Join us for a conversation between artist Shana Moulton and Alexandra Terry, Chief Curator. The pair will discuss Moulton's current exhibition at MCASB The Invisible Seventh is the Mystic Column, in particular the titular artwork of the exhibition, which was filmed and edited during the artist's COVID-19 quarantine.
Shana Moulton works with video, installation, and performance to explore the anxiety, isolation, and mystical journeys of her alter-ego, Cynthia, as she traverses an evolving, yet cyclical loop of self-diagnosis and treatment. Moulton’s video series Whispering Pines, originating in 2002 and named after the senior mobile home park run by her parents near Yosemite, follows Cynthia on surreal and uncanny adventures as she attempts to reconcile societal anxieties while grappling with existential discomfort. Appropriating New Age therapies, personal wellness products, physical movement, and spiritual healing, Cynthia attempts transcendence, navigating the complex territory of self-excavation and self-care in her search for meaning.
This virtual event is FREE and open to all! Click here to register.
About the Artist
Shana Moulton (b. 1976, Oakhurst, California, USA) lives and works in Santa Barbara, California. Over the past 18 years she has been developing her ongoing video/performance series Whispering Pines, in which she plays the role of “Cynthia,” both a fictional figure and the artist’s alter ego.
She has shown her work extensively both in the USA and internationally, including solo shows at the Palais De Tokyo in Paris, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Art in General in New York, the Zabludowicz Collection in London, the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland. She has performed at The Museum of Modern Art, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, The Kitchen in New York, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and many others. Moulton’s work has been featured in Artforum, The New York Times, ArtReview, Art in America, Flash Art, Artpress, Metropolis M, BOMB Magazine, and Frieze, among others.
Moulton earned her BA from University of California, Berkeley, in art and anthropology and her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at University of California, Santa Barbara.