BELOW THE THIN

October 23rd - November 27th, 2021

Heather Leigh McPherson
Sarah West

‘The inframince is this threshold that allows one to pass from one dimension to another and is like the ‘difference between the void of a mould and the full of the corresponding moulage’; or again, it is like ‘the noise or sound that corduroy trousers make in moving’. - Marcel Duchamp

Consider the moment of transference between the is and the isn’t, the was and the now, the here and the there. The world becomes infinitely more rich in their wake, and are recognizable only via universally familiar experiences: the warmth of a seat recently vacated, making it through a sliding glass door at the very last second, a faraway scent captured in a breeze.

These moments of special relativity are made tangible in the works of Heather Leigh McPherson & Sarah West, who question contextual, physical, and system-based boundaries. Offering moments of shared experiential discovery, those familiar fragments are made whole via rendered language and material enclosure. 

Existing somewhere between technician and mage, Heather Leigh McPherson presents challenges to accepted reality and the perfection of a tree with equal weight. The result of a labor intensive process of building dimension through resin, paint, paper and text, her low relief, wall-hanging works serve as wormholes into both deep strangeness and clarity. In these energetic collage-like works, we see realistically rendered iconography alongside stylized facial features and abstract language; a semi-autobiographical guide to exploring the in-between.

The finely rendered surfaces and optical games of Sarah West’s paintings create alchemical dreamscapes that invite the viewer’s avatar to enter that space. At the same time, their composition and presentation negates familiar hierarchical systems of importance and order. Positioning transformation as a tie between the ancient and contemporary or the corporeal and digital, West deconstructs and rebuilds connections across time. 

Below the Thin presents highly considered symbolism and materiality that leaves no stone unturned, but offers no finality; we are still unsettled. Together, these artists simultaneously destabilize and affirm our accepted reality, hinting that there’s something more in what we already know.