Spatial Memories: "Photography Into Sculpture" at El Nido
- Kristine Schomaker
- 4 hours ago
- 5 min read
By Coral Pereda Serras
Among established and other art spaces in Melrose Hill, sits 1028 N. Western Ave., home to Western Avenue Collective artists studios. This 1922 building hosts 22 artist spaces among which is El Nido, an artist-run curatorial and research space by VC Projects. El Nido, borrowing from its Spanish name, is nested in this distinctly LA courtyard and through "Photography Into Sculpture: An Homage and An Update," emerges as a portal into the imagined memories of a Victorian era.
The relationship between memory, photography, and space have long been the subject of art historical discourse. When in the 1970s, Photography into Sculpture opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the exhibition curated by Peter Bunnell was met with skepticism from critics concerned with photography's autonomy. To maintain the self-sufficiency of the photograph, the medium had to be constrained to two-dimensional image-making. By 2011 when the show was restaged in Los Angeles as part of the Getty Pacific Standard Time Program, the notion of photographic purity had expanded. Fifty-six years after the original show, the stakes have shifted again but "Photography Into Sculpture: An Homage and An Update" at El Nido reaffirms the complexities of challenging medium specificity.
"An Homage and An Update" brings together the works of eight international artists who, one way or the other, reflect on the evolution of photography's spatial qualities: Bennie Flores Ansell, Roberta Toscano, Fabiola Ubani, oona hyland, Dawn Surratt, Silvia Gaffurini, L. Mikelle Standbridge, and Olga Caldas. Curated by L. Mikelle Standbridge, this traveling exhibition began at Casa Regis: Center for Culture and Contemporary Art in Mosso, Piedmont, Italy. The LA iteration, staged for El Nido by Victoria Chapman, lives in a curated atmosphere also marked by its specificity. Photographic objects are not only installed on white walls, but also laid out on ornate tables, aged mirrors, and antique trunks among others. Through this endeavor, the show merges the curatorial realm itself with its experimentation of photography's nature.
Upon entering the gallery, five quasi-transparent images rest gently on a shelf on the left wall. The Echo of (Our) Absence by Fabiola Ubani consists of a sequence of photographic transfers on glass displaying empty beds and ruffled sheets. In existing in conversation with each other, the black-and-white photographs constitute a narrative, where each panel seems to freeze in time a different moment and a different absence. The piece is as much about what is not there as what is present. The bed close-ups feature overlays of natural textures such as branches, highlighting a certain playfulness with materiality. This quality also appears through the choice of surface material. The impact of the glass is twofold: first, the panels add volume to the photographs through both the depth of each sheet and the optical effect of dimensionality. At the same time, glass is inherently fragile. Its transparency only seems to capture the darker parts of the image, reminding the viewer of the ephemerality of both memory and photography. Ubani's work centers the absences on beds that could be located anywhere and yet, the traces that memory leaves behind seem to be just as important.
L. Mikelle Standbridge's Photo-Scroll(ing) series layers large strips of photographic compositions, hanging in the fashion of East Asian scroll-making historical practices. Inspired by traditional photographic techniques, the prints display close-ups of natural textures, human figures, and scanned day-to-day objects among others. This gesture contrasts with digital references on some layers. QR codes appear imprinted in a red color, contrasting with the monochromatic backgrounds of the photographs. These stamps are in direct reference to the history of Chinese seals, often used as artists' signatures in hanging scrolls. Through the combination of photographic expertise, ubiquitous technological symbols, and tradition, Standbridge questions cultural notions of ownership and the power dynamics involved.
Oona Hyland brings to "An Homage and An Update" probably the most palpable challenge of photography's two-dimensionality. Little Ones consists of a jug with cyanotypes directly exposed on its ceramic surface. Resting on its side, the base of the jug reflects on an aged image a found image of a Victorian boy. A descendant of a survivor of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home case, Hyland explores intergenerational trauma in abuse cases in Irish mother and children institutions. The abstract drippings on the side of the object seem to resonate with the ephemerality of memory, interweaving the personal and the political. At El Nido, the artwork is set on an off-white fabric that could be a kitchen cloth with its frayed edges. Both elements sit on an antique style side table, playing with the reflected image of the "little one."
"An Homage and An Update" builds upon the art historical legacy grappling with photography's objecthood while incorporating issues of place and intimacy. The staging integrates the pieces into the space itself, sometimes further complicating the conversation. The show leans on the Victorian atmosphere to bring together issues of material and cultural specificity. But where the exhibition truly shines is in its potential to create intimate moments, reminding us of the relevance of artist-run spaces.
"Photography Into Sculpture: An Homage and An Update" is currently showing at El Nido by VC Projects through May 16, 2026.
El Nido by VC Projects 1028 1/2 N. Western Avenue Los Angeles, California 90029 By Appointment Only victoria@vcprojects.art
Coral Pereda (she/her) is a research-based media artist and designer from Spain. She holds an MFA in Photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, an MA in Photography and Design from Elisava Barcelona School of Design, and a BA in Communication from IE University, Spain. Her work has been exhibited at Fundació Vila Casas in Barcelona, at Defibrillator Performance Art Gallery, Expo Art Fair, Twisted Oyster Film Festival, and Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, among others. Coral's work has been supported by the Margaret Fuller Fellowship at the Franklin Institute University of Alcalá, CARTA Fellowship at UC San Diego, and Leonardo ISAST. She has participated in residencies at the Arquetopia Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art, SÍM Residency in Reykjavik, Iceland, and Leonardo@Djerassi. She is currently a PhD candidate in Art Media History and Practice at the University of California San Diego, where she examines how artificial intelligence and magic behave as technologies of divination.
