Et al. presents
Julie Lai
Brandon Walls Olsen
Everything changes; nothing dies
April 20 - May 19, 2018
Reception: Friday, April 20, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
620 Kearny Street, San Francisco, CA
With their practices in flux, it became known that for the artists of this particular exhibition, the direction that the title and text would take on was not clear, and the ball was back in the gallerist’s court. As he was reading a good book, it seemed enough to borrow an excerpt from a book which itself contains a quote suitable for a title.
“I also have a lousy memory for faces, but this isn’t about that. Don’t you think you’ve met me before? Isn’t there something about me that you recognize?”
With a curious look he gazed at my face, my hair, my forehead, as if recalling something. He shook his head and said without conviction, “I don’t think so.”
I answered, “I saw you in India, more than a century ago. You took off your humble turban to bathe in the waters of the river that night. Later you stole pieces of silk from a store and when you died you were reincarnated as a bird.” Then I recited these words in a loud voice, “’The soul cannot die: it leaves one dwelling place for another. I remember you; I was at the siege of Troy, my name was Euphorbus, son of Pantus, and the youngest of the Atreids pierced my chest with his lance. Long ago, I recognized my shield on the wall of the temple of Juno in Argos. Everything changes; nothing dies.’ Like Pythagoras, I believe in the transmigration of the soul.” Eladio Esquivel stared at me patiently. “At the age of twelve I knew by heart, in Greek, the apology of Er, son of Armenius, who saw the soul of Orpheus transformed into a swan; that of Thamyris, turned into a nightingale; that of Ajax, turned into a lion; that of Agamemnon, turned into an eagle.”
- Silvina Ocampo, The Impostor