Polaris
Emilie Halpern
Sept 09, 2018 - Oct 14, 2018
Opening Reception:
Sunday, September 09, 2018
1-5pm
Someone spoke to me all the days of my life
into my ear, slowly, taking their time.
Said to me: live, live, live!
It was Death." - Jaime Sabines
Jonathan Hopson is proud to introduce Los Angeles based artist Emilie Halpern for her first solo exhibition in Texas. Emilie Halpern's work has been described alongside conceptual artists such as Hiroshi Sugimoto, Joseph Beuys, and Lee Ufan. Her work effortlessly captures those elusive moments between endless dark and brightest light - crystalizing a doubted realm into existence. However, recently she lost her husband and was diagnosed with breast cancer while caring for her five year old son. Over the course of a few months her life, as well as her work, immeasurably changed:
"Everything is finite. In fact, if it’s fleeting and elusive, it becomes more precious and valued. Flowers are symbols of beauty because of their transience. Desire is predicated on absence.
Death & immortality are themes that have frequently appeared in my work in the past. But it was the idea of death, how it relates to loss in romanticism. The sadness was the sadness that comes when you pin down a butterfly and you feel something else slip away. In capturing the elusive, you destroy everything you admired about it.
This work is different. This is about not wanting to die. This is about wishing I could’ve saved someone from killing themselves. This is about grieving.
My husband chose death, I chose life. And art was there. When everything else was falling apart, was on fire, it was my Polaris."
Polaris is Halpern's first engagement with art since her transformation. This work is not about conceptualizing death but about death as breath: a voice you never heard before but now you know has been there all along. A voice of choice, of power, of joy: "live, live, live!"
Sept 09, 2018 - Oct 14, 2018
Opening Reception:
Sunday, September 09, 2018
1-5pm
Someone spoke to me all the days of my life
into my ear, slowly, taking their time.
Said to me: live, live, live!
It was Death." - Jaime Sabines
Jonathan Hopson is proud to introduce Los Angeles based artist Emilie Halpern for her first solo exhibition in Texas. Emilie Halpern's work has been described alongside conceptual artists such as Hiroshi Sugimoto, Joseph Beuys, and Lee Ufan. Her work effortlessly captures those elusive moments between endless dark and brightest light - crystalizing a doubted realm into existence. However, recently she lost her husband and was diagnosed with breast cancer while caring for her five year old son. Over the course of a few months her life, as well as her work, immeasurably changed:
"Everything is finite. In fact, if it’s fleeting and elusive, it becomes more precious and valued. Flowers are symbols of beauty because of their transience. Desire is predicated on absence.
Death & immortality are themes that have frequently appeared in my work in the past. But it was the idea of death, how it relates to loss in romanticism. The sadness was the sadness that comes when you pin down a butterfly and you feel something else slip away. In capturing the elusive, you destroy everything you admired about it.
This work is different. This is about not wanting to die. This is about wishing I could’ve saved someone from killing themselves. This is about grieving.
My husband chose death, I chose life. And art was there. When everything else was falling apart, was on fire, it was my Polaris."
Polaris is Halpern's first engagement with art since her transformation. This work is not about conceptualizing death but about death as breath: a voice you never heard before but now you know has been there all along. A voice of choice, of power, of joy: "live, live, live!"
