Release: Give-Away III Press

Opening night footage of Release on Houston Chronicle blog.
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Molly Gochman interviewed on KUHF for Release.
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Release: Give-Away III

Exhibition Dates: August 23 to August 28, 2008
Experiential Opening: Saturday, August 23rd, from 6:00 to 9:00 PM
2445 North Boulevard 77098

Houston-New York based, experiential artist, Molly Gochman presents Release: Give-Away III, as her last event at Commune on 2445 North Blvd, Houston. The space will become alive with the interactive experience of Molly’s work on Saturday, August 23rd, from 6:00 to 9:00 PM.

Molly Gochman's GIVE-AWAY PROJECT is a series that continually unfolds. Release: Give-Away III addresses relationships with change through exhibiting large-scale prints and intimate paintings, inspired by aspects within these prints. Both the prints and paintings serve as a way of archiving choices, circumstances, and personalities. During the exhibition, the image on selected prints will become less distinct. People will use cleansing tools designed to correlate with the body as instruments for physically engaging with the work. Release encourages one to be present, connect, and let go.

Creating opportunities for community interaction, connection, and exchange is a primary artistic investigation of Molly Gochman's work. When she began the GIVE-AWAY PROJECT in 2002, Gochman invited people throughout Houston to take place in an exchange, "Take home free clothes by modeling what you love". People came throughout the evening the night of Give-Away Part I. Led by their curiosity, participants wove between the candy colored clothing and each other. It seemed as if garments were hovering at various heights within a large warehouse space. People chatted with each other. They also interacted with the objects by fondling them and evaluating their sizes and other features. They were considering the possibilities for these objects. Then, through documenting themselves with their chosen items, participants helped Gochman fulfill one of the intentions of this work, to investigate and record taste.

The lighthearted atmosphere encouraged visitors to openly express themselves while being documented. The prints, images of the participants, convey the type of energy present that evening.

Consistent with her entire body of work, Gochman explored the concept of value. Not only with the depiction of what her participants valued, but also by showing how the actions within her installations have at least as much value as the installation itself. Exhibiting the documentation during Give-Away II, showed how a group of collective actions can evolve into a significant series of work.

Molly Gochman is an experiential, inter-sensory artist working and residing in both Houston and New York. Her work provides evocative experiences through inter-disciplinary installations. Born in San Antonio, Gochman studied art in New York City and London, and received her BFA from Guilford College in 2001. In the last five years, Gochman's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.

“My work returns what's missing from life - fragile moments within cycles of creation and destruction. Through performances and installations and the documents that record them, I communicate a delicate dance between presence and absence. Creating work helps me come to terms with extremely contradictory experiences. Within the work, rigid contrasts soften and boundaries become blurred. Fabric, my primary medium, is used to transform surfaces into gurgling landscapes. My usage of materials within space allows me to create intimate experiences. Supple, penetrable materials like fabric, allow my work to have a softening affect. The common thread is not always obvious; mystery and romance hover. Unfolding myself as I work allows me to build environments that blur the relationships between particulars. A clarification can occur as one releases oneself within the mistiness of the work”.

The exhibition is in conjunction with Deborah Colton Gallery where the gallery’s portion of all sales will be donated to Aurora Picture Show and Diverse Works. For more information, please access www.deborahcoltongallery.com or contact Deborah Colton Gallery at 713-869-5151 or info@deborahcoltongallery.com.

Waterfalls Wept – by Molly Gochman
chashama performance window
266 West 37th Street

On August 13, 2008 in the chashama Windows Space at 266 West 37th Street, artist Molly Gochman will begin installing "Waterfalls Wept". One of the inspirations for this work was a translation of a Hindu epic, the Ramayana. When Sita, an avatara of Lakshmi, is kidnapped, the earth responds in a number of ways. The last four words in this description are, "and the waterfalls wept." The tale of the Ramayana, which can be traced back 880,000 years, makes the 2,500 year-old Tao Te Ching young in comparison. The Tao Te Ching states, "Nothing is more soft and yielding than water. Yet for attacking the solid and strong; it has no equal."

Fabric is flexible and strong. Its strength relies mostly on a repetition of contrasts, warp and weft. Creating fabric is one of human's earliest technological achievements, and the use of this material continues today. Using fabric as a means of protecting and identifying ourselves provides us with a tactile connection with the past, present, and future. These sculptures will change alongside time. The blue silks used within this work were acquired a few blocks from chashama's storefront gallery space. Gochman attached bolts of fabric to five A-frame wooden ladders, which will stretch in various directions within the space. Pillows and batting soften the ladders' angles while remaining hidden under the ripples of blues that crunch, fold, flex, and fall from the forms.

chashama's space provides an opportunity to create an installation within a large vitrine that is viewable to people as they pass-by. One wall within the space curves in so that the space becomes increasingly narrower in the back. Inside this irregularly shaped vitrine, change will occur rapidly during the forming and dismantling of the installation. At other times, movements inside the space will occur much slower. Most of these changes will not be visible. The change is occurring due to how natural elements, such as the sun, are affecting the work during these few weeks. A body occasionally moves within the work, causing transition. Mentally visualizing patterns of movement within melting glaciers or tears that drip and fall induce these movements, which will mostly occur under fabric.

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