Mist, Foam, Drainage Ditch at Franz Kaka

Artists: Rosa Aiello, Raque Ford, Laurie Kang, Annabeth Marks, Brandon Ndife, Eileen Quinlan

Exhibition title: Mist, Foam, Drainage Ditch

Venue: Franz Kaka, Toronto, Canada

Date: March 2 – April 3, 2021

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Franz Kaka, Toronto

Chinese Medicine recognizes an extra organ called the San Jiao, translating to “Triple Burner”. Three cavities divided into Upper, Middle and Lower, each burner enacting differing processes of refinement and elimination. Rather than a closed, singular organ, it is a mesh-like network that spans the entirety of the body, acting as a conduit for fluids and Qi.

More recently, it’s been likened to fascia. Our connective tissue – the interstitial space around all our viscera, under our skin, between our vessels, cushioning and holding our cells.

The works in this show encircle the body. They are not the body, but the around of it.

Cleaved words build elusive worlds, foodstuffs regurgitate ancestry, viscera are worn, images bear corporeal transference, surfaces are flesh, sound infects. The artists present materials as skeins of tactile interaction. The body is both a sedimentation and a scatter – a mist, a foam, a drainage ditch.

Mist, Foam, Drainage Ditch at Franz Kaka, Toronto

Eileen Quinlan, Element, 2019, Gelatin silver print. Courtesy the artist and Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York

Raque Ford, evol (detail), 2021, Acrylic paint on polypropylene, steel chain, metal wire and acrylic. Courtesy the artist, New York

Mist, Foam, Drainage Ditch at Franz Kaka, Toronto

Brandon Ndife Compost From Weeks Ago, 2021 Birch plywood, aluminum, earth pigment, enamel, cast foam, AquaResin, rubber. Courtesy the artist and Bureau, New York

Mist, Foam, Drainage Ditch at Franz Kaka, Toronto

Rosa Aiello, A-Z Soup (fire version), 2021 Sound and photo installation, 2 x single channel sound on 2 infrared motion-activated speakers, configuration of 4 digital photo prints, double sided tape

Laurie Kang, Fascia, 2021 Photogram, unfixed and tanned film, magnets

Mist, Foam, Drainage Ditch at Franz Kaka, Toronto

Raque Ford, Black Daisy Hate, 2021 Acrylic paint on polypropylene, vellum, and acrylic. Courtesy the artist, New York

Raque Ford, Black Daisy Hate (detail), 2021 Acrylic paint on polypropylene, vellum, and acrylic. Courtesy the artist, New York

Mist, Foam, Drainage Ditch at Franz Kaka, Toronto

Rosa Aiello, A-Z Soup (fire version), 2021 Sound and photo installation, 2 x single channel sound on 2 infrared motion-activated speakers, configuration of 4 digital photo prints, double sided tape

Laurie Kang, Chyme (detail), 2021 Cast aluminum and bronze, thread, pigmented silicone, rubber

Mist, Foam, Drainage Ditch at Franz Kaka, Toronto

Brandon Ndife, Nipped at the Bud and Yet?, 2021 Birch plywood, aluminum, earth pigment, enamel, cast foam, AquaResin. Courtesy the artist and Bureau, New York