Waiting for it to End, by June Woest and Mari Omori, 2013

L'esprit de L'escalier, translated by Mari Omori and I to mean "in the spirit of an escalator", our collaboration emphasizes the never ending horizon where the appearance of earth and sky intersect.  The work is an indoor landscape for the construction of memories and regrets.

L’esprit de L’escalier

An exhibition featuring works by members of the DiverseWorks Artist Board L’esprit de l’escalier, a French pun translated idiomatically as “staircase wit,” refers to the inevitable situation of finding oneself thinking of the perfect comeback to an argument too late. The retort, when removed from the context of its original instigation, has a tendency to lose its potency leading to incidences of regret and remorse. Through a wide variety of artistic strategies, the DiverseWorks Artist Board grapples with how words, events, or objects become dislocated or removed from their original context. The title provides the artists with a loose framework for the creation of new work (or the re-presentation of existing work) for this exhibition which includes objects, text-works, moving image pieces, and a series of performative and literary events.

Materials:  Massage table, clay, .7mm plastic, duct tape, video, carpet squares.



Diverseworks Artist Board members included in this exhibition are Lucinda Cobley, Sasha Dela, Lydia Hance, Trenton Doyle Hancock, John Harvey, Maria Cristina Jadick, Courtney D. Jones, Eric Leshinsky, Gabriel Martinez, Lynne McCabe, Katrina Moorhead, Gene Morgan, Mari Omori, Otabenga Jones & Associates (Jamal Cyrus and Robert A. Pruitt), Aaron Parazette, Leslie Scates, Hélène Schlumberger, Kellye Sanford, Kelly Sears, and Damon Smith, along with collaborators Nick Hennies, Sandy Ewen, Zach Moser, jhon r. stronks, and June Woest.