You Hold Me Here

You Hold Me Here—

Kara Hearn & Lisa Biedlingmaier

Oct 14th—Dec 2nd

Spectral Lines is pleased to present its fifth exhibition, You Hold Me Here, which features photography and video works by New York-based artist Kara Hearn and Zürich-based artist Lisa Biedlingmaier.

You Hold Me Here delves into our poetic relationship with Adobe Photoshop, exploring its role as a guide and a trusted companion in the world of image production and it's unlikely potential as a site for ritual and healing practices. Working from the solitude and perpetual self-reflection inherent in artistic endeavors, the works in this show use a touch of humor to turn the tools of digital creation into a set of practices meant to bring comfort and assurance. As an understated yet invaluable ally to photographers, this ever-evolving software consistently provides a canvas where the challenges of creativity and introspection are transformed and exalted.

After experimenting with screen-recorded performances in Photoshop during the pandemic, Kara Hearn developed two bodies of digital image work, I'll Be Your Mirror and A Hand to Your Darkness. In these series, the artist arranges images and objects such as rocks and shells on the screen and draws connections using simple tools like the paintbrush, pencil, and eraser. This process and the evidence that remains serve as a means to counter various forms of anxiety, be it personal, political, or environmental, while fostering a sense of tranquility, connection, and humor. Within each still image, vestiges of movement linger, encapsulating the ritual acts and intent that underlie these artistic expressions within the digital realm.

In Digital Massage, Lisa Biedlingmaier explores the potential of the liquify tool as a means to rejuvenate the human body. The artist offers a shoulder that is massaged in Photoshop and invites viewers to contemplate healing techniques that harness energies transcending time and space, much like how elite athletes mentally train to maintain their physical fitness after an injury. This experience is akin to a soothing massage, where a Photoshop brush initially applies gentle pressure, gradually transforming the image into a monochromatic abstraction. The ongoing process of image editing serves as a symbolic representation of creation and dissolution, a kind of meditation guiding the viewer to loosen up through the process.

Kara Hearn is an interdisciplinary performance-based video artist and the chair of the Film/Video Department at Pratt Institute. Her work has been screened, exhibited, and performed at MoMA, SFMOMA, The Bluecoat Gallery, ARQUIPÉLAGO Contemporary Art Center, Dallas Medianale, DiverseWorks, New Orleans Museum of Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, White Columns, Berkeley Art Museum, and Walker Art Center. Her work was featured in the book Double Act: Art and Comedy and has been selected twice as a “critic’s pick” on Artforum.com. Hearn has completed residencies at the Core Program in Houston and at Recess, EFA Project Space, and Wassaic Project in New York. She is a member of the video cooperative Temp.Files. She received an MFA from UC, Berkeley, an MA from San Francisco State and a BA from UC, Santa Cruz. Born in Oklahoma, Hearn currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Lisa Biedlingmaier (b. 1975, Chelyabinsk, Georgia) lives and works in Zurich. She is an artist and curator with her two collectives Bad Lab and M. Paradoxa, with whom she has realized exhibitions, workshops and projects at the intersection of craft, art and science.Her most recent solo exhibition mem – on being light and liquid was presented at Kunsthalle Winterthur in 2021. Biedlingmaier exhibited nationally and internationally at the triennial The vibration of things (Small sculpture triennial, Fellbach) and off the beaten track (KIT, Düsseldorf) in 2022, in LINIENTANZ, (Kunst(Zeug)Haus, Rapperswil, 2023), Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors (Le Commun, Geneva, 2021), Aura Undercover (Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna, 2016) and ReCoCo – Life under representational Regimes (Museum of Bat Yam, Tel Aviv).

In 2020 and 2022, Lisa Biedlingmaier was nominated for the Swiss Art Awards. She received a grant for a two-month research trip to Japan from the Kanton of Zurich in 2022, a publication scholarship in 2019 from the CEAAC, Strasbourg, and a Project Grant from Pro Helvetia in 2021.

Kara Hearn, A Hand to Your Darkness, archival inkjet print, 2023, Courtesy of the artist.

Kara Hearn, I'll Be Your Mirror, archival inkjet print, 2022, Courtesy of the artist.

Lisa Biedlingmaier, Digital Massage, 2023, video, Courtesy of the artist.