<pr0xy-fl3$h>, Amplify’s next Generator Grant project, reimagines the future of the corporeal image. Organized by Alex Jacobsen, and featuring work by Margo Johnson, Aspen Monet Laboy, and Matthew Strasburger, the exhibition / laboratory envisions a future where bodies are liberated from the interdependencies of their discrete parts; where autonomous organs emit their own frequencies and detached appendages glitch in the collapsing space between physical and digital forms.
Itself a body, <pr0xy-fl3$h> vibrates with restless movement toward unsettled futures. Collaborative installation work by Aspen Monet Laboy and Matthew Strasburger refracts and fragments video projections of the body using mirrors. Alex Jacobsen’s sound design and devised performances confront the anxieties of transformation. And sculpture by Margo Johnson provides a fleshy counterpoint to the exhibition’s more ephemeral and transitory works.
Free and open to all. Face masks are not required but always welcome. Exhibition viewings after the opening are by appointment. Please register or email peter@amplifyarts.org to schedule a time to visit outside of regular gallery appointment hours.
Exhibition Dates: May 12th - June 16th, 2023
Opening Reception: May 12th; 6pm - 9pm
Performance & Poetry Night: June 9th; 7pm-9pm
Regular Gallery Hours: Thursdays and Fridays; 1pm - 5pm by appointment.
Please note: <pr0xy-fl3$h> includes flashing lights and images that may cause discomfort or seizures for those with photosensitive epilepsy. Visitor discretion is advised.
Generator Grant programming is presented with support from the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.
From the Artists:
Inside the space are video projections of bodily rhythms (heart pulse, nervous ticks, itches, slapping sunburnt skin, etc). Glass and mirrors hang, reflecting the projections either to highlight a part of the gallery or shine the body parts onto the audience. Below the reflections, loudspeakers vibrate and play sound recordings of hyperreal, pained vocal utterances. Audiences can hear the recordings by placing their elbow onto the tablet, and corresponding finger on their temple.
Various humanoid-plants decorate the space. At times, they appear to be moving – a visual effect of light reflections. Mirrors surrounding these plants reflect the audience members body, rather than the video projections.
Recommended time in space: 10-15m
About the Artists:
Alex Jacobsen (he/him): Alex Jacobsen is a composer and artist often performing with feedback, personal recordings, guitars, and synthesizers. His body of work includes performative essays, soundwalks, digital media, and multisensory installations, exploring the spatial-temporal relationship between memory, the body, and acoustic phenomena.
Alex has performed and exhibited work throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europe, including ESS's Quarantine Concert Series (Chicago), The Bemis Center for Contemporary Art (Omaha), Ex Nihilo Festival (Guanajuato), The Radiophrenia Art Festival (Glasgow), and Konvent Puntzero (Berga). His discography has recently been published on EAC Records and Tymbal Tapes. In recent years, Alex has contributed music to several projects, including Movement5 for tbd dance collective, and the films These Bodies and Violent Textures of Nature and Flesh, both directed by Matthew Strasburger.
Outside his creative work, Alex coordinates events for the music-education nonprofit Omaha Under the Radar, and teaches guitar and sound production privately. He is based in Omaha, NE.
Aspen Monet Laboy (they/them): Aspen Monet Laboy is an interdisciplinary artist from Omaha, Nebraska working in glass sculpture, installation, and poetry. They have published three books: “Spirit” (2017), “The Quiet Lion” (2018), “I Matter” (2022). Aside from their personal writing, they co-host a poetry workshop called Corner’s Space that is held in the KANEKO-UNO Library. Involved in various art organizations around Omaha, Aspen prioritizes the significance of building organic relationships through authentic expression - verbally, visually, socially, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Aspen is currently part of the 2023 Alternate Currents Working Group and Community Advisory Group through Amplify Arts.
Matthew Strasburger (he/him): Matthew is an emerging filmmaker and artist based in Lincoln, Nebraska and a recent MFA recipient from Loyola Marymount’s graduate film program. His work explores the physical, emotional and psychological relationships between the body, identity and the deteriorating natural world through sensory, haptic cinema.
His thesis film These Bodies is an inverted, queer Genesis story that screened at festivals nationally and internationally, winning Best Cinematography at the Torino Underground Cinefest. He is currently focusing on installation films that further push the sensorial qualities of cinema and writing his first feature film Languid.
Margo Johnson (she/her): Margo is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sculpture with a keen interest in sustainability at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. With a passion for reducing waste in modern culture, she incorporates excess, secondhand, and tactile materials into her artwork. Margo has co-managed a community gallery in Lincoln called "The Aliens,” and enjoys reciting poetry at local readings, occasionally showcasing her artwork at monthly First Friday events. Her upcoming senior thesis show will debut this December at the Eisentrager-Howard Gallery.