Lydia Kern: PASSAGES

Exhibition on view during events and by appointment through June 25th.

Artist Statement:  "My work honors the loss and tension that transformative processes require through sculptural installation works that are in relationship to the body in scale and material. My process reflects on acts of care as I collect, reclaim, and prepare materials and objects to exist in new relationships with one another, creating a weighty yet ephemeral material poetic. My current body of work is influenced by meditations on love and grief, mysticism, Celtic mythology, quilting bees and rose gardens. Together, the works form a large physical poem the viewer can walk within, composed of large sewn portals or reliquaries. These works embody multiple translations: from emotion to language, language to material, and material back to emotion for the viewer. My work has led me to forage in dumpsters, compost piles, apothecaries, free boxes, fabric stores, and florist shops. Though I am drawn to certain materials because of personal associations and experiences I have with them, the final pieces create spacious visual metaphors on which the viewer can project their own experiences." Glitter, Bones & Solidarity: A Conversation with Lydia Kern- Seven Days VT

Bio:

Lydia Kern creates sculptural installation work within an interconnected web of logistical, conceptual and emotional support from peers in Vermont and beyond. The land she receives many of her materials from, lives and works on is unceded Abenaki land. Her work revolves around themes of love and grief, placing and stitching found objects and materials into new relationships with each other. Lydia has been an artist in residence at the Vermont Studio Center, the Lab Program in Mexico City, the Generator, and New City Galerie. She graduated from the University of Vermont in 2015 with bachelor's degrees in social work and studio art.

8pm Performance at the Opening Celebration, April 1st. 

Fievel Is Glauque is an intercontinental series of bands led by Zach Phillips (NYC, formerly Brattleboro) and Ma Clément (Brussels & France). Their first album "God's Trashmen Sent to Right the Mess" was recorded entirely live to mono cassette during rehearsals for still-unreleased studio sessions featuring over twenty-five musicians in Brussels, France, New York and Los Angeles. Although it was quietly self-released in 2021 and is extremely low-fidelity, it quickly became a surprise hit worldwide and (for better or worse) has been described as jazz/yé-yé fusion and neo-bossa, etc.

While Fievel Is Glauque represents Ma Clément's first published musical work, Phillips is known for over 50 releases under his own name, in groups like Blanche Blanche Blanche, Perfect Angels, and CE Schneider Topical, and via his former independent label OSR which he began in Brattleboro, Vermont in 2008. At Epsilon Spires, they will perform as a duo, likely with guest accompaniment.