While the sunset unfolds in real time - capturing the elusive ‘green light’, a blink or you’ll miss it moment - the sunrise is manipulated to gently bounce in the air. In two opposite galleries, Wortzel displays three interconnected video installations, the “sunrise,” “sunset,” and “labor” iterations of For those of us who live at the shoreline (2021), which orient us to considerations of place despite not revealing where they were shot. The gentle hum of these sculptures guides us through the gallery in a winding maze, an allusion to the occlusion effect that occurs when we hold a conch shell up to our ears. Wortzel created these recordings by asking friends, artists, and poets to interpret the prayer for themselves.
#OOLITE MIAMI RESTAURANT SERIES#
The titular work is a series of 3D-printed polymer conch shell-shaped sculptures that hang from the ceiling and serve as speakers for remixed renditions of the Mourner’s Kaddish.
#OOLITE MIAMI RESTAURANT WINDOWS#
Enveloped in natural light from the gallery’s expansive, sunny windows that reflect off soft blush-painted walls, this work reminds us to pause, reflect, and honor the passage of time, migrants, and communities that share the same shoreline that inspired the exhibition. After more than 14 years in action, Grupo GastroPortal has become a gastronomic benchmark thanks to the experience offered by its premises. Upstairs, “Sitting Shiva” (2020) occupies the center of the gallery: two quintessential woven beach chairs, the customary woven backs of which have been replaced with the skins of invasive Burmese pythons. Installation view of Sasha Wortzel, “Dreams of Unknown Islands” (2021), sound Installation, polymer PLA filament, 9.5 x 9.5 x 18 inches (photo by Pedro Wazzan) The idea that ritual could carry one through a disorienting moment of ambiguity became crucial in the wake of a global pandemic, and became the backdrop from which Wortzel created many of the new works in Dreams of Unknown Islands, their solo exhibition now on view at Oolite Arts.
Raised Jewish, they began joining a Zoom call a friend had organized to recite the Mourner’s Kaddish, a prayer that “doesn’t even mention death, it’s much more about living for the day,” Wortzel notes. In this search for something to hold onto, Wortzel also turned to their faith. The organization was founded in 1984 and recently underwent a name change from ArtCenter/South Florida to one that resonates more with their vision. The sunset, with its habitual fade into the horizon, was a slow burn the artist could count on. Located in the vibrant neighborhood of Little Haiti, Oolite Arts is a non-profit resource for the advancement of contemporary visual arts and culture in Miami.
Like so many others, Wortzel was looking for ways to process the grief of lost connections, lost souls, and a loss of certainty. “It was one of the only things I could bring myself to do, but it also became a ritual or meditation each day,” they explained to Hyperallergic from their studio in Miami Beach. MIAMI BEACH - A year ago, when the unthinkable happened and the world first stood still, Sasha Wortzel would take a walk down to the beach every day at sunset.
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