For Other Places art fair 2020, September 19–October 31, 2020, Niche Gallery presents two projects by Gabrielle Ferrer, Gnomon and Gnomon (animation), (both 2020). The animation will be presented Online Only for the duration of OPaf 2020, watch below.
The installation work Gnomon can be viewed outdoors and in person at Niche Gallery’s location in Glassell Park. September 25–September 27, 2020 sunrise to sunset.
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Gabrielle Ferrer, Gnomon (animation), 2020.
A gnomon is the protruding part of a sundial that casts a shadow, revealing the time of day. It means to “know or examine.” In math, a gnomon refers to something that can be added or subtracted to a number or shape, making a new form that is similar to the starting material, like a snail that adds one more ring to their growing shell.
In Gnomon, elements poke out, scales shift, and new truths promise to be revealed if given the time. A wall of tiny porcelain bricks fading from light to dark fills the space, like day into night, and like strata accumulating on the earth’s surface. Constructed from a vernacular of forms initially inspired by National Park Architecture, Ferrer’s Gnomon seeks to reveal and examine the tightrope between hope and despair, light and darkness, beginnings and endings.
Gnomon (animation) further explores these concepts through the rhyming forms of the cochlea, ear, and snail—imagery all connected to the gnomon through varying translations and associations.
“If and when I reach the rock, I shall go into a certain crack there for the night. The waterfall below will vibrate through my shell and body all night long. In that steady pulsing I can rest. All night I shall be like a sleeping ear.”
–Elizabeth Bishop, “Giant Snail,” 1969
Gabrielle Ferrer (b. 1983, Los Angeles) is an artist and teacher based in Los Angeles, CA. She got her BA in English and Fine Arts from Amherst College, and her MFA from Cal State University Long Beach. Her work has been exhibited at Night Gallery, 356 Mission Rd, Moskowitz Bayse, and Steve Turner Gallery in Los Angeles, and Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in New York. She has appeared in print in Artforum and The New York Times.