Kristin Posehn: Inverted Dome

Opening viewing from 4-6pm, Saturday, January 22, 2022

MAK Center for Art and Architecture

Mackey Apartments Garage Top

1137 S. Cochran Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90019

The MAK Center for Art & Architecture presents Inverted Dome, an exhibition of new work by Kristin Posehn at the Mackey Apartments Garage Top. Inverted Dome is an inquiry into the dynamics of light, technology, and perception generated by public architecture.

The exhibition’s central feature is an installation that reimagines the U.S. Capitol Dome as an inverted, open, and almost unrecognizable structure made of mirror, reflecting back both the environment and itself. Images of the Capitol Dome are continuously propagated by media organizations of all kinds—reproduced on web pages, news broadcasts, and social feeds—as if the building’s image has come to represent structures of power that are otherwise too abstract to locate. The room-sized installation is a container for holding and focusing light and its refractions, becoming a site for reflection on virtual mediation and transparency.

Inverted Dome references historical works of California light and space; augmented realities; architectures of the metaverse; considerations of public and private space; presence and absence; Monument to the Third International by Vladimir Tatlin; cryptography; information theory; and the mediation of power in daily life.

The exhibition includes an installation, a sequence of digital studies released online throughout the duration of the show, and a publication, which together suggest new spatial and experiential possibilities for public architecture.

Inverted Dome is organized by Aurora Tang. This exhibition is made possible with support from the Pasadena Art Alliance and the MAK Center Patron Program.

Inverted Dome, 2022, mirrored acrylic, 71 x 70 x 70 in.

Digital Study #1 (Mirror Chain), Release date: February 10, 2022

Digital Study #2 (Azimuth Wave), Release date: February 17, 2022

Digital Study #3 (Training Phantom), Release date: February 24, 2022

Digital Study #4 (Chimera), Release date: March 3, 2022

Listening Event, Casting Glances with Kristin Posehn: Inverted Dome at the Mackey Apartments Block Party, Sunday, February 20, 2022, 2–5pm

Publication Release, Friday, April 22, 2022, 6–8pm

Kristin Posehn: Inverted Dome

January 22, 2022 – March 5, 2022

MAK Center for Art and Architecture

Mackey Apartments Garage Top

1137 S. Cochran Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90019

Open for viewing Saturdays 12-5pm & Fridays by appointment

The MAK Center for Art & Architecture presents Inverted Dome, an exhibition of new work by Kristin Posehn at the Mackey Apartments Garage Top. Inverted Dome is an inquiry into the dynamics of light, technology, and perception generated by public architecture.

The exhibition’s central feature is an installation that reimagines the U.S. Capitol Dome as an inverted, open, and almost unrecognizable structure made of mirror, reflecting back both the environment and itself. Images of the Capitol Dome are continuously propagated by media organizations of all kinds—reproduced on web pages, news broadcasts, and social feeds—as if the building’s image has come to represent structures of power that are otherwise too abstract to locate. The room-sized installation is a container for holding and focusing light and its refractions, becoming a site for reflection on virtual mediation and transparency.

Inverted Dome references historical works of California light and space; augmented realities; architectures of the metaverse; considerations of public and private space; presence and absence; Monument to the Third International by Vladimir Tatlin; cryptography; information theory; and the mediation of power in daily life.

The exhibition includes an installation, a sequence of digital studies released online throughout the duration of the show, and a publication, which together suggest new spatial and experiential possibilities for public architecture.

Inverted Dome is organized by Aurora Tang. This exhibition is made possible with support from the Pasadena Art Alliance and the MAK Center Patron Program.

Inverted Dome, 2022, mirrored acrylic, 71 x 70 x 70 in.

Digital Study #1 (Mirror Chain), Release date: February 10, 2022

Digital Study #2 (Azimuth Wave), Release date: February 17, 2022

Digital Study #3 (Training Phantom), Release date: February 24, 2022

Digital Study #4 (Chimera), Release date: March 3, 2022

Listening Event, Casting Glances with Kristin Posehn: Inverted Dome at the Mackey Apartments Block Party, Sunday, February 20, 2022, 2–5pm

Publication Release, Friday, April 22, 2022, 6–8pm

Granary Arts is thrilled to announce Kristin Posehn as our newest Granary Arts Fellow. Kristin is a Los Angeles based artist working with conceptual sculpture, architecture and painting. While Kristin is on the ground in Sanpete she has been studying local history, economy and architecture, exploring how economic structures, purpose, and connection can be linked, how voice is stored and transmitted across time, and how the medium of architecture might support both voice and purpose. — Granary Arts

A review of SUBSTRATA by The Art Newspaper’s XR Panel titled “Memories of Myst: Substrata, a new artist-run virtual exhibition, is like entering a magical afterlife” is available for view here.

I felt that this space added value by taking the viewer into an environment that is otherwise not available to us in real life. A good use of VR in creating a magical space that invites exploration as opposed to recreating a white cube gallery facsimile. Won Ju Lim’s and Kristin Posehn’s works stood out to me for their fitting use of the medium. – Dhiren Dasu

Before Covid-19 hit, I was lucky to enjoy clear water diving inside the cenotes in Tulum, Mexico. I would liken Epoch’s Substrata to that experience but in artistic terms. Among the presented works, certain pieces such as Kristin Posehn’s Cloud Flippening (2020) and Won Ju Lim’s Kiss T4 (2020) defy gravity, making the virtual context well worthwhile. – Seol Park Zappas

More information about Cloud Flippening, an architectural sculpture included in SUBSTRATA, can be found here.

Cloud Flippening, 2020

A review of SUBSTRATA written by Matt Stromberg and Elisa Wouk Amino was included in Your Concise Los Angeles Art Guide for February 2021 at Hyperallergic, and is available for view here.