By Kllr Dntst

Mirror vs. mold is a group show which features Ester Kärkkäinen, Hex Kim, Harriet K. Morgan, Nok, Jukka Siikala, Clint Bargers , Jessica Buie, Marit Liang, Elspeth Walker, Kailee Heagney, and Vitaly Bezpalov. The exhibit includes text, refuse, flyers, ephemera, propaganda, sound, film, and analog collage. It is the first time works by musicians Ester Kärkkäinen (Himukalt) and Harriet K. Morgan (Military Position) are on view in New York. The show also features writing from Elspeth Walker, who planned the artist-run space Evening Hours in Alphabet City before it shuttered in 2019.

The exhibit opens with a binder that has erotic magazine refuse, excerpts from Ester Kärkkäinen’s Sex Worker book, poetry about limerence by Kailee Heagney, and text from a pair of leftist vampires by Elspeth Walker. Kärkkäinen creates dissonance and surprise with her pieces in the binder by almost tricking the audience into anticipating porn, which upon closer inspection (i.e. reading its contents) is anything but that. Next to the binder, two films are streaming by Marit Liang and Vitaly Bezpalov to create tension and opposition. Liang’s film “The Birth of Venus” uses Bjork’s music and sounds from nature to emphasize urgency and calm; Bezpalov’s “The Blood of the Poor,” however, is a jarring twenty-second flash of adrenaline that feels like a high-speed car chase, except there’s no car, it is a plastic coke bottle sawed in half while driving through a burning forest.

On the other side there is a collage by Kärkkäinen, made with meticulous cuts that transform the figure’s eroticism into a flat and mechanical abstraction. More excerpts from Walker’s book, Drink Deeply and Dream cover the walls and a print of candles in dim lighting by Hex Kim looms near the phrase IN PERPETUUM, which means “forever” in Latin. Walker’s excerpts function as "text-turned-art," like headlines spread across walls, billboards, and shirts.

Across the room, are “The Blindness of Love” by Harriet K. Morgan and an untitled photograph by Jukka Siikala. Siikala’s image depicts a woman’s body devoured by nylon and high heels, while trapped underground. Morgan’s series, which has a rather sarcastic undertone, showcases women from different “lad mags.” Like Kärkkäinen, she uses art to desexualize the subject and dissect the male gaze. Her work emphasizes misspelled words, exaggerated poses, and fake smiles. Each collage contains pastel brushstrokes, serving an aura of tranquility to their otherwise graphic nature.

Outside, there is an SPK flyer that says “Human Post-Mortem” from Clint Bargers Basement Bloodletter, a minimalist collage by Jessica Buie, and Nok’s Gag Reflex Vol. 2 on the stairwell which includes writing about aging. Buie’s work features a woman's face with a bullseye on it; the spectator needs to get up close to notice it. Bargers SPK flyer is a nod to wordplay as the acronym for SPK was ever-changing.

We can say for the most part, the information age is dead. We are now living in the experiential age where visceral, bite size instant emotions are ready for mass dissemination through text, image, and reel (a combo that only a few decades ago was just relegated to our TVs but now bombard us everywhere we go). Mirror vs. mold explores messaging in the post-information age through artist-to-artist dialogues. Each work creates a nexus with another artist’s work. The show is not concerned with the problems of different mediums, but rather their saliency and efficacy. Primarily, to what extent does the medium affect our behavior and memory after receiving a message? Mirror vs. mold tries to answer this question with various exchanges about sex work, labor, women’s bodies, and mental health through a multi-layered, experiential presentation.

Mirror vs. mold a group presentation was on view from 2.8-2.12 and online at killer-dentist.com

For more on the show and artists see:

@other.subjects

*Also stay tuned for an interview with exhibition artists Harriet K. Morgan and Ester Kärkkäinen coming next week.