(Philadelphia, PA) Fuller Rosen Gallery is excited to announce At The Same Time, a solo exhibition new and recent work by Rebecca Tennenbaum on view July 07 - August 13, 2023. At The Same Time will be Fuller Rosen’s inaugural exhibition in their new location on the third floor of 319 North 11th Street.
This exhibit features a selection of Tennenbaum’s drawings and sculptures that depict or serve a fictional function. The work exists within systems, either a decision-making process or a psychological landscape, which flattens and alters time. This flattening joins present chaos and past memory simultaneously. These cognitive processes are framed using the psychological operation of Heuristics; mental shortcuts an individual develops from past experiences to make decisions quickly and effectively.
In 24 Hour Cycle (2021), Tennenbaum illustrates the natural rhythm of night and day in conjunction with artificial cycles created by humans. Repeated usage of diagrams and grids act as measures for re-grounding in the now while retaining multiple perspectives. Blurring the boundaries between psychological modes and poetical introspection, the artist questions the positionality of an individual: are we really in control of the decisions and outcomes in our lives?
The scale of Tennenbaum’s work is usually intimate and in relation to the hand and body, sharing space with the viewer rather than demanding their attention. Her sculptures appear to possess functional, electronic capabilities — such as the touch screen tablet aesthetics of Night Sky (2023) — but offer only latticed images of past actions. Tennenbaum wants viewers to be in a place of play, escaping within the sincerity of reality and order. Visual symmetry and asymmetry are metaphors for weighing the value of outcomes of decisions and arrival at a choice. Matrices and repetition represent the development of thought patterns.
Tennenbaum’s artworks are focused on an endless returning; finding yourself new over and over again by repeatedly acknowledging the past versions of our lives and being curious in the present. The continuous unfolding of time as demonstrated by the ocean, land, and sky only further highlight the absurdity of containing life within our human-made patterns. Despite all the systems humans exist within and the objects society interfaces with, individuals are fundamentally held by the cycles of nature. This connective tissue of rhythms occurring within each other offers a liberation, ease, and contrast which Tennenbaum translates visually.
