Art Realm Collective’s newest exhibition “Where is the Ground, Where is the Center?” is an introspection into the widespread upheaval that occurred in 2020 through the lens of ten artists who managed to stay grounded against seemingly insurmountable odds.
Art Realm Collective founder Brandie Davison referred to it as “the convergence of last year,” an amalgamation of social uprising, a global health pandemic and an increasingly volatile environment due to climate change.
These issues collided with struggles on the individual level, the most apparent of which was their toll on mental health.
“Basically, it just is overwhelming,” Davison said. “Those personal things kind of get shifted, kind of get lost in the mayhem of everything.”
The exhibition was born out of conversations with Flux Art Gallery director Betsy Lohrer Hall, who witnessed the power of resilience during the pandemic—friends losing loved ones, her own father falling ill and dying, the collective trauma of watching a murder on television. And yet, like being swept into the eye of a storm, people persevered.
“I was curious about how people stayed grounded, stayed strong, staying centered, in the middle of all of the stressors,” Hall said. “Or how do they come back from falling apart and keep going? There’s an uplifting element of that.”
Rather than compartmentalize those feelings, Hall wanted to showcase them.
“We need to talk about the hard stuff, because that’s actually a part of healing, not pretending it isn’t there or putting it in a box, but actually letting it out,” Hall said.
The members of Art Realm became the conduit for these ideas.
The walls of Flux Art Space are covered with poems and artworks, many of which came straight from the artists’ personal journals. Thoughts that were never meant to be showcased are laid bare, an act of vulnerability by the artists that’s meant to spur on healing and contemplation.
“It definitely feels really vulnerable,” said artist Rebekah Rose Ressler, whose personal sketchbook entries hung on the wall with the jagged edges from her spiral notebook. “Even as we talk about it, I can feel my body react, I have a shudder kind of feeling. But I like that feeling.”
Feeling at all, they said, is an accomplishment given the past year, a triumph over the natural proclivity to respond to trauma with numbness.
“If you allow yourself to fully feel the wave of all the various atrocities that have happened in the last year specifically […] it will be overwhelming,” they said. “To actually be able to express it is such a feat.”
Viewers are meant to explore the gallery counterclockwise, taking in each piece of work and sitting with it, chewing on the ideas before they move on to the next. Like a bell curve, the content of the works becomes more intense in the middle and ends on a moment of grounding—a mindfulness prayer written by Ressler.
A portion of the prayer reads: “I remember that the things I can hear and see are real, and that I am safe, no matter [how] scary my thoughts may feel.”
“It seems like there’s an entry point and then it gets really intense,” Hall said. “And then there starts to be relief, an affirmation.”
Though writings reveal the raw emotions of the artists, the creation of those writings in itself was an act of grounding. Artist Jordan Dixon wrote one piece from a place of “anger and frustration,” feelings that are often bottled up.
“I felt it was important for me to kind of express that as well, just like bring it to life in some ways,” Dixon said. “Allowing people to hear me, to express what I was feeling and connect on different levels as far as other people’s frustrations and understanding that they weren’t really alone in how they’re feeling during that time.”
In the gallery, fragments of black construction paper seem to crawl to the ground in a never-ending list of dread-inducing statements: “It’s not safe to go outside / be ready to evacuate / there’s a fire in Sacramento / it’s not safe to go outside / smoke is waiting / police are ready / sickness is waiting.”
“This isn’t light material, so I really want people to be prepared to really come in and look at this as work in a way, but much needed work that will hopefully bring relief afterwards or bring you some some time for contemplation,” Davison said. “I want [people] to be mentally prepared to step into the space, not to take this as entertainment, but literally as a reflective practice that we’re doing together.”
“Where is the Ground, Where is the Center?” will be followed by another exhibition focused on the theme of movement.
“The idea is to slow down, ground yourself and center, and then to move forward,” Davison said.
“Where is the Ground, Where is the Center?” will open on Saturday, July 24 at Flux Art Space at 410 Termino Ave, Long Beach. Those interested in attending on opening night are encouraged to reserve a free ticket online beforehand.
Masks are required for entry and the gallery will allow five people in the space at a time. The exhibition can be viewed on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. until August 22.
Some themes in the exhibition may not be suitable for young visitors. Themes of sexual violence and death are present in written pieces.
Readers can keep up with Flux Art Space on Instagram at @fluxartspace and Art Realm Collective on Instagram at @art.realm.collective.