PURRMETHEUS
Pearl ShreadJune 3-7
GALLERY OPEN HOURS
TUES June 3 - SAT June 7; 12-5pm
For the week of June 2nd-8th, Pearl Shread will enact queer creation myths in a process-based performance. For several hours a day, they will be forming clay bodies that act as ritual figurines and projections of the queer body. Visitors are invited to enter the gallery to view the performance and accept the gift of a figurine, or to form their own. The performance will also feature a collaborative soundscape created by the artist and queer DJ Barb Abulashvili. For this week of their ARC program, A.P.E. Gallery will be transformed into the locus of a new creation myth: the creation of community, spread to all who accept the gift of protection and a reminder that our bodies are our own to shape.
ARTIST BIOS
Pearl Shread (he/they/she) is a multi-disciplinary sculpture artist based in Massachusetts, currently pursuing a BFA at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. They work in textiles, ceramic, wood, found objects, and a variety of other sculptural mediums and forms. Shread has been exhibited in various galleries across the Northeast and Midwest, including shows at the Art Center Highland Park, Bromfield Gallery, the Rochester Erotic Arts Festival, and Tufts Art Galleries. His artwork exists at the intersection of the body and the environment, the future and the present. Thinking through concepts of futurity and identity in a world that is rapidly shifting, they find freedom and potentiality in constant evolution and adaptation. Drawing from maximalist aesthetics and an interest in tactility, her sculptures are often interactive, forcing the audience into a confrontation with their own mutability and impermanence.Barb Abulashvili is a multidisciplinary artist based in Boston, currently in her fifth year at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, studying interdisciplinary art and Child Study Human Development at Tufts University, through a Dual Degree program. She also recently spent a semester abroad at Central Saint Martins in London, enriching her artistic perspective. Abulashvili's artistic practice spans multiple mediums, including: painting, photography, air-brushing, sound, 3D digital fabrications, and graphic design. She self-published an artist book, showcased at multiple annual art fairs, including at the Tate Museum in London, as well as annual book fairs in Vienna and Boston. Drawing inspiration from the history of surrealism and contemporary techniques, Abulashvili's work explores narrative storylines through symbolic imagery. Central to her current work are themes of queerness, immigrant motherhood, child development within the lens of trauma and healing, and interpersonal relationships. Abulashvili's approach brings figurative language to life in her surreal pieces, inviting viewers to deeply engage with the narratives she constructs.