October 14–30, 2022
The site-specific, interactive exhibition Sun Seekers, created by sisters Amy Khoshbin and Jennifer Khoshbin, imagines and inhabits an alternate world that maintains a close relationship to our experience of indoor onscreen life (the Wreck-tangle world)—a world where we put down our cellphones, heal our bodies, and reestablish contact with the sun and the natural world.
The symbolic imagery and allusions to the cyclical nature of time and rebirth through immersion in the sun and the surroundings are features of installation pieces drawing inspiration from Iranian Sun Worship practices.
Visitors are encouraged to interact physically with the artwork, where they can, among other tactile experiences, enter a 9′ sun womb, don weighted capes, rock in a chair that creates music with each movement, and lie back on a scented bed shaped like a vagina.
The Sun Seekers’ world, which draws inspiration from the Khoshbin’s experiences of being reliant on technology, especially during the pandemic, combines performance, mythology, and immersive settings to offer chances for recovery from the condition of the modern day.
The Sun Seekers exhibition can be experienced at The Arts Center at Governors Island, now through October 30.
Friday–Sunday, 12–6pm or by appointment
RSVP here. Free and open to all.
Sun Seekers Induction Ceremonies—live performances at 3pm on October 15 at The Oculus at The World Trade Center and October 16 at The Arts Center at Governors Island—accompany the exhibition, providing audiences with an opportunity to learn the origin story of how the Seekers began, participate in object-making, and activate their senses with durational technology-free somatic experiences both inside the installation and outside in the sun.
About Amy Khoshbin and Jennifer Khoshbin
Amy Khoshbin is an Iranian-American artist, activist, and educator who lives and works in Brooklyn. She pushes the formal and conceptual limits of artmaking using performance, social practice, film, collage, rap music, writing, and installation to promote radical social change. She has participated in festivals like South by Southwest and River to River as well as exhibitions at places like The Whitney Museum of American Art and The Guggenheim Museum. Among others, she has worked with poet Anne Carson, Laurie Anderson, and Karen Finley.
San Antonio-based curator, artist, and community activist Jennifer Khoshbin. Her work frequently seeks to provide a specific account of the diversity and community of human beings. It doesn’t matter if you’re making elaborate paintings for yourself or huge works of public art, there’s always a single word, concept, or tale that’s worthwhile sharing. In addition to other places, Jennifer has shown her work in museums and galleries across the country, including Times Square Arts, Artpace, Southwest School of Art and Craft in Texas, Rose and Radish Gallery in San Francisco, Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington, 360SEE in Chicago, and Tinlark Gallery in Los Angeles. Her work has been included in various art and craft books as well as Newsweek, Readymade, House Beautiful, and Glamour, among other publications.
About The Arts Center at Governors Island
Conceived by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) as a creative gathering space for artists and the public, The Arts Center at Governors Island is located within the Governors Island Historic District, just minutes away from Manhattan by ferry. It features 40,000 square feet of space dedicated to public performances, exhibitions and artist residencies, as well as multiple visual and performing arts studios and a cafe. Artists are in residence year-round, with public programming taking place from May through the end of October. Exhibitions currently on view include Amy Khoshbin and Jennifer Khoshbin: Sun Seekers, Elissa Blount-Moorehead & Bradford Young: Back and Song, and Simon Benjamin: Pillars.
The Arts Center at Governors Island
110 Andes Rd
Building 110 at Soissons Landing
New York, NY 10004
United States