Tomorrow Never Knows juxtaposes works on paper by Ruby Osorio with sculptures by Macha Suzuki, encouraging viewers to look beyond practical ideas for efficient design and instead explore the pleasures of impossible scenarios. Linked by a figurative thread, the distinct practices of Suzuki and Osorio yield objects and images that heighten anticipations while revealing quiet mysteries.
Within the dreamlike parameters of Ruby Osorio’s work, images morph and transition creating environments where animals and ornamentation adorn female figures. Osorio’s pictures seamlessly employ gouache, acrylic, ink, watercolor, collage and airbrush to set an atmosphere where fictional narratives flow effortlessly. Appearing to conceal intimate secrets, owls, swans and peacock feathers become extensions of female personalities. Averting their gazes, these women with avian accompaniment seem to be deeply immersed in thought, meditating on another time or place.
While some of Osorio’s pictures focus on a single figure, others are scenes depicting enigmatic rituals. In two of these scenarios a touch from an anonymous hand causes patterns of leaves or blossoming flowers to emanate from the lips of sleeping beauties. Disconcerting and compelling, these events and characters allude to a personalized mythology where Osorio can conjure endless identities
The craftily assembled and detail orientated sculptures by Macha Suzuki present curious narratives framed in dazzling spectacles. For Suzuki coolness can be defined as slick street cred coupled with a spiritual introspection. In Fail 2009 yarn is carefully woven into the center of a trompe l’oeil web of tree branches spelling out the word ‘fail’ in bright hipster orange. Contextually out of place, like an urban tagger at boy scouts camp, the message, fail, becomes a comforting notion ñ it’s going to be all right. This use of subverting standard word meaning calls to mind the conceptual text works by Bruce Nauman.
Other works by Suzuki feature an array of animal protagonists. Having the initial appearance of better-built mousetraps, cats, sheep or cows may find themselves on an octagonal pedestal stage or in a simulated sampling of landscape. These environments are often rendered in miniature with a painterly palette that illuminates themes of adventure and danger in an optimistic glow.
