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Julie Weitz: Touch Museum 2.0
Saturday, November 12th - Friday, December 9th 2016
Eastern Star Gallery at The Archer School for Girls
The Eastern Star Gallery is pleased to present Touch Museum 2.0 by artist Julie Weitz. Touch Museum is an immersive video installation that explores the experience of embodiment in the digital realm through the sensory phenomenon known as Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR). The exhibition originally premiered at Young Projects in Los Angeles and received critical attention in Artforum, the LA Times and on KCRW. For its newest incarnation at Eastern Star Gallery, Weitz will suspend a large video screen from the ceiling and cover the floor with acoustic foam and pillows. Viewers will be encouraged to lie down and lose themselves in Weitz’s mesmerizing imagery and the meditative soundscape, composed particularly for the exhibition by LA-based musician Deru. The show will also feature an intimate viewing station inside the gallery's closet.
The Eastern Star Gallery is a unique art exhibition space located on the campus of The Archer School for Girls, an independent middle and high school in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.On Saturday, November 12th, Archer will host a public gallery opening and reception for the artist at 5:00 p.m. The exhibition is open to the public by appointment through December 9th. The Archer School for Girls is located at 11725 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90049. To make an appointment to visit the exhibition after the opening, please call 310-873-7043.
Julie Weitz is a visual artist based in Los Angeles. Her videos, installations and photographs examine the experience of embodiment in the digital realm. She uses physical props, often cast from her own body parts, and combines "anti-CGI" aesthetics to make work that blurs the boundaries between sensory perception and material reality. Weitz, who was originally trained as a painter, claims that she initially started using video in her practice in 2009, partly out of her own increasing awareness of technology’s role in our lives, and partly out of a desire to explore the medium more critically. In Touch Museum, Weitz finds inspiration from ASMR, a popular YouTube phenomenon, which is defined as a precise perceptual phenomenon that is triggered by visual, auditory or cognitive stimuli. In many cases practitioners claim to experience heightened sensations within various regions of the body/skull. As Weitz explains, “ASMR extends this question of how we experience empathy and locates it in the digital space. It’s a type of low-tech virtual reality that allows one group of people (the video-makers) to offer relief, comfort and relaxation to another group of people (the viewers) through simple, straightforward techniques. As an artist, I’m inspired by the perceptibility of this exchange despite its apparent intangibility."
To see images of prior exhibits of the artist’s work, please visit http://www.julieweitz.com/
ABOUT THE GALLERY
The Eastern Star Gallery at Archer is more than a unique space to view contemporary artwork: it is the center of a vital dialogue between artists, students, teachers, collectors, gallery directors, curators and other art-lovers who are drawn to the Archer campus. Students with an interest in curation, exhibition planning, and museum and gallery management receive an introduction to the business aspects of fine arts through off-campus excursions and visiting guest lectures and panels of experts. Please visit our website at http://easternstargallery.archeronline.org/.
HISTORY
By definition, the Eastern Star Gallery at Archer is a place of transformation. The space originally served as a chapel in the 1930s, offering residents a place of worship for more than six decades. During its subsequent metamorphosis, the 300-square-foot room served as a classroom and theater staging area before assuming its current life as an art gallery in 2006. Since then, this space has housed some of the most prestigious contemporary art in Southern California. In 2013, students renamed The Gallery at The Archer School for Girls as the Eastern Star Gallery at Archer, honoring the building’s historic roots as the Eastern Star Home for Women.
MISSION
To engage gallery visitors in the collaborative journey of the artist’s creative process, and to build an expansive community around the shared experience of contemporary art, within The Archer School for Girls community and beyond. The exhibitions also serve to provide students with a real-life business model for gallery operation and art business management. Proceeds from art sales support Archer’s financial aid program.
About The Archer School for Girls
Founded in 1995, The Archer School for Girls is an independent school that provides a 21st-century college preparatory program for students in grades 6 through 12 in an environment that explores and refines the ways girls learn best. Cultivating a strong sense of individuality, personal identity, independence, a sense of global engagement, and an array of leadership opportunities define each student's experience. For more information, please visit our website at www.archer.org.
