A Shooting Star is Not a Star at Roberta Pelan

Artists: Aline Bouvy, Raque Ford, Tom Forkin, Weston Lowe, Veronika Pausova

Exhibition title: A Shooting Star is Not a Star

Organized by: Motel

Venue: Roberta Pelan, Toronto, Canada

Date: August 12 – September 16, 2017

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists, Motel and Roberta Pelan, Toronto

Linguistic specialists are able to detect structural shifts in one’s speech when a person lies – this type of interrogation and analysis can be used in lieu of a polygraph, which records the actual physiological response that occurs when answering a question, but can be inconclusive on its own.

Sometimes people who hope to conceal the truth will still refuse to tell a lie. In these instances, the falsehood is neither premeditated or calculated, but when the individual does not self-identify as deceitful, they may elaborately manipulate their own vocabulary to avoid telling either. The same language can be used in our own internal-dialogue; the discrepancy between perception and reality, reconciled through a self-talk that is at some level fraudulent. Often, this voice can be used to reaffirm deeply-held beliefs, despite contrary evidence from the outside world. Modern day flat-earthers and climate change deniers discount established science in hopes of promulgating alternative ideologies that validate their belief systems.

This inconsistency is ubiquitous; like the lag in cognition when a child slips and registers pain from her fall, or the misperception of distance between the length of a sponge and the blade of a knife. Historically, our inability to question or be critical of conventional wisdom is conducive of malign cognitive dissonance. For centuries, the Geocentric model was widely accepted and endorsed, causing navigational errors and shipwrecks that were repeatedly endured, in a stubborn denial that the sun does not revolve around our planet. The grief we had to burden both for our wrongness and for no longer being the center of the universe. We often elude the anguish of being mistaken, as that acknowledgment may engender a further sense of unknowing, and instead crave the comfort of half-truths, ambiguous and noncommittal.

Aline Bouvy (b. 1974) lives and works in Brussels. Recent solo exhibitions include “Urine Mate” at Albert Baronian gallery (2016), Brussels; “Sorry I sept with your dog” at Exo Exo (2015), Paris and “New Pablum” in collaboration with Simon Davenport at Kunstraum (2015), London. She has also participated in group exhibitions such as “Friendly Faces” curated by Middlemarch at Johannes Vogt gallery (2015), New York; “I’MTen”at IMT Gallery (2015), London; “Trust” (with the After Lucy Experiment) curated by Sonia Dermience at the Copenhagen Art Festival (2015) and has previously exhibited at Material Art Fair in Mexico with Komplot. Together with artist Xavier Mary she curated “Acid Rain” at Island (2014), Brussels and “To blow smoke in order to heal”, at Albert Baronian Gallery (2015), Brussels.

Tom Forkin (b. 1986) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Recent exhibitions include Manhattan at Shoot the Lobster, New York; Brooklyn at Motel, Brooklyn; Will You curated by Jenni Crane and Nick Fusaro at Pratt Institute Brooklyn; A Stolen Painting Found by a Tree organized by Kodomo/The Manilla Institute at Rope Balitmore; Garden of Sadness at Violet’s Café, Brooklyn; and Charmed organized by Tamara Gonzales and Maggie Lee at Shoot the Lobster, New York.

Raque Ford (b. 1986, Columbia, Maryland) lives and works in New York. She received her BFA from Pratt Institute (2010) and her MFA from Mason Gross School of Arts at Rutgers University (2013). Recent solo exhibitions include It’s all about me, forget about you Species, Atlanta; Carolyn, Shoot the Lobster, New York; and Your’s Truly, Georgia Brown, International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York. Her work has been included in group shows at Sculpture Center, New York; 321 Gallery, New York; Motel, Brooklyn; Galerie Division, Montreal; AALA Gallery, Los Angeles; and Kimberly Klark, New York.

Veronika Pausova was born in Prague, Czech Republic and lives and works in Toronto, Canada. Pausova received her BFA from Glasgow School of Art in 2009 and her MFA in painting from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2013. Recent solo exhibitions include Simone Subal, New York; Tatjana Pieters, Ghent, Belgium; Páramo Galeria, Guadalaja Mexico; Motel Gallery, Brooklyn; and SARDINE Gallery, Brooklyn. Selected group exhibitions include: 11R, New York; Simone Subal, New York; Bureau, New York; Páramo, Guadalajra; and el Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños (MUPO), Oaxaca.

Weston Lowe (born 1991, VA) received a BFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2013. His work has been the subject of solo presentations including In Dog Years I’m Dead at Motel, Brooklyn and NADA New York, 2016. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.