Art as Sustenance
JOIN ME FOR A FREE LIVE MEDITATION | Present Sense № 25
Welcome to Present Sense – a weekend curation with 7 sensory recommendations: something to SEE, HEAR, SMELL, TASTE, TOUCH, BALANCE and ENVISION. Scroll below to join next week’s FREE LIVE MEDITATION.
I have seen over 126 colors, 243 shapes, and 187 movements in the past 2 weeks alone. My art dosage is usually pretty high, but recently I’ve experienced a large uptick. This is how I cope.
Art consistently offers me awe, inspiration, and both a sense of elation and grounding. I’ve had to keep the little whispers of guilt at bay – the inner critic that murmurs: shouldn’t you be doing something more important with your time? But I know that voice of urgency confuses worry as productivity.
As many creatives, I struggle with the role art plays in society. At times, it feels so frivolous, but I also can’t deny the impact it’s had in my life. Whenever I feel out of balance, art always offers the equilibrium I need.
I keep stumbling on a video interview of the actor Ethan Hawke where he says:
“Art is not a luxury, it’s actually sustenance. We need it! Do you think human creativity matters? Most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about poetry until… their father dies, they go to a funeral, they lose a child, somebody breaks your heart, they don’t love you anymore… and all of a sudden you’re desperate for making sense out of this life and has anybody felt this bad before? Or the inverse, something great happens: you meet somebody and your heart explodes, you love them so much you can’t even see straight, you know, you’re dizzy! Did anybody feel like this before? What is happening to me? And that’s when art isn’t a luxury, it’s actually sustenance. We need it. It’s a thing that worries me sometimes, when you talk about creativity because it can have this kind of feel that it’s just “nice,” you know it’s warm, or it’s something pleasant. It’s not. It’s vital. It’s the way we heal each other, in singing our song, in telling our story, and inviting you to say: ‘hey listen to me, and I’ll listen to you.’ We’re starting a dialogue and we start to witness each other's humanity. And when you do that, this healing happens.”
Somehow, we instinctively know this – or feel this. Which is why I’m not totally surprised that I’ve been naturally gravitating towards more art lately, along with craving more silence. I’ve had the chance to see some spectacular exhibits lately, both in Los Angeles and New York City. After every show, I felt a resurgence of hope, a spark of energy, and a thread of connection.
For this week’s Present Sense, I’m sharing some of my recent art discoveries, one for each sense: SEE, HEAR, SMELL, TASTE, TOUCH, BALANCE, ENVISION.
I also asked readers last week whether you’d be interested in a Free Live Meditation on Zoom and the majority of people answered Yes - and that you’d prefer it on a weekday morning. So I invite you to join me next week for a free Meditation on Tuesday November 26th at 7am Pacific Time.
I’ll be guiding you through Anapana meditation, which uses the breath as an instrument of focus. This is a great introduction to meditation if you’re unfamiliar with the practice. Our session will last 30 minutes (20 minutes for meditation and a few minutes of intro/outro).
I’m testing this to see if this offering resonates with the Seven Senses community. If it does, I’ll consider hosting them on a weekly basis. Sessions are free and everyone is welcome (no prior meditation experience needed).
Here’s the link to register:
In Joy,
Sabrina
SEE
‘OPEN’ by Olafur Eliasson at MOCA (Los Angeles)
On View until July 6, 2025
This is probably one of my favorite museum exhibits that I’ve seen in recent years. I went with my friend Kim B., and we both played around the space like children. In the main museum space, we immersed ourselves in site-specific large-scale optical devices with infinite mirror reflections flowing water, and cosmic particles. The show also features some kaleidoscopic-like moving patterns, colorful circle paintings, light-shadow projections, and giant metal sculptures that tease our optical understanding. One of the works which fascinated me was Eliasson’s weather-drawing observatory. It’s a spirograph machine which creates automatic drawings based on Los Angeles’ meteorological data (from the past and the present). Each day, a new drawing is created, completely unique based on the temperature, clouds, and sunlight.
HEAR
‘Seeing Sound’ at Pratt Institute Gallery
On View until December 17, 2024
Fruits that emit sounds as they decompose; sound photos of various NYC sites; a recorded phone conversation about dialogue; rust that dances with humidity; a display of our stereo evolution — these were some of the many works on display at Pratt Institute's ‘Seeing Sound’ exhibit. It was my first time visiting the art university’s gallery and I found this show really engaging. I also love that fellow Substack writer
joined me on a gallery-hoping outing.Featured video from the exhibit: ’Decomposition’ by Yuko Mohri
SMELL
‘Missense’ by Sean Raspet and Maxwell Williams
On View until December 21, 2024 at Olfactory Art Keller (NYC)
One of the only olfactory galleries in NYC often makes its way into Seven Senses. I met the gallery owner a couple days ago, and have followed their work closely ever since. During my recent NYC visit, they had just opened a new show titled ‘Missense.’ The exhibit focuses on the way fragrances smell different on each person, according to the individual genetic variations in scent receptors.
The show includes three works by artists Sean Raspet and Maxwell Williams, including a captive demo using four novel fragrance molecules, as well as a recreation of the 1994 perfume CK One, created after taking a hero dose of 2C-B, a psychedelic "research drug" known for inducing olfactory hallucinations.
TASTE
‘Bending the Rules’ by Rachel Martin
Follow the artist online
Another exhibit explored with my friend Martine A. – I love how art breeds community. We were introduced to the work of Rachel Martin, and didn’t realize it was one of the last days to catch this exhibit at Hannah Traore Gallery. I loved the color-pencil drawings, with Tlingít totems, inspired by the artist’s cultural heritage. She combines her ancestral lineage with modern touches (such as deities wearing sneakers). I particularly was fond of her piece titled ‘If Our Table Could Talk,’ which shows a large drawing of 8 plates of food, sitting atop a rectangular table. Some of the meals represent homemade dishes Martin grew up eating, while others are references from her Indigenous community.
TOUCH
Simone Leigh at Matthew Marks + Kara Walker at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. (NYC)
On View until December 21, 2024 | On View until December 14, 2024
In 2022, Leigh was awarded the Golden Lion at the 59th Venice Biennale where she represented the United States. Her work sculptures centers on forms associated with African diasporic traditions, with a specific focus on the black female form. This new exhibit displays some of her sculptures, made from bronze and porcelain. Her work feels both monumental and also intricate and delicate.
Right next door, don’t miss the Kara Walker exhibit at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. I’ve always found her work incredibly powerful. What was particularly interesting with this exhibit is noticing how much the current political state was seeping into my understanding of the work. As with all works of art, we always project our own inner state onto the canvas, but this time it was more palpable than ever.
BALANCE
‘Resonance’ by LADP at Barnsdall Park (Los Angeles)
More info online
I’ve featured the Los Angeles Dance Project several times in this newsletter, because it’s become one of my favorite dance companies. The studio, which was founded by Benjamin Millepied, aims to make dance approachable by offering reasonably priced tickets to their shows in an intimate venue. For this recent performance, the show was free and took place outdoors, at Barnsdall Park.
Choreographed by Bobbi Jene Smith, Or Schraiber, Francesca Harper, and Rauf Yasit, the dance was an interdisciplinary exploration of the neuroscience of empathy. The choreographers world closely with social neuroscientist Dr. Jamil Zaki and historian Dr. Vincent Brown to draw from scientific insights on empathy to create a collective dance that merges science and art.
The result was an extremely moving piece, tender and joyful at the same time. Another reminder that words aren’t always needed to express our deepest feelings.
ENVISION
‘Library’ by Eliot Greenwald at Harper’s (NYC)
On View until December 7, 2024
I wasn’t familiar with Eliot Greenwald’s work until stumbling into this gallery. One of the best things about seeing art in NYC is that most of the galleries are condensed in the same area, which makes it easy to absorb a variety of works in the same day.
Immediately,
and I were transported into his other-worldly landscapes, featuring aquatic-like plants, double moons, and saturated colors. There are also subtle traces of human life – with the beaming lights of a car navigating this alien world. According to the artist, “humankind cannot be distinguished from the landscapes it occupies—though they shuffle through diverging cycles of existence, decomposition, and rebirth, all types of life are ultimately cut from the same cloth.”
Staring at the Elliot Greenwald, wow 😌
most people don't think about poetry until they're father dies.
so true. thank you for sharing this with us ❤️