Inner Excess: The Intersection of Consumerism, Spirituality and Corporeality

MS: I love that! One of the most compelling aspects of this show is the varied materials and processes each artist presents: we have a 3D printed mobile, a 7 foot figurative neon wall sculpture, a suffragette-era textile banner, an 18th-century inspired rug, a transcendental painting and two vibrant color pencil drawings. There is palpable tension between themes – physical vs spiritual, artificial vs organic – and how the materials exist near one another – hand-drawn vs mechanical, soft textiles vs neon light. Can you speak a bit about this?

EPE: I was interested in the different artists work because they were so varied, but they had a similar thematic undertone. I feel like they all work with these concepts of spirituality in the body and are working in these sorts of consumer level art mediums like colored pencil, for example, or these 3D printed plastic pieces. Neon is something that we interact with on a daily basis, just in a different context. So, in relationship to consumerism, that was how I selected the works for the show.

There’s also an inwardness to all of these – they all have a tenderness and a reflectiveness. That appealed to me, or I guess I resonated with me and my own practice. So, whether they’re illustrated bodies or a spiritual practice like tarot card reading or like in Colleen’s work, the ceremonial apron that has an image of a table where seances were performed, there’s different spiritual elements in each of them. I think even neon could relate to spirituality, like light as a medium. And when I think of light as a medium, I think of stained glass in a church or the presence of light, of color. Light is just very alluring and provocative.

There’s tension between the works and different things being explored, but they’re all very colorful and they’re all really fun, too, which I think ties back into this idea of consumerism, right? Like, why are we attracted to certain things? Is it the materiality? Is it the colors? What about something makes us want to have it and feel like we need to have it? So that was something I’ve been thinking about.

And then the title of the show, which I wanted to touch on, is Inner Excess. I think we all, as Americans especially, consume a lot of information every day through our phones. Everywhere we look, there’s an advertisement. And as a result, I feel like that excess excessiveness on the exterior, on the outward, we consume it, and it kind of becomes our inner worlds, and it changes the way we think about ourselves and things. We’re downloading all this information and then we’re making art, you know, as artists, and it’s like, what do we choose to make and why? And how has the consumerism outside of us shaped the way we think about ourselves and the art we make and what we want to do with our lives?

So, that was sort of the idea. And I think as queer people too, just to speak for myself, I don’t feel like a church is somewhere I can necessarily access my spirituality. The place that I do is when I’m alone or looking inward.