Bank, Los Angeles, California
September 13 - October 25, 2008
Performance: October 4, October 25, 2pm
Project Room: Public Dialogues

 

1 Fuji-flex photograph 40x40x2”; 9 Fuji-flex photographs 13”x20”x2”; 2 Fuji-flex photographs 30”x40”x2”; 18 convex mirrors of 3”, 5”, 7”, 9” diameters with etched text; 6 groups of circular Fuji flex photographs and convex mirrors 3”, 5”, 7”, 9” diameters; brass telescope with wood box; 12 chairs

Foreign Exchanges: Galileo is an immersive installation of photography and sculpture including mirrors, chairs, a telescope, civic engagement and performance. The words "Foreign Exchanges" come from Cypis' parallel practice as a professional mediator, where parties in conflict see each other as foreign and must engage each other to transform the conflict.

A dominant image in the exhibition is a photographic portrait of a man looking through a telescope. The telescope serves as a surrogate eye seeming to pierce the surface of the photograph as it reaches out towards what he sees. Across the gallery walls hang clusters of circular photographs and mirrors of various sizes appearing like molecules, cells, or galaxies representing his sight. These include concave magnifying mirrors etched with the words memory, myth, history, fantasy, dream, family and desire. Along another wall, photographs of chartreuse colored trees are hung low so as to evoke a physical sensation in the viewer when s/he moves across them.

In the Project Gallery are three circular clusters of chairs, each borrowed and different from the others. During the exhibition Cypis invited local civic groups from a Continuation High-School, Senior Assisted Living Center, Mediators Beyond Borders Chapter, and a Community Art Center to occupy the chairs and engage each other with questions of identity and social relations. On a wall hang the diptych photographs TreeTree and on a shelf is (Galileo’s) telescope etched with the text "History, a relationship between you and me."

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