Inversions of the Inner World by inversionsoftheinnerworldzine

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

DISCOVERING AYN SPRING MMXXII

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

Zine published in April 2022 through DISCOVERING AYN: Andy Warhol Made possible thanks to The Monira Foundation ArtFrankly AYN Foundation

Cover art by Louise Marie Elizabeth Vanhelst Edited by Kate Meadows Interior design by Kate Meadows

inner matter Editor’s Note

[ KATE MEADOWS ]

I’ll Be Your Mirror Crazy Love Soak It Up

[ ELIZABETH CASTALDO ]

Liberty Faun In Springtime Existential Crisis

[ SHANE SMITH ]

Buddha Slips in Time [ AREZOU RAMEZANI ]

pretty girl, she has to be so pretty [ SHARAAH SHAKTI ]

d.e.n.d.e.r.a.h. (part I) [ ALEJANDRA NIN ]

Moonlight Sunset to Dark

[ CYDNEY WILLIAMS ]

Germination Sweetheart Rupture

[ THEO TROTTER ]

The Limit’s the Sky [ ELAN CADIZ ]

Spirit Graffiti No. 11 (Chango Dance) [ GINO C. MARKOCS ]

d.e.n.d.e.r.a.h. (part II) [ ALEJANDRA NIN ]

Savilly Cosmos Judgement

[ LOUISE MARIE ELIZABETH VANHELST]

Sookie’s Ramp

[ MARIE JAYNE CHANEL ]

Heteroparalelo

[ ROMEO GÓMEZ LÓPEZ ]

Movements In Oil [ AMANDA MILLET-SORSA ]

90 94

Contributor Bios Acknowledgements

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

Spirit Graffiti No. 11 (Chango Dance), Gino C. Markocs

“Pop Art took the inside and put it out the outside and put it inside.”

tside, took

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

EDITOR’S NOTE Andy Warhol’s aphorism said it all— the mid-20th-century Pop Art movement was a revolution of surface image, in which boundaries between public matters and private matters could be reimagined by art. Emerging technologies in photography and film could not only reproduce a convincing likeness of someone real, but the infinite potential for alteration and manipulation of that likeness. Many of Warhol’s silkscreens punctured the illusion by decorating portraits with expressive colors, highlighting the shallow surface of the image while simultaneously conveying qualities of the subject’s inner world. Inversions of the Inner World zine celebrates this motif in a pivotal stream of ideas: art that turns the expected on its head, using visuals as a mediator between the outside and the inside. The pieces we’ve included on these pages seek to rearrange layers of private and public, create tension between internal emotions and outer facade, and play with surface texture in unexpected ways. From paintings to sculpture, photography to poetic diary, our artists have explored images of physical bodies, represented movement as a way of orienting one’s place in the outer world, and expressed their interpretations of atmospheric surroundings. Identity is a common theme here, unfolding layers of persona from the outermost fabrication to the innermost essence. Each piece finds something subversive in an inversion, the generative form of rebellion that this collection hopes to capture. We’re lucky to include work from these talented artists on behalf of Discovering AYN’s spring program and share them with the world. We sincerely hope you enjoy. — Kate Meadows, DISCOVERING AYN Intern

I’ll Be Your Mirror, mixed media on paper

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ELIZABETH CASTALDO

Crazy Love, mixed media on paper

“I am working with the idea of the divine feminine as a creative power that binds all of us together, and that I seek to recognize in myself while reconciling it with the pressure put on me as a woman and a mother living within a patriarchal society. I’ve been searching for beauty, joy, comfort and acceptance in my own body, trying to feel at home in myself. I am often thinking about what it feels like to be in a female body, what is my body, what are the boundaries of my body, and at what point does my body end and my surroundings begin?”

Soak It Up, mixed media on paper

SHANE SMITH

(top left riencing cial sen ing mar This w lowed b and for

(bottom che in t various I made ages in further

(top) Liberty, 2020. Acrylic, oil pastel, and graphite on canvas, 4.5ft x 3ft. (bottom) Faun In Springtime, 2021. Acrylic and graphite on found wood pallet, 37.5” x 35.4”

(right) “ the pan percepti there w

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Existential Crisis

acrylic paint and graphite on canvas, 4.5ft x 4.5ft

ft) “This painting is a projection of my psyche in the period of its creation. I was expeg a renewed sense of motivation & liberty in a spiritual, mental, physical, and finannse. I made this painting using directly intuitional and spontaneous techniques of makrks. This created vague imagery which I then interpreted through memory and psyche. way of developing subject matter, is akin to a child finding creatures in the clouds. Folby this was a period of research that further informed the development of the colors rms in the composition, and how they related to my experience of life in that moment.”

m left) “This painting is quite ambiguous in meaning, as it is really just a snapshot of my psythat moment of time. Colors, and familiar symbols, subjects, and cues from the title also add dimensions of meaning and understanding of my feelings, thoughts, and creative process. spontaneous marks on the surface of the wood, which I then interpreted, like finding imthe clouds, or a Rorschach test. I then supplement and enriched the composition, through research of the ideas recorded and my potential reasonings behind recording said imagery.”

“This painting depicts the tension of an existential crisis I underwent just prior to the onset of ndemic. It was based in feelings of a revelatory distinction between the realm of thought and ion, and my presence as a physical entity bound in time and space. In this perspective of being, was a sort of refraction and fragmentation of my existence and my experience of the world.”

Buddha Slips in Time, black and white photograph

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

AREZOU RAMEZANI “This series was inspired by the time I was strolling in London’s streets and seeing Buddha’s statues in every corner, in a restaurant, pub, shop,etc. The object of the sacred human keeps redefining itself in every environment in a modern society, a collision between his the peaceful world that once was and today’s busy life. As if Buddha is traveling through time and glitches along the way.”

pretty girl, she has to be so pretty digital oil

“Pretty Girl is about femininity, safety, comfort. It’s about women hood and beauty as well as self soothing and familiarity.”

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

SHARAAH SHAKTI 15

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

CYDNEY WILLIAMS

Moonlight, 2022. watercolor on handmade paper from nepal, 6” x 6”

“Like Warhol’s definit works on paper repres side world. The three winter in Santa Fe, N a depth that the soul o

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

Sunset to Dark, 2022. black gesso, acrylic, and acrylic mediums on khadi handmade cotton rag paper, 8” X 8”

tion of Pop Art, taking the inside and putting it on the outside, these sent the moment where your innermost self is fully expressed to the oute works on paper were made during the dark nights of February/ March New Mexico. During these cold nights where the darkness seems to have only knows when illuminated by the desert moonlight.”

THEO TROTTER Rupture latex, makeup

“My work references the trans body as a palimpsest, through the marks of transformation and trauma that manifest on it. In this way, it makes intimate bodily experiences visible.”

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

Sweetheart

latex, ribbon, lace, blood, makeup, nail polish

Germination latex, hair extensions hairclips, blood

ELAN CADIZ “The Limit’s the Sky is the public investigation of my childhood as I look to heal my inner child from traumas, genetically transferred as well as lived. The title comes from a line in HBO Chris Rock special Bigger & Blacker.”

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

The Limit’s the Sky, acrylic and flashe paint on cotton

Spirit Graffiti No. 11 (Chango Dance), acrylic, enamel, paper collage on canvas

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

GINO C. MARKOCS

“For this series I’ve painted multiple figures and then ripped and recombined them. Two spirits become one through the movements of dance. This is what I imagine “Spirit Graffiti” might look like - making the invisible visible.”

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

LOUISE MARIE ELIZABETH VANHE Savilly, charcoal on paper

“During a winter residency in the countryside of Burgundy-France, I’ve been working on the perception of the nature energies and use some local tools to search for ways to connect with my subject.” 88

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

Jugement, charcoal on paper

ELST

Cosmos, charcoal on paper

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

Sookie’s Ramp digital collage

“Sookie’s Ramp is a triptych digital collage exploring the notion of correspondence between the MJC duo. From Mexico to Louisiana, Berlin to Arizona, the pieces demonstrate spaces both within the public eye, and the intimate zones of flesh and a scope of various textures.”

MARIE JAYNE CHANEL

ROMEO GÓMEZ LÓPEZ

“Heteroparalelo poses a metaphysical exercise imagining an alternative universe where Romeo Gómez López is heterosexual. The two models represent the house where he grew up in each scenario. The viewer is invited to wonder what differences there might be in this parallel reality.”

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

Heteroparalelo, plexiglass, digital printin on cardboard, acrylic paint, nylon thread

Movements in Oil 03/04/202

Movements in Oil 02/25/2022. oil paint, Kanami Kusajima movements on canvas, 50” x 60”

AM 94

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

22. oil paint, Kanami Kusajima movements on canvas, 50” x 60”

“Having collaborated with dancers on movement, color, and mark making, I’m interested in how the body relates to painting both as subject and as the dancer becomes my brush and palette, detached from my body with a mind (or movement) of her own. When working collaboratively I seek to engage the collaborator in the process, thinking together about color and touch so there is dialogue with one another. Through the brush, balance, meditation, and speed of execution, the work engages in cross-disciplinary work with influences from Eastern calligraphy, which have been a source of inspiration for abstract expression with the brush.”

MANDA MILLET-SORSA 95

contributors ALEJANDRA NIN Alejandra Nin (born April 1, 1998, Madrid, Spain) is an independent author and fashion designer who creatively explores spirituality and metaphysical phenomena through her design and visual poetry. Check out her pages on Instagram @d.e.n.d.e.r.a.h and @alexandranin. AMANDA MILLET-SORSA Amanda Millet-Sorsa is an artist, art writer, and arts worker, born in Washington D.C. (1987) to French and Finnish parents, and currently is based in New York City. She is a visual artist engaging in studio based painting and experimental collaborative performance work. Check out amanda-atelier.com or @amandamilletsorsa on Instagram. AREZOU RAMEZANI Arezou Ramezani is a London-based Iranian visual artist and podcaster (@arezouart) who loves to use different mediums. Her work has been exhibited worldwide. She believes sharing emotions is essential and humans go through common experiences that’s why she investigates the human’s rawest feelings and tries to connect to the deeper layers through her art where she conveys an emotion and evokes a feeling to the audience, hoping they resonate with them. Check out her links through linktr.ee/arezouart. CYDNEY WILLIAMS Cydney Williams is an artist currently based in Santa Fe, New Mexico working primarily as a painter, while still experimenting with a variety of mediums and subjects to foster an ever-expanding practice. Continuing her work from her residency at Monira Foundation, her practice explores themes of interconnectivity and balance between boundless nature and confined societal pressures of the modern world. She can be found at cydneywilliams.com and @cydney_williams on Instagram. ELAN CADIZ Elan Cadiz is an interdisciplinary North American Visual Artist that deconstructs and balances her intersectionality through her projects. Her art and practice are grounded in the documentation of my personal narrative through the use of historical imagery and the domestic. ELIZABETH CASTALDO Elizabeth Castaldo is an artist, printmaker, and bookbinder living and working in Peekskill, NY and New York City. She works with collage, drawing, and printmaking to create works on paper and artist’s books that explore the connection of feminine sensuality to nature and its manifestations in modern culture. You can find her on Instagram at @ecastaldo_artandbooks.

INVERSIONS OF THE INNER WORLD

GINO C. MARKOCS Gino C. Markocs is a recent graduate from Cooper Union. His family has had an alternate lifestyle growing up with a musician father and native mother; being exposed to many different cultures moving around as a child as well as native mythologies has impacted his art. He creates my own mythologies based on images of cave painting, shamanist ritualistic practices, and the belief of animism. His Instagram is @gino.markocs. LOUISE MARIE ELIZABETH VANHELST Louise Marie Elizabeth Vanhelst is from Marseille in the south of France. She’s experimenting with drawings and searching for existential answers to the humans’ disorder flux. She’ss always looking for learning and ways to erase all the trust— to start back to zero and watch the world with new perspectives, to reshape things and draw them. More can be found online at vanhelst. com and her Instagram @louisemarieelizabe. MARIE JAYNE CHANEL Claire and Muriel McIntyre are a sister duo working collectively in challenging normativity and conformism, through a visual diary of daily accounts and conversations. Learn more at mariejaynechanel.com. ROMEO GÓMEZ LÓPEZ Romeo Gómez López uses diverse elements of mass culture-religion, celebrities, soap operas, and science fiction-to question and critique the conservative nature of contemporary Mexican art. His work challenges notions of compulsory heterosexuality in art by using humor and a pornographic imagination to show an alternative and resilient identity. He focuses on libidinal values and their provocative power as generators of a dissident artistic sensibility. His website is romeogomezlopez.com SHANE SMITH Shane Smith (b. Jan 12, 1999 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a New York based painter and sculptor. The majority of his works are personal, figurative representations of nature, animals and people. You can find him on Instagram @mr.shane.smith or on his website www.shanesmith.net. SHAARAH SHAKTI Shaarah Shakti is a dominican artist from the Bronx, NY. Her work is about self exploration, what it means to be herself, which always includes themes of womenhood, eating and body issues, and growing up in the world. More work of hers can be found on her website, oatmilkdrunk.art. THEO TROTTER Theo Trotter makes work about trans experience, memory, and the body. He is currently based in Queens, NY, and can be found online at @theotrotter on Instagram or at theotrotter.com.

acknowledgements We’d first like to thank every person who took the time to submit to Inversions. It is increasingly difficult to be a working artist in the present moment, and we appreciate the time, labor, and courage it takes to create and share. This zine is made possible thanks to an internship sponsored by Monira Foundation, Art Frankly, and AYN foundation. Discovering AYN selects an intern for a three-month duration to design and execute regular public engagement programs. These events and initiatives invite the community to learn the history and practice of featured artists in the AYN foundation’s collection, housed in Mana Contemporary of Jersey City, NJ: including John Chamberlain, Dan Flavin, Michael Heizer, Rammellzee, Fred Sandback and Andy Warhol. Kate Meadows, the program’s January-March intern, has envisioned this zine as a way to invite new interpretations of a Warhol-related theme from working artists. If you’re interested in these artists and are seeking an internship, apply for the Discovering AYN opportunity online at monirafoundation.org/programs-discovering-ayn

Art Frankly find spaces a sional prese listings and ship as well fantastic res profile at art

Monira Foundation is a nonprofit that operates out of Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, New Jersey. Founded in 2018, they offer studio residencies and public programming for a diverse variety of artists, musicians, dancers, producers, and writers. Focusing on the unique potential of interdisciplinary work in a context distinct from the distracting pressures of academia and the market, their goal is to advance the practices and products of today’s foremost artists, amplifying their contributions to communities both local and distant. Are you an artist seeking a studio residency or someone looking to get engaged with the art community in Jersey City? Find out more online at monirafoundation.org

y is an online platform for the international art world to post jobs, and discover new opportunities while building an online profesence.They prioritize a democratic and transparent approach to hiring, and have helped advertise the Discovering AYN internas this zine submission opportunity on their website. This is a source if you’re job searching in the art world— you can make a tfrankly.com.

AYN Foundation is committed to comprehensive, large-scale projects by major international artists for presentation to the public. Current projects include Andy Warhol’s The Last Supper, and Maria Zerres’ September Eleven, located in the west Texas town of Marfa. Learn more about AYN’s ongoing public projects at Mana Contemporary at manacontemporary.com/insidemana/ayn-foundation