. Zoe’s work has appeared online, in sound and in print. A few of her pieces are forthcoming in Prelude Magazine and Gramma Poetry in 2018.

Camille Haimet is a French-American writer and multimedia artist based who-knows-where. She works mainly with poetry, spoken word, and various experimental short-form pieces frequently dealing with themes of sensual exploration, folklore, the natural world, and sexual positivity. She dedicates most of her research and projects to exploring and playing with forms and versions of reality and dabbles in performance art, music & songwriting, textile art, as well as translation & mixed language arts.

Will Barnard is a video artist, audio engineer, music producer and live sound artist originally from London. He is currently working on documentary film making, retelling cultural and social stories through various audio and visual mediums.