Altman Siegel is pleased to present K.R.M. Mooney’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, auxil. Short for auxilary, auxil are incorporations, both musical and technical, to provide support and extend the perceived limits of the body. Contextualized in part by internal drives and currents of flow, be that of air or metal, Mooney charges the interpersonal realm as breath and atmosphere are exerted. 

In conjunction with the exhibition, Mooney will stage a performance of Terry Riley’s 1964 minimalist composition In C at the gallery on Friday, July 14, 2023 at 3:00 pm. Focused on wind and breath activated instruments, this re-performance, coupled with the sculptures on view, will explore the often improvised and performative nature of exchange.

Recalling sound and substance, the sculptures in this exhibition heighten their participation in aural space. Channel in C, produced using a single chime, is derived from objects that hold the capacity to emit, to have a voice and to participate in public life. Referring to Riley’s In C, they vibrate to produce a sound when struck, illuminating the manufacture of sound. 

Drawing further inspiration from Lorenz Aggermann, who writes the “outside world becomes, thanks to breathing, nutrition, smell, and taste, very directly the inner world,” and this way a “multidimensional time-space,” Mooney’s small-scale sculptures create intimacy through the interactions they invite. Sharing contours of instruments to shape a sphere of action, electroplated objects from Mooney’s Partials series are displayed and mounted on the wall just below standard height, serving as a reminder of the objects’ origin as the mouthpieces of various wind instruments. Referring to the specific region of the lips, teeth, and mouth, the Partials series explores these sites as a physical threshold of corporeality, intimacy, and nurturance. 

In other work, process and production become the means of restaging permeable and active media. Using silver electroplating, a process which improves corrosion, protection, surface conductivity, lubricity, and solderability between forms and circuits, Mooney undermines the distinction between sculptural form and support in Deposition (c.) xi and Deposition (c.) xii. The resulting sculptures are an iteration of forms that index the multiple histories of their production while remaining sensitive to the future conditions of their display. In Eutectic c. (i), Mooney engages the process of soldering, where heat, temperature and alloy become contingent participants in a process of joining. Attached but not affixed, a fabricated component in silver and cast bronze is held by a heat resistant material with specific physical characteristics. Necessitating certain architectural features for its display, Eutectic c. (i) engages verticality as a device to engage the corporeal interfacing of the viewer and their possible movement by way of its projection out into space.

Altman Siegel