Chiara Giovando

Pamper Rooms, Daniel Long, Alexandra Eastburn

2017, PANEL LA, April 14 - May 21

PANEL LA is proud to present Pamper Rooms, a joint exhibition of new works from Daniel Long and Alexandra Eastburn. This marks the first collaboration between the artists and is the culmination of a six week residency.

Long and Eastburn have created a series of environments within the gallery. Drawing inspiration from various architectures including spas and sex dungeons, Pamper Rooms portrays ideas of cruising, masks, and the duplicitous nature of self (care). Looking into the bathroom mirror is not unlike a dungeon, both a private and exposed experience, one is inclined to indulge in the intimate while ultimately tending to public appearance.

Long’s pieces in this exhibition are thematically concerned with gay cruising culture and, he says, become an exercise in “cruising painting tropes”. While some paintings speak to this abstractly - Appetite (2017), a rendering of spaghetti and a fork, other pieces are more direct references - painted stills from the films Taxi zum Klo (1980), and Being 17 (2016) show up in this body of work.

Eastburn’s drawings and backdrops vacillate between the autobiographical and the mythological. First Cut (2017) depicts her first haircut as a child, “I remember being afraid because I thought it would physically hurt. It was a moment of transformation for me...and fear.”

Both artists have cited the Belgian painter James Ensor as a reference for this endeavor. Specifically such paintings as The Scandalized Masks (1883), The Intrigue (1890), and Self Portrait with Masks (1899). The mask is a recurring theme in Pamper Rooms, and this idea is reflected in the exhibition design itself; art works become walls, frames become doorways, drawings obscure sculptures, throughout there is a controlled visibly and invisibility...the spa communicates with body language. Everything is a mask when cruising - anonymity is a mask. The opportunist takes no offense if there is rejection. The (artist and the audience) are allowed to see and be seen plainly, without reciprocal expectations.

“A Man is least himself when he talks in his own person, give him a mask and he speaks the truth.” - Oscar Wilde

Four Paths: Path 1 Slit into slits unveil; A waiting room. A snake through the walls, alters and stalls. Pamper co-occurring horizons. Breezing shade f a n s down the hall. Infinite tiles. A reclining woman, and beside her a color... like a mirror going down the drain.

Path 2 San Sebastian call me. The service room into the standing room. Cast feet wait upon other vantage of infinite tiles, the individual pictures are a pattern, some combination of desire and pain drives the narrative. Keep on cruising.

San Sebastian, a blue reflection, lets call in take-out. Guest and service; messengers willingly locating a room. The five senses perform a walk-through that meets.

Path 3 Catching fish and the whisper OR Hippocrates, OR taste, OR change the channel. Scenarios and melodramas sharing aspirations of disruption and suspense. The benefits of automatic drawing.

Path 4 Intimacy draped beside the abduction of Rita, A hollow mirror, peer. visions of a slice. Into the next room, the foreshortening of an appetite. spaghetti. Into the next room, Transformation, my first haircut, telephone my memory. Then around to the dragon and the dream.

Curated by Chiara Giovando, exhibition design developed with Armbay Zakaria and Neil Doshi

ABOUT THE ARTISTS: Daniel Long (b. 1984) received his MFA from the Visual Studies Program at Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2013. His work has been exhibited at Artist Curated Projects, Los Angeles, CA; Portland Museum of Modern Art, Portland, OR; ALL RISE, Seattle, WA; Portland Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, Portland, OR; Powerhouse Memphis, Memphis, TN; and The Outside Museum curated by Thousand Points of Light and PMoMA in Joshua Tree, CA. Born in Memphis, TN, Long currently lives and works in Portland, OR.

Alexandra Eastburn (b. 1987) lives and works in Memphis, TN. She received her BFA at Memphis College of Art with an emphasis in drawing. Her works have been exhibited at the Garrison Art Center in NY, 166 Mott St, NY, NY, Glitch Gallery, Memphis, TN; and was selected to be a resident at Holy Underground in Baltimore, MD. She is currently the synth player for the band NOTS.