disorientationsDoris Guo
Press release
Four sculptures in the room are positioned in a row. Each sculpture consists of a static image projected onto the wall and its accompanying housed machinery of different compositions that sit on pedestals. Each sculpture follows its own logic of expression, utilizing narratives of daily environments and its hauntings.
Wrapped like a boxed gift in patterned vinyl, the exterior of ‘Bathroom Kitchen Confusion’ reads somewhere between a shower curtain and a table cloth, addressing visual similarities between kitchens and bathrooms. The thin plastic usually found at the edge of a trash bin spills freely out from the top as tissue paper would, complementing a gift bag.
Moving clockwise in the gallery, the viewer is faced with two lonesome Christmas ornaments, like peering into an emptied patio storage container and finding misplaced, season inappropriate decoration instead of the usual seat cushions or outdoor party lights (angst, 2023).
Hung in between the four sculptures, with two on either side, is a small, framed mezzotint print. Unconcerned with light, the barely there drawing is of a semi-circular magnet and its accompanying field of magnetite (Magnatite rendering 1, 2023).
A small tiered sculpture projects a blurry green figure, a doll (all sounds flash, 2023). The staircase-like sculpture is painted a pale yellow. The pale yellow refers to the color of a traditional Chinese medicine, Huang Lian Su, an herbal supplement that relieves stomach aches and diarrhea. Childhood unease, along with its accompanying hopeful sense of relief play up and down the steps.
‘bottom of the bag’ is placed at the end of the gallery. It’s bottom of the bag, as in searching around in a bag for those wretched keys/wallet. The bag is covered underneath someone’s hoodie or shirt, in the crevice of some seating, which is in the back of the bar. Red wine is drying into a glass.
The images and their housings follow moments of anxiety that are then rendered and dissipated into something that is accepted as comfortable. It’s not about a fixed resolution, because anxieties can’t be resolved towards any kind of completion, only dealt with. Instead, what is in focus and what is blurred plays with a capacity for encountering the unfamiliar and its discomforts.
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Doris Guo (b. 1992, USA) lives and works in Norway and is an MA graduate from Oslo National Academy of the Arts.
Previously her work has been presented at VI, VII, Oslo; Crèvecoeur, Paris; Galerie Maria Bernheim, Zurich; and the galleries 47 Canal, Bodega, Fisher Parrish and Real Fine Arts in New York.
Her next solo exhibition will open in December at Empty Gallery, Hong Kong.
disorientations
disorientations
disorientations
disorientations
disorientations
Doris Guo, Bathroom Kitchen Confusion, 2023
Opaque projector, ceramic, wood, hardware, paint, vinyl, plastic
Opaque projector, ceramic, wood, hardware, paint, vinyl, plastic
Doris Guo, Bathroom Kitchen Confusion, 2023
Opaque projector, ceramic, wood, hardware, paint, vinyl, plastic
Opaque projector, ceramic, wood, hardware, paint, vinyl, plastic
Doris Guo, Bathroom Kitchen Confusion, 2023
Opaque projector, ceramic, wood, hardware, paint, vinyl, plastic
Opaque projector, ceramic, wood, hardware, paint, vinyl, plastic
Doris Guo, Bathroom Kitchen Confusion, 2023
Opaque projector, ceramic, wood, hardware, paint, vinyl, plastic
Opaque projector, ceramic, wood, hardware, paint, vinyl, plastic
Doris Guo, angst, 2023
Wood, hardware, plastic, opaque projector
Wood, hardware, plastic, opaque projector
(Detail) Doris Guo, angst, 2023, wood, hardware, plastic, opaque projector, dimensions variable
Doris Guo, all sounds flash, 2023
Wood, paint, hardware, opaque projector, glass, doll
Wood, paint, hardware, opaque projector, glass, doll
(Detail) Doris Guo, all sounds flash, 2023, wood, paint, hardware, opaque projector, glass, doll, dimensions variable
Doris Guo, bottom of the bag, 2023
Wood, paint, opaque projector, glass, silk, wine
Wood, paint, opaque projector, glass, silk, wine
Doris Guo, bottom of the bag, 2023
Wood, paint, opaque projector, glass, silk, wine
Wood, paint, opaque projector, glass, silk, wine
Doris Guo, Magnetite rendering 1, 2023
Mezzotint on cotton rag
18 × 18 × 2 cm (7 ⅛ × 7 ⅛ × ¾ inches)
Mezzotint on cotton rag
18 × 18 × 2 cm (7 ⅛ × 7 ⅛ × ¾ inches)
