THIS IS NOT A HUMAN BEING, AND SHE'S NOT A SPIRIT
Opening January 27, 6 - 9pm
On view January 27 - March 2, 2023
The visible must be used to invoke the invisible. This compels our art to go beyond itself to find a new language for impossibility.
Ben Okri
(Los Angeles, CA) UNREPD is pleased to announce This is not a human being, and she's not a spirit, a solo exhibition by Velma Rosai. In 16 paintings on paper and canvas, Rosai explores the ancestral, the otherworldly, and the high strange as they echo throughout Lamu, Kenya in particular and the African continent in general.
Created in Lamu, a place rich with folklore, ritual, mysticism, superstition, and mythology, and drawing on both Muslim scripture and Buddhist belief, the exhibition follows legends from the aforetimes, that epoch before humans walked the earth, when fire spirits governed civilizations that resonate with our contemporary existence. As humans arrived, the stories contend, these spirits were banished to the realms of desert, forest, and sea. There, they persist to present day, dwelling among us, concealed only by the ethereal veil that separates the visible and the invisible.
This is not a human being, and she's not a spirit traces the mystical thread that connects our world with that which lies just beyond our perception. Passed through generations, the tales of these spirits suggest that the invisible is simply unseen, but not impossible. Using acrylic paints and oil pastels, with a bright, high contrast palette, Rosai conjures the fantastical, essentially pulling back the curtain and revealing a fascinating realm just beyond our reach. The exhibition invites viewers to dance between the seen and unseen, and in so doing to connect with a sense of expansiveness and wonder. What more is there for us to know, to feel, and to experience, if we are willing to look beyond the veil?