Image courtesy of the 2017/18 SHIFT Residents

Image courtesy of the 2017/18 SHIFT Residents

Seven Senses

June 15—July 14, 2018

George Bolster
Elise Gardella
Jeff Kasper
J. Soto
Maya Suess
Abbey Williams
Wong Kit Yi

Opening Reception
Friday, June 15, 6 - 8 PM

Closing performance by Wong Kit Yi with Sarah Demeuse
Friday, July 14, 6:13 PM

  1. Dialogues of witness, dispersals, and affections.

  2. Expressions of the space between us.

  3. Meditations on belonging and drafting our shared futures.

  4. Communicating from plant to insect, from insect to animal, from animal to human.

  5. “Reflections of the way life used to be.”

  6. Impacting the knowable world using the unknowable.

  7. The elixir of information.

Seven Senses features the work of seven artists: George Bolster, Elise Gardella, Jeff Kasper, J. Soto, Maya Suess, Abbey Williams, and Wong Kit Yi, who have spent a year participating in EFA’s SHIFT Residency. While conventionally, only five senses are recognized, these artists take on the interactivity and play implicit in (at least) seven. Collectively, their work explores spaces and the sense we make of them: those between our internal and external selves (2); the social constructions of our bodies; our sense of self and other (1); our understanding of language and how it connects us (3); how we make sense of space (internal, external, and infinite) (6); the expanse of our consciousness and culture (5); perceptions of time (7), the world, universe and multiverse (4).

SHIFT Residency was launched in August 2010 to provide studio space and peer support for practicing artists who also work as arts professionals for organizations in New York City. This program honors these individuals with a unique environment to build on their own art practices. Six residents were selected based on their outstanding contributions to the art community plus their potential for artistic growth in a shared interactive environment. The unique nature of SHIFT Residency draws out unspoken challenges and considerations in the lives of its participating artists, who dedicate a significant portion of their time towards supporting other artists and the art community.

All artwork and programming presented in Seven Senses has been conceived and created by the artists since they began SHIFT in August 2017.