For close to a decade, Jim Strong has developed an approach to painting using natural processes to make time and memory visible. Cultivating and casting residue from evaporated pigment, Strong transmutes in vivid color the forms of 3-dimensional topographies into 2-dimensional imprints. Slowly, family artifacts and found surfaces impart their likeness in a skin-layer, revealing a simulacra of the familiar. The evaporations are framed within idiosyncratic woven reliquaries and arranged in suspension, suggesting holographic apparition. A map of common ephemera rendered incoherent through repetition and overlay until a new map emerges through a coagulate of what is known and what is unknown.
In addition to painting, Strong’s work spans a variety of methods and media, including musical instrument invention, improvised performance, collaborations with dance and theater artists, and curation of exhibitions, festivals and event-programming.
In conjunction with Flight of Fancy, Strong will host interdisciplinary performances, workshops and lectures drawing on the intersection of the arts, spirituality, science and activism under his recently launched platform, Mutual Irradiation.
In September and October, Mutual Irradiation events will be held within the gallery and in school and graveyard locations throughout Philadelphia. Performers include Gaelynn Lea, Kingsley Ibeneche, Zizia, Bhob Rainey, Marcia Custer, Machine Listener, Kimya Imani Jackson, and more.
The exhibition will culminate with the first release of Strong’s fledgling music and publishing imprint, Cor Ardens (Flaming Hearts) – a special release of archival and unreleased material by French experimentalists, Vox Populi. The release is timed to celebrate the shared anniversary of the founding of Vox Populi Gallery in 1988 and the release of the Vox Populi band’s seminal album Half Dead Ganja Music in 1987.
Events
- Friday, September 7, 6-10pm | Opening: September’s First Friday Reception
- Friday, September 7, 10pm-midnight | Mutual Irradiation: Troll Meeting with Molly Colleen O’Connell
- Friday, September 14, 7pm | Mutual Irradiation: Gaelynn Lea and Kingsley Ibeneche at the Graham Auditorium at Moore College of Art and Design
- Wednesday, September 19, 7pm | Mutual Irradiation: Marcia Custer, Machine Listener, saggy, Marion Horowitz, Practice Gallery artists in a graveyard (TBD)
- Saturday, September 22, 1pm | Mutual Irradiation: J. Soliday and Luer at Vox Populi
- Saturday, September 29, 7pm | saggy: An improv band organized by Jim Strong and Lane Speidel in correspondence with their exhibitions at Vox. Their collaboration will take the form of an improvised band with help from some guests. They will, having never rehearsed together, perform as a band.
- Friday, October 5, 6-10pm | Reception: October’s First Friday
- Saturday, October 6, 7pm | Mutual Irradiation: Kimya Imani Jackson, Mickey O’Hara, Arkm Foam and Jim Strong at Vox Populi
- Sunday, October 7, 3pm | Gallery Talk moderated by Wesley Flash
- Sunday, October 7, 7pm | Mutual Irradiation and Wit López Present: Zizia, Bhob Rainey and Jairo Rodriguez
Photo: Jim Strong, Every person is a book about God, 2018.
Credit: Jim Strong + Jason Rusnock