Solo Exhibition ‘Portals’ in Beirut / Nov.5th-Dec.7th

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Portals at The Running Horse Contemporary Art Space

So, my 2nd ever solo exhibition has opened at The Running Horse Contemporary Art Space, in Beirut, Lebanon. It’s on from November 4th until December 7th. My first solo show Leaving Somewhere New took place at the Otter Gallery in Chichester, UK, the summer of 2010. The show was a retrospective of the last 10 years of work that I’d made. The current solo show however, is all new works made in the last year and a half. I’d had the idea for this show 5-6 years ago, at a time when I didn’t know anyone in the field, so the realisation of putting on a solo show that would on top of it require a substantial space, seemed a million miles away. Being stubborn, patient and determined, I seem to have found my way though!

Check out these three very quickly taken photos courtesy of Alfred Tarazi and his camera phone. It was a rather impromptu run around the gallery towards the end of the night at the opening, and he took a snapshot of me in front of each of the 6 large paintings. They came out rather nicely I think!

And here’s a few more photos from setting up the show and the opening…

So, the show is comprised of spiral-based works. Ink, Acrylic, Oil, and spray on canvas and on card. I also made two 20 minute quadraphonic soundscapes to enhance the atmosphere. I jotted some things down to print out in relation to what the work means to me, which was available to take at the gallery. It still is I guess! I am back home in London now, that is why I might slip into past-tense referencing. The show is still on for a few weeks! Anyhow, I will leave you now with the text in case you might be interested to read about the works and my analysis:

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Reflections on a Compulsion of Spiralling Through Life

Accompanying passages to the exhibition ‘Portals’

by Carlo Keshishian

When I work, there are three ways in which concepts manifest themselves that I am aware of. Firstly, I might know what I am going to do and why. This often involves working from one area until I reach another and I will stubbornly see it through, regardless of how long it takes. On occasion, the process invites slight changes in direction. While it might seem like a clinical approach, there is a very organic and natural flow to it. Secondly, I am often made aware of what a work is about at some point during the process of creating the work, beyond having initially begun working on the piece instinctually. I sometimes then introduce a wider context. Lastly, and most interestingly, I don’t realize what a work was about or why I have made it until after it has been finished. This can be days or even years after. Concepts can also come alive simultaneously in the aforementioned manifestations.

The spiral and pool pieces contain a rich and dynamic variety of meanings which I am continually discovering. Like many artists and non-artists alike, I have been drawing spirals for longer than I can remember. A symbol to signify eternity, the void, and the whirlwind of life.

The spirals function as portals; for me during my experiencing the conception of the spiral, and for the onlookers, should they allow themselves to enter. Parallels are drawn (in more ways than one) with and from the result of having accessed parts of the brain which are ordinarily off limits, through the use of hallucinogenic properties. The spiral is a birth canal through which a metaphysical transcendence is manifested.

A peculiar thing occurred to me recently, and it was pointed out to me by someone I know, who noticed this thing. After people talk, I sometimes repeat the last sentence that they say, or sometimes the last word. I’m not sure how long I’ve been doing this but upon pondering on why, I’ve concluded it perhaps has to do with what happens to a word when it is repeated, especially considering the context it is in. I am aware that I like to think for quite some time before giving a response, and repeating someone’s last word or sentence is a practical way to buy me some time to think without leaving a pause of silence, but I also like to strengthen the meaning of the word by mirroring it back, and to at times question if the word or sentence was well chosen or not by lingering on its ‘importance’ by repeating it.. This takes me back to the idea of metamorphosis also, to take one meaning and to change the perspective, to morph away from its initial imprint. In a comical subconscious case of life imitating art, I feel that it’s something I’ve been exploring in my spiral paintings and drawings for a long time in a different form. It also reminds me of the idea of recording a sound, and re-recording it, and re-recording it, and continuing this process until the definition is completely lost. I think John Cage presented a piece of music based on this principle in the 1950s/60s..

These spirals and pools also reflect my belief that everything is a reaction to something else, and therefore happens for a reason. If one was able to see and comprehend everything that happens simultaneously all the time, this person would be able to predict the future based on learned knowledge regarding what will react to what, in what way and how outside factors will be involved. In the spirals/pools, every little ripple or abrupt change of direction affects its further growth, naturally, displaying everything that happens and why.

Being a fan of Paul Auster’s novels and having spent this year in particular reading through several of them in succession, a few interesting ‘coincidences’ have presented themselves, in relation to my Spiral series, very much in the way that Auster himself includes a lot of mysterious coincidences throughout his novels. The big unrelated coincidence manifested itself in the form of my Spiral series coming to fruition simultaneous to the Mayan prophecy of the Spiral 5th World, which comes into being in 2012/2013. I have been drawing and painting spirals since as far back as I can remember and have been thinking of accumulating all my energy and bringing my spirals into the context of a whole body for several years. The opportunity to do this in a suitable space and time frame occurred without my prior knowledge of the Mayan Spiral 5th World emergence, and its coinciding was quite a remarkable token of alignment. I came to a point where I found myself reading Paul Auster’s ‘Mr.Vertigo’ which also triggers a recommendation made to me earlier this year, to see Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ simply for the stunning spiral which occurs in the credits. At the time of writing this, I am reading ‘Undercurrents’ by spiritual Jazz vibraphonist, Paris Smith, which contains a spiralling whirlpool on the cover. The spiral is a constant throughout my days, months, years and decades. As a dedication to Paul Auster and the interwoven coincidental mysteries that occur in his novels, and how that parallels my experiences in relation to the spiral, I have made titles out of words and phrases that I’ve extracted from various books of Auster’s, and several of the pieces in this show were titled through this process.

In regards to my creation process, it might be interesting to consider my having been surrounded by carpets and tapestries growing up, and how their creation process has indirectly affected my own, in terms of beginning my pieces at one point and working from there until an end point, not jumping from place to place, but knowing where the starting and ending points are going to be and having no way of ‘cheating’ or potentially putting into play any type of shortcuts. I use the same process to do elaborate text drawings, containing continuous diary entries where an accumulation of thoughts are recorded over a period of time, but I feel it’s the same thing in a way. The line in a spiral contains all that information as well.

In creating a spiral, a lot passes through me; The spiral contains one hundred songs, one thousand songs, one hundred variations of mood, various degrees of awareness, a rapid rate, a slow progression, an excruciatingly uncompromising addiction to endurance, an effortless patience, a vigorous urge to finish, a trance-like state, moments of perfection and moments of clumsiness, balance and contrast, all of nature’s miracles.

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Oh, well, last thing if you are still reading.. I stopped by at a bar in Hamra whilst walking around. It turned out to be the same bar my friend Azza took me to a few years ago, which was a funny ‘coincidence’.. but anyhow, what was funnier still was that they had octopus on their TV! Being a fan of the creature, I couldn’t help but feel everything falling into place as I sat there watching.. Was a funny moment. Here is the evidence:

Bar in Beirut

That’s all for now. Keep well and cashew sooooon..

Carlo