Unbroken Chain

Anahita (Ani) Bradberry

John Syzonenko

Laura Tighe

Richard Tinkler

Blue light rain

Whoa, unbroken chain

Looking for familiar faces

In an empty window pane

Two Six Eight is delighted to present its first exhibition, Unbroken Chain, curated by Max Levin. Built in 1871, 268 Bowery was once the Great Northern Hotel, and in the early 20th century it was the Windsor Lodging House. In the 1950s and 1960s, artists began to live and work in the neighborhood, and pioneering artists Eva Hesse, Donald Judd, and Yayoi Kusama shared studios blocks away. Since 1970, artists have lived and worked at this address, and we aim to continue a legacy of hospitality, artistry, and live performance.

It may seem strange to think of the universe as an unbroken chain when so often our lives are defined by a lack of connection. Rather than appreciate humanity as one node in an infinite net we choose to view ourselves as separate from the natural world and then designate as other anything we would use or kill. The atomic bomb broke chains on an atomic level, and the use of the bomb as a weapon was a profound rejection of a consciousness of our common soil. This atomic break was such a shift that art and everything afterward has become known as “post-war” — but art does so much more than mark breakdowns.

Rather than destroy, artists often generate new chains of material or thought and offer their audience a way of (re)connecting. Nurturing rather than severing intrinsic bonds, artists and musicians create visual and auditory experiences of unity. This installation presents an immersive experience of this.

Richard Tinkler’s paintings are portals to unseen worlds or maps of transversal travel. Sometimes drawing attention to the intricate layers and iterations of his intuitive process, Richard also obscures the methods by which the final image is created. Along the way, he makes visionary portraits, cosmic chains when installed together and mystical multiverses when shown alone.

Laura Tighe’s installation imagines the painted surface not as an image but as a veil through which light can pass and touch. With glowing cubes as intermediaries, painting, sculpture, and installation are not discrete media. Instead, Laura values the fluid process and happenstance that here give rise to a network of evolving interactive modules with no finite dimension.

Anahita (Ani) Bradberry experiments with forming molten glass tubes that are then cooled, filled with rare gas, and electrified. As organic bodies and minimal geometries, the sculptural works are exercises in life-forming: fragile tubular vessels as a body or home for pulsing plasma. Each object is simultaneously a multidimensional line and a borderless field of light.

John Syzonenko explores the possibilities and problems of a deepening enmeshment between technology and collective consciousness. Provoked by our hypnotic perceptions of self, John’s installation breaks the spell and triggers a playfulness of now.

Music performances by New York and DC-based musicians will accompany this exhibition to explore expansiveness and meditation.

Saturday, March 14, 7 PM:

Jeremy Ray, Matt Evans, Ben Seretan

Friday, March 27, 7 PM:

Michael Sachs, Erin McGrath, Joanna Sternberg

In 1974, the Grateful Dead released the song “Unbroken Chain” and shared a mystical philosophy of connection. 12 years later, the philosopher Joseph Campbell attended a Grateful Dead concert and mused that “25,000 people tied at the heart” by the music just might be an “antidote for the atom bomb.” The goal of Unbroken Chain is to create intimate opportunities for communities to gather in warmth to experience chains of creativity and make new ones. We hope you will join us.