Maranasati
Edward Cella Art & Architecture, Los Angeles
6 – 20 August 2016

Edward Cella Art & Architecture is pleased to announce Maranasati by David Horvitz, an exhibition including hand-blown sea glass sculptures, collaborative sound performances with Xiu Xiu front-man Jamie Stewart, and sprouting avocado trees.

On exhibit will be nine hand-blown sea glass sculptures from Horvitz’s ongoing series started in 2014.

As Triple Canopy writes:

[These works begin] with Horvitz combing various beaches in 2014 in search of sea glass—remnants of bottles, windows, screens, sconces, or fishing floats that had been submerged in the ocean. In the course of decades or centuries, waves and sand smooth the surface of the glass and erase its structure, producing pebble-like forms with a naturally frosted finish…The fragments were then melted and reblown to form new vessels. Because different pieces of glass have different molecular structures, and thus varying rates of expansion and contraction, the sculptures are likely to change in the coming years or decades: cracks may form, shards may peel away, and repair (or acquiescence) of these transformations may be necessary. For the same reason, the form of the sculptures is often determined as much by the qualities of the glass— its distinct malleability or rigidity.

Nine glass-works will be displayed on custom pedestals that are scattered across the gallery. During the course of the exhibition, Horvitz will be joined by Jamie Stewart for nine performances of improvised electronic sounds. The performances will use the nine lines of the of the Buddhist death awareness visualization practice known as Maranasati, as their score. Each performance will be positioned in a different location in the gallery, offering each artwork its own composition.

Avocado trees will be growing in the gallery.

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1. A corpse that is swollen, blue and festering.

2. A corpse that is being eaten by crows, hawks, cats, vultures, dogs, jackals, different kinds of worms, and mushrooms.

3. A corpse that is reduced to a skeleton together with some flesh and blood held in by the tendons.

4. A corpse that is reduced to a blood-besmeared skeleton without flesh but held in by tendons.

5. A corpse that is reduced to a skeleton held in by the tendons but without flesh and not besmeared with blood.

6. A corpse that is reduced to bones gone loose, scattered in all directions.

7. A corpse that is reduced to bones, white in color like a conch.

8. A corpse that is reduced to bones more than a year old, heaped together.

9. A corpse that is reduced to bones gone rotten and become dust, blown away with the wind and inhaled in the breath.