Alina Tenser: House / Xaoc, March 25th - April 30th, 2023

Lacking immanent meaning, the diagram is a vessel in which a myriad of potentials can unfold. Tenser’s embodied floor plans emphasize the haptic by introducing the dimensions of space and time through suggested action built into the forms. The floor plans are constructed out of vinyl that offers differing levels of transparency with color palettes spanning sunny yellows to garish brown tones. Stitched together with zippers that afford an entry into the forms as well as providing a path of navigation.

The vinyl floor plans in House/Хаoс range from real to imagined living spaces, speaking to the phenomenology of the domestic container. They are simultaneously scaled down schema and everyday household containers used for storage– representational in their layout, while maintaining the integrity of a functional object.

One floor plan stands out, placed on the floor and occupied by concrete Cyrillic letterforms, at once recognizable yet foreign. Like diagrams, letterforms are blank containers waiting for meaning.``Хаoс” (pronounced “khaus”) shares a phonetic resonance with “house”, a similar weight and mouthfeel. Deceivingly familiar, the word is defined as “chaos” or “clutter” in Ukrainian and Russian. This type of relationship has a cute, if suspicious, name in linguistics: “false friends''. The doubt embedded in this so-called friendship is punctuated by the superfluous silent “e” in “house”; a hidden resident that doesn't give back in sound what it takes in space.

Accompanying the floor plans are cylindrical protrusions composed of steel and satin ribbon and hung at waist height throughout the gallery. Titled Corridors, they’re purpose is to connect space. These are docked into wall mounted steel hoops that fasten snuggly using hardware associated with domestic toil (embroidery hoops, cake spring-forms), as well as industrial labor (to secure heavy machinery, jigs, and injection molds). Inspired by the concept of “safe corridors” that are established during times of war or crisis, the corridor stumps are suspended between the wall and open space. Using the language of interior architecture to infer security, “safe corridors” don’t actually refer to protective walls, but rather the linear movement of bodies away from high risk areas or humanitarian supplies to those areas. Like the floor plan sculptures, Corridors allow a full view of their interiors; nothing is hidden away or protected by these walls.

This exhibition was made possible in part by the Dedalus Foundation Grant for Past Fellows and Awardees and the SUNY Purchase Faculty Support Award.

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Alina Tenser is a Ukrainian born artist currently living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Working across sculpture, performance, and video, she makes propositions that elicit physical activation and play. Utilizing industrial and domestic materials and processes she reimagines taken-for-granted social and material relations; mining the entanglements of her experience as an immigrant and parent.

Tenser is currently an Assistant Professor in Art + Design at SUNY Purchase College.

Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally with recent solo exhibitions at Hesse Flatow, New York, NY; 17Essex, New York, NY, Konstepidemin, Gothenburg, SE; and Soloway Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been widely reviewed and written about in publications such as New York Times, The New Yorker Magazine, Artforum, BOMB Magazine, Cultured Magazine, Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, and The Third Rail. She has participated in multiple artist residencies, most notably The Queens Museum Studio Program and Recess Activities. Her first public art installation is currently on view at Memorial Sloan Kettering Chemotherapy Treatment Facility in Brooklyn, NY.