Cindy Loehr: Twilight Knowledge

For her second solo show at moniquemeloche, Cindy Loehr found inspiration in the theological poetry of Peter O’Leary and titled her exhibition Twilight Knowledge. The exhibition features Loehr’s Fuel for Constant Light – a multi-media installation consisting of six towering aluminum wings, representing the six-winged Seraphim, complete with audio accompaniment.

Spirituality has always been a concern of Loehr’s, whose meticulously hand-crafted works reference “…the benign communal vocabularies of organized religion and public display.” Loehr’s interest in Angels stems from their role as intercessors between the ineffable abstraction of heaven and the concrete reality of earth. The six-winged Seraphim are the highest order of angels. Described as emanations of pure light, they are the most philosophical of the angels. Their only job is to fly around and sing, but they sing in direct communication with god. In the song for Fuel for Constant Light, human desire is sung as an earthly aspiration towards the divine. This is a subversion of traditional Christian doctrine, which sees desire as the root of all sin. Also on view is Inward Generator – a quilt sewn with photographs taken by Loehr in New York City, from dusk through night, combined with pictures by Randy Russell of his own personal shrine. The quilt is assembled to create an iconic pattern; a ritualized reordering of passing impressions. Inward Generator is inspired both by the cosmological mapping of the mandala and the dark luminance of church stained glass. Like the mandala, Inward Generator is created as a tool for focusing inward.

Fuel For Constant Light was first exhibited at the Hiromi Yoshii Gallery in Tokyo in 2006, and in the group show “Place of the Transcommon” curated by Nicholas Frank at INOVA/VOGEL, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in 2007. The title is taken from Peter O’Leary’s poem “With More Passionate Flying,” which says: “Words of angels are fuel for constant light.” Lyrics are by Loehr in collaboration with Chuck Stebelton, with Carlos Lama (vocals), Ray Chi (cello), and Jesse Peterson (background vocals). The artist would like to thank Brad & Leslie Bucher and Nancy & Gene Hooff for their production support for Fuel for Constant Light and Michael Crocker & Stephen Tan for assistance with Inward Generator.

Cindy Loehr’s work is currently included in “The Puppet Show” curated by Ingrid Schaffner and Carin Kuoni at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), University of Pennsylvania. This traveling exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue and the venues are: Santa Monica Museum of Art, The Contemporary Museum Honolulu, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, The Frye Art Museum Seattle. Selected artist include Nayland Blake, Louise Bourgeois, Maurizio Cattelan, Anne Chu, Dan Graham, Pierre Huyghe, Christian Jankowski, Mike Kelley, William Kentridge, Annette Messager, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman, Dennis Oppenheim, Philippe Parreno and Rirkrit Tiravanija, Kiki Smith, Kara Walker, and Charlie White. Loehr has exhibited widely, including the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. She was awarded an artist residency with the Core Program of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (2003-05) and earned her MFA from the University of Illinois Chicago (2001). Loehr was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1971 and lives in New York.