“Tis no disparagement to be a stranger, or irksome to be an exile. The rain is a stranger to the earth, rivers to the sea, Jupiter in Egypt, the Sun to us all. The Soul is an alien to the body, a Nightingale to the air, a Swallow in a house, and Ganymede in Heaven, an Elephant at Rome, a Phoenix in India; and such things commonly please us best which are most strange, and come farthest off.”
– Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, c.1621
In an uninhabited environment, light assumes the role of protagonist. Surging through the hairs of an ancient comb jelly, bioluminescence is abstracted into violently transmuting weather above. As light enters a vaulted edifice below, fragmented yet continuous beams multiply, confusing echo for origin again and again. Trapped in the crystalline shell, tendrils of electricity twist and writhe, sparking as they gain charge—their current intensifying. Interplays of refractions crescendo in a radiant cacophony, constantly looping back on itself in a perpetual recurrence. The scene is understood through many partial references with the absence of a viewing subject further building a visual rhythm.
Activated by the first crescents’ convergence, a stretch of vitreous archways form a temporal tunnel. Crossing almost symmetrically, their meeting initiates the nexus as the first link in a chain of genesis. Each gateway bends to enclose the space. Leading both nowhere and everywhere, its repetition reveals more passages. Threading through the perforated spine of an altar, overlapping ribs enclose hovering spheres along a durational pathway. While finite in perspective, the voyage follows an unfurling abyss drawing closer to an ineffable center.
Like thin glass, the shell’s threshold contains and conduits energy as a neon horizon line bursts in a conflation of light and reflection. Within this corridor of ultra-violet echoes, the line between reality and illusion dissolves, persistently reframing the question of what is real as the source of light merges with its countless reflections. In the process of painting a trompe-l'oeil of a digital image, anachronistic references meet, reverberating a hypnotic inquiry of reality.
Amidst the epic cyber-vista, floating orbs embody purity of form, evoking evenly distributed pressure, wholeness, and resolution. Metallic or transparent, the suspended globules interlace the pathway, inverting views of the overhanging arches and liquid mirage. In divine stillness, a mirrored platform perfectly reflects until the silky pools start undulating into molten portals, stretching and compressing the forms above. Surrounding the structure, a foreground of mysterious fluid spills out. This chaotic ocean further distorts the lightplay overhead.
A central focal point beckons toward a starkly conclusive horizon, informing an end, but how far remains uncertain. After pulling the eye through infinite iterations, the light source glows from beyond, quelling the disorienting journey with a promise of calm clarity. As if anticipating a universal comunion, the work envisions a force-field of origin and rapture. Akin to a theological experience guided by mathematical sequences, holy sites, nature’s fractal patterns, and virtual modeling, Nexus explores a space between animism and a technological singularity, surveying where our primordial and neoteric impulses might interlock.
–Marie Heilich
Chanel Khoury earned her BFA from New York University in 2020, along with a degree in philosophy. Solo exhibitions include Pure Boy, Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, Sweeden; Supera, Over the Influence, Los Angeles (2022). Khoury’s work has been included in group exhibition The Descendants, curated by Melanie Lum, Micki Meng, and Kevin Poon at K11 MUSEA, Hong Kong (2023); Vaster than Empires, Friends Indeed, San Francisco (2022); and Home Alone 2: Lost in Miami curated by Will Leung, Surface Magazine, Miami (2021). Her work has been featured in Forbes Magazine, Architectural Digest, Musee Magazine, among others. Khoury’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Pond Society, Shanghai; and X Museum, Beijing.
