As Above, So Below
Murmurs, Los Angeles
August 24 - September 28, 2019

Genevieve Belleveau, Joel Dean,
Lesley Jackson, Jenine Marsh,
Jack Schneider and Alison Veit

Where I fixed my eyes first, it was written: ‘And men go about to wonder at the heights of the mountains, and the mighty waves of the sea, and the wide sweep of rivers, and the circuit of the ocean, and the revolution of the stars, but themselves they consider not.’ [Augustine, Confessions] I was stunned, I confess. — Petrarch

Murmurs Gallery is pleased to present, As Above, So Below, a group exhibition that explores a contemporary perspective of Renaissance Humanist philosophy which considers nature as a tool to shift human perception and forge a relationship between inner and outer realms. Taken from 16th Century Heremetic text The Emerald Tablet, the title is an aphorism which conveys the concept that operations on Earth reflect those in the astral plane, not in a literal or mechanized way, but rather in the form of a multitude of discrete processes.

In April 1336 Francesco Petrarch climbed a small mountain in Southern France called Mont Ventoux. He did not need to climb it, there were no plants to gather from its slopes, no animals to hunt, no enemy to attack nor village to defend. Petrarch climbed the mountain simply to experience the sheer delight of looking out from its summit. His act was revolutionary — the first-ever journey for a journey’s sake, what today we would call a hike, tourism, or a dérive. Carl Jung believed that Petrarch’s Ascent of Mont Ventoux ushered in the era of Renaissance Humanism in Europe as it illuminated an enlarged perspective that exploded the teachings of conventional religion dictating that humans were made in God’s form and therefore unknowable. A novel symmetry was revealed — nature as a prism through which to understand human life: the peaks and valleys of Earth’s terrain a metaphor for our personal trials and tribulations. Curiosity about the transformative relationship intertwining nature and the human experience motivated the earliest scientific practices. To this day, measuring, codififying, experimenting. and collecting are some of the quintessential tools used to investigate our position as a part of and apart from nature.

The artists in this exhibition operate under a collective awareness of the legacy set forth in Petrarch’s era while also responding to contemporary disruptions, specifically: the collapsing of time and space symptomatic of technology and the devastation of climate change on our planet. Through their work, they may attempt to control, mold, and harness nature's power or let its processes of decay and entropy take over. Marsh’s rose petals scattered across the gallery floor create an ephemeral economy of symbolism which disintegrates over the course of the show. Schneider’s photographs emphasize the myopia of human senses in comparison to other life forms. Jackson’s sculptures emulate systems of energy transfer via archetypes and man-made materials. In her video installation, Pressed, Belleveau literally and metaphorically flattens the perceived hierarchies separating BDSM from “natural” sensuality. Veit’s mural physicalizes the invisible kinetics of a body drawn with naturally-derived materials while Dean’s sculptures reckon with the absurdity of attempting to contain unbridled forces within arbitrary manufactured boundaries.