Emily Leach, Ashley Lusietto

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Courtesy of the artist

Ashley Lusietto, "Fell Into The Honey," 2019, mixed media.

Now located in its new home at 111 S. Livingston St., Arts + Literature Laboratory is currently offering most of its programming virtually. However, the gallery space is now open on a limited basis, noon-5 pm Thursdays through Saturdays (or by appointment). A pair of exhibits is currently on display through Aug. 29. Reminder (On the Cultivation of Decay) is a multimedia installation by Emily Leach, focusing on glass slides featuring landscape photographs captured during the flu pandemic of 1918. Fell Into the Honey by Ashley Lusietto features exaggerated self-portraiture created as sculptures, using honey in reference to ancient embalming processes. Not ready to venture inside for a viewing? The exhibits are visible after sunset through the gallery windows.

media release: Arts + Literature Laboratory is pleased to present two exhibitions, which will be opening in its new downtown location. Emily Leach: Reminder (On the Cultivation of Decay) and Ashley Lusietto: Fell Into the Honey will be available to view starting on August 3, 2020. Visitors will be able to view the works during limited gallery hours open to the public, as well as at night, illuminated through the windows. The two viewing options support social distancing among guests. ALL’s other programming will remain virtual through the summer.

Emily Leach: Reminder (On the Cultivation of Decay) is a multimedia installation that focuses on glass photographic slides (artifacts of an outmoded projection system, mass-produced and consequently not especially valuable). These slides were collected by the artist on eBay in March and April of 2020 and show images of agricultural settings during the so-called Spanish Flu of 1918. This collection was borne out of an interest in representations of landscapes during pandemics. Who is cultivating, maintaining and subject to the land? How can absences and ellipses become impulses?

The title of the show, Reminder, is taken from the push notifications for watched items on eBay. Unlike memorials, which are often ossified and sanctified, reminders are an insistent prompt. Emily Leach created this body of work as part of her participation in ALL’s Bridge Work: Madison program, a year-long program geared towards mentoring emerging artists in Dane County.

This exhibition is supported in part by a grant from Dane Arts, with additional funds from the Endres Manufacturing Company Foundation, the Evjue Foundation, Inc., charitable arm of The Capital Times, the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation, and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation.

Ashley Lusietto: Fell Into the Honey is a sculptural exhibition featuring distorted self-portraits and alter egos of the artist. The figuration of Lusietto’s work manifests through exaggerated bodily features, garishly made-up faces, and exposed meaty flesh, resulting in vulnerable, direct forms. Taking inspiration from ancient funerary processes where honey-embalmed corpses were laid to rest in tombs that remain well-preserved today, the artist uses honey metaphorically—to sweeten the taste of bitter remembering and to embalm the selves of the past. The papier-mâché shapes of varying scale embody the artist’s multiple selves, the feminine divine and inner child.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this first presentation of artwork in ALL’s Livingston building will be available to view during limited gallery hours from 12-5pm Thursday through Saturday or by appointment. Visitors inside the building will be required to wear masks and practice social distancing, and the number of visitors will be limited according to current public health guidelines. The works will also be visible after sunset through the gallery windows, as an exhibition viewing experience from the outside. Both exhibitions will be on display through August 29, 2020. Exhibition admission is free. Please visit ALL’s website (artlitlab.org) or Facebook page (Facebook.com/artlitlab) to learn about other upcoming programs and events.