A Cloud That Bites, 2024
Solo Exhibition | Ehrlich Steinberg, Los Angeles, USA
Full Exhibition Text
A Cloud That Bites is a solo exhibition comprising multi-channel video installation, sculpture, photography and drawing. Constructed around two semi-fictionalized characters - Sunbeam and Fowelley - A Cloud That Bites moves between a historical and imagined past, reconstituted through Sainsbury’s own understandings of present and future lifespans. Throughout the exhibition, the artist evokes the spirits and figures of trans ancestors, describing a “process of making communion and communication with the dead”.
Drawn from Clarice Lispector’s 1942 novel Near to the Wild Heart in which the narrator confessionally recalls dreams of being “above the rain”, A Cloud That Bites roots itself in Sainsbury’s own experiences of her body, encounters of touch and what she speaks of as a “pain in my chest”. The exhibition explores this through varying states including climate crisis anxiety, living in an ‘unnatural’ body, dysphoria, trans sociality, trans death, the category of human in relation to the weather and desire to become almost-nothing, to become mist.
Body Diary 20231016_215625 dolls 4 dolls, 2024. Pigment print on mylar, edition 1/3 + 1 AP, 16 1/4 x 10 1/8 in (41.3 x 25.7 cm).
Body Diary 20220215_153807 girl sword (spring time), 2024. Pigment print on mylar, edition 1/3 + 1 AP, 16 1/4 x 10 7/8 in (41.3 x 27.6 cm).
Body Diary 20231231_183717 the first truth is in the earth and the body, 2024. Pigment print on mylar, edition 1/3 + 1 AP, 16 1/4 x 10 1/8 in (41.3 x 25.7 cm).
Sunbeam Doll, 2024. Hand-dyed needle felted sheep’s wool, tumeric, madder root, wooden marionette controller, sewing needle, embroidery thread, freshwater pearls, human hair, stoneware glazed ceramic bones, peach pits, progesterone tablets, estradiol gel packet, dental model teeth, car auto part, dried dandelions, dimensions variable.
because the rain passes through me, i am the highest form of pure love, 2024. Wax, spray paint, dimensions variable.
The Wind Unravels Us - Clothes Hanger, 2024. Stoneware glazed ceramic, hot rolled steel, rope, knots, house paint, dimensions variable.
For the ways things stretch around each other, 2024 Wax, spray paint, stoneware glazed ceramic, metallic silk organza, pillow, 18 x 26 x 9 in (47 x 66 x 23 cm).
you touch me, 2024. Wax, spray paint, dimensions variable.
The Wind Unravels Us - To The Flesh Removed, 2024. Stoneware glazed ceramic, shoelaces, hot rolled steel, rope, knots, house paint, dimensions variable.
The Wind Unravels Us - To The Flesh Removed, 2024. Stoneware glazed ceramic, shoelaces, hot rolled steel, rope, knots, house paint, dimensions variable.
u give me wood for unbuilding the house, 2024. Antique radio cabinet, wax, spray paint, stoneware glazed ceramic, peach pits, paper, text, watercolour pencil, antique glass perfume bottle, Fowelley’s Scent perfume (made in collaboration with Gabi Dao), 30 x 20 x 50 in (76 x 51 x 127 cm).
Detail: The Wind Unravels Us - Peach Pit Coat, 2024. Trench coat, glass beads, glass imitation pearls, freshwater pearls, peach pits, thread, crochet pussy, sheep’s wool, tree root, rope, stoneware glazed ceramic, hot rolled steel, knots, house paint, dimensions variable.
Car Seat, 2024. Car seat, 8 1/2 x 20 1/4 x 51 1/4 in (21.6 x 51.4 x 130.2 cm).
This Cloud, 2023. Colouring pencil, paper, blusher makeup, 10 1/4 x 13 3/4 in (26 x 35 cm).
eat me and die so i can grow out of you and be beautiful, 2024. Wax, spray paint, dimensions variable.
Rib Bones, 2024, glazed stoneware ceramic. Installation view.
Everything delicious is stripped of its flesh, 2024. Peach pits, stoneware glazed ceramic, filing cabinet, 25 x 15 x 52 in (63.5 x 38.1 x 132.1 cm).
i have decided to begin growing dandelions, i am their mother, 2024. Wax, spray paint, dimensions variable.
A Fantastic Body, 2024. Double-channel 2K video, painted wash, peach pits, color, sound, dimensions variable, 10:40 minutes, loop, edition 1/2 + 1 AP.
parasitic girl, 2024. Wax, spray paint, dimensions variable.
Photos: Evan Walsh.
A Cloud That Bites is commissioned by Ehrlich Steinberg, with generous support from Mondriaan Fund and Amarte Fund.
