By Khalida Sarwari
What is love? Ask five people and get five different answers.
On Feb. 28, the Montalvo Arts Center will launch a new exhibition in the Project Space Gallery that looks into love as the basis of connection, understanding and acceptance, and considers the challenges people have in connecting with others.
Through the installation of video, sound work, drawings and outdoor sculpture, artists Elisheva Biernoff, Double Zero, Alexandra Grant, Jon Meyer, Omar Mismar, Fiamma Montezemolo, Stephanie Taylor and Allison Wiese explore the bonds of friendship, the important role of empathy in people’s lives, the intersection between desire and new technologies and the complex relationships between love, belonging, identity and community.
The exhibit is intended to start a dialogue about love in an age of technological innovation. While cell phones, e-mail and social media have made it easier for people to be better informed about each other’s lives than any other time in human history, simultaneously there are unexplored questions as to whether these tools are deepening people’s connections with others or stripping nuance from people’s communication and leaving them lonelier than before.
The exhibit, titled “L O V E,” will be presented as part of the center’s ongoing programming theme titled, “Flourish: Artists Explore Wellbeing,” a multi-disciplinary initiative about health and happiness organized by Montalvo’s Lucas Artists Residency Program. Developed in collaboration with Montalvo’s Education Program, the multi-year program seeks to explore the intimate interconnections between personal well-being, thriving communities and a healthy planet through a series of related topics.
In addition to the exhibitions in Montalvo’s Project Space Gallery, the initiative includes displays throughout its 175-acre public park, as well as performances, participatory engagements, workshops, conversations and screenings in various venues throughout the property as well as off site.
The “L O V E” exhibit will open with a reception on Feb. 28 from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Project Space Gallery. The evening kicks off with a performance by composer, vocalist and musician Jen Shyu. The Taiwanese-East Timorese-American Shyu will present an evening of music inspired by a selection of texts on love. The suggested donation for the reception is $10.
The exhibit can be viewed Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is slated to close June 8.
For more information about the event, including a calendar of events related to the exhibit through May, visit montalvoarts.org/exhibitions/love.
What’s ‘L O V E’ got to do with it? Find out