Asphodel Meadows at Mother Culture

Artists: Laurie Kang, Katie Lyle, Jenine Marsh

Exhibition title: Asphodel Meadows

Organized by: Caleb Dunham

Venue: Mother Culture, Toronto, Canada

Date: May 23, 2019

Photography: All images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Mother Culture

“I agree that all items I take from The Swap Shop are for my own personal use and that I will not use any item for financial gain. I will provide my signature to that effect upon receipt.” The Swap Shop holds furniture, clothing, books and general lost-and-found – all available for claim and re-use. Things filtered down for retirement or sabbatical, reassignment, convalescence or palliative pause; a limbo space for objects between jobs, it’s a deathbed as much as a chrysalis. The souls of the Asphodel Meadows flit like shadows, between Elysium fields and earth, between rebirth and afterlife, pungent with time and touch. The interval between the multiple lives of things is as slight as a flower petal, a knife’s blade perfumed with past blooms. Like the tentacled, immortal Hydra, each life holds past intimacies, staining and fertilizing the next. In this temporal holding space, might it be possible to be more mortal?

Laurie Kang is an artist living in Toronto. Her work has been exhibited at Interstate Projects and Topless, New York; The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Cooper Cole, 8-11, The Loon, Gallery TPW, Franz Kaka, and Carl Louie, Toronto; Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran and L’inconnue, Montreal; Raster Gallery, Warsaw; Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Poland; and Camera Austria, Graz. She has been artist-in-residence at Rupert, Vilnius; Tag Team, Bergen; The Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, Alberta; and Interstate Projects, Brooklyn. She holds an MFA from the Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College.

Katie Lyle works in painting, drawing and performance. Selected exhibitions include: Erin Stump Projects, Toronto; Oakville Galleries, Oakville; 67 Steps, Los Angeles; Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto; The Loon, Toronto; and Model Project Space, Vancouver. She received her MFA from the University of Victoria in 2009 and her BFA from Concordia University in 2005. Lyle lives in Toronto and is represented by Erin Stump Projects.

Jenine Marsh is an artist based in Toronto. Solo and two-person exhibitions took place at: Franz Kaka, Cooper Cole, and 8-11, Toronto; Interface, Oakland; Lulu, Mexico City; Stride Gallery, Calgary; Vie d’ange, Montreal; Entrée, Bergen; and Beautiful, Chicago. Group exhibitions include OSL contemporary, Oslo; Rupert, Vilnius; Gianni Manhattan, Vienna; Cooper Cole, Toronto; Lulu, Mexico City; Night Gallery and Hannah Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles. She has participated in residencies at USF Verftet, La Datcha, Rupert, the Banff Centre, and Vermont Studio Center. Her work is represented by Cooper Cole in Toronto.

Asphodel Meadows, 2019, exhibition view, Mother Culture

Katie Lyle, FarNear, 2019, Oil paint, pencil crayon, oil pastel and collage on canvas, 28 x 38”

Laurie Kang, Knot I, Knot II, Knot III, 2019, Unfixed, unprocessed photographic paper and darkroom chemicals (continually sensitive), aluminum tape

Laurie Kang, Knot I, Knot II, Knot III, 2019, Unfixed, unprocessed photographic paper and darkroom chemicals (continually sensitive), aluminum tape

Asphodel Meadows, 2019, exhibition view, Mother Culture

Asphodel Meadows, 2019, exhibition view, Mother Culture

Jenine Marsh, Weight on the moult (1), 2019, Gypsum cement, plasticine, powdered pigment, displaced and out of circulation paper money, floral paper

Asphodel Meadows, 2019, exhibition view, Mother Culture

Jenine Marsh, Press, 2019, Flowers, displaced and out of circulation paper money and train-pressed coins, acrylic, metal hardware

Jenine Marsh, Press, 2019, Flowers, displaced and out of circulation paper money and train-pressed coins, acrylic, metal hardware

Jenine Marsh, Press, 2019, Flowers, displaced and out of circulation paper money and train-pressed coins, acrylic, metal hardware

Asphodel Meadows, 2019, exhibition view, Mother Culture

Laurie Kang, Root I, 2019, Lotus root, cast aluminum

Asphodel Meadows, 2019, exhibition view, Mother Culture

Asphodel Meadows, 2019, exhibition view, Mother Culture

Katie Lyle, Little Theatre, 2019, Oil paint, pencil crayon, oil pastel and collage on canvas, 28 x 36”

Asphodel Meadows, 2019, exhibition view, Mother Culture

Asphodel Meadows, 2019, exhibition view, Mother Culture

Laurie Kang, Root II, 2019, Lotus root, cast aluminum

Asphodel Meadows, 2019, exhibition view, Mother Culture

Katie Lyle, Accumulation (hardware), 2019, House paint, acrylic paint, pencil crayon, and collage on canvas, 12 x 16”

Laurie Kang, Knot IV, 2019, Unfixed, unprocessed photographic paper and darkroom chemicals (continually sensitive), aluminum tape

Asphodel Meadows, 2019, exhibition view, Mother Culture

Katie Lyle, Lacuna, 2019, Oil paint, pencil crayon and oil pastel on canvas, 25 x 31”

Asphodel Meadows, 2019, exhibition view, Mother Culture

Jenine Marsh, Pocket mirror, 2019, Gypsum cement, plasticine, powdered pigment, wire, glue

Jenine Marsh, to just be self-sufficient, 2019, Gypsum cement, plasticine, powdered pigment, plastic floral wrap

Jenine Marsh, coins and tokens, 2016-2019, Open series of train-pressed mixed currency coins and tokens

Asphodel Meadows, 2019, exhibition view, Mother Culture

Katie Lyle, Accumulation (curtain), 2019, Acrylic paint, pencil crayon, oil pastel and collage on canvas, 8 x 10”

Jenine Marsh, Weight on the moult (2), 2019, Gypsum cement, powdered pigment, floral paper