Radiating care
Jay Katelansky's "You've Been On My Mind..."
"To anyone experiencing heartbreak right now, I want you to know that I am thinking of you and I love you. You are infinite." – Jay Katelansky
The generosity in the above quote is more than apparent throughout Jay Katelansky’s You’ve Been On My Mind. Just walking into this exhibition almost instantly brought up feelings of relief and of being cared for. It actually inspired me to take a deep breath, exhale slowly and start considering the generosity of care, love and joy that inhabits this show.
So many people are hell-bent on denying individual and communal agency, freedoms and rights that you could draw the conclusion that no one is going to be invested in seeing to it that you feel loved and cared for, especially a stranger.
However, Jay Katelansky seems to be that stranger who is doing the most to see to it that you know that you are deserving of care and uplift. Even if I didn’t know who Jay was or knew anything about her work, this show still would’ve had the same effect on me.
In You’ve Been On My Mind, Jay has put together a multi-layered multi-media exhibition using text, textiles, sculpture and video celebrating joy, caring and love, while also challenging us to believe that we are deserving of such things without question.
The anchor of Jay’s show lies in the 1978 hit, “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor. The iconic lyrics, “I’ve got all my life to live/And all my love to give…” have been given a slight reworking on two of the walls here as: “You have all your life to LIVE…And all your LOVE to give”, affirmations welcoming the viewer to consider the contributions and impact that they can have on others around them and possibly beyond.
The connecting wall between these rewritten lyrics contains a series of small, mirror-gridded pieces with insets of images and texts further extending the generosity of caring to the viewer.
My favorite of these features a pair of hands holding a bouquet of sunflowers with white text that reads, “Let me celebrate you because every day something has tried to kill you and failed”. This is the kind of thoughtful, specific and uplifting caring that cuts to the chase, like “let me pour love into you, give you your flowers because you’re still here, the world hasn’t destroyed you and I love you”. The sense of being seen here is palpable. Again, the spirit of generosity flows outward.
The insets are all off-center and a couple are hard to read because of the worn surfaces of paper, bringing the viewer into the mirrored surfaces, giving us the opportunity to contemplate the intimate passages and images and to perhaps see ourselves as deserving of the offerings emanating from the surfaces.
The mirrored surfaces also recall disco balls and the celebratory abandon of dancing, sweating and losing one’s self in the music and crowds of night clubs, leaving all of our troubles outside or on the dance floor.
Two sparkling, rotating purple/lavender tapestry banners hang from the ceiling with the texts, You are alive & won’t crumble and Hold your hear up high/You are infinite, beckoning our gaze upwards and again giving us more positivity to consider.
The final piece I saw in the show is a video monitor with three views of trees and patches of sky as if from the vantage point of laying on the ground looking up. The soundtrack is what sounds like a very slowed down, almost dreamy version of “I Will Survive”. In it, we’re outside, taking a break and maybe falling into a nap after having been filled up with loving reminders from Jay Katelansky’s work that we are indeed deserving of rest and much more than what the world will see us as from the outside.
The exhibition space that contains You’ve Been On My Mind is small, but the work is thoughtfully placed and considered. The show feels both incredibly intimate and quietly expansive with the floor to ceiling window on the Race Street side. It floods the space and show with light during the day, and allows passersby the opportunity to gaze in and feel the love, as well.
Answering your phone and hearing a familiar voice on the other end say something like, “Hi, you’ve been on my mind, so I thought I’d give you a call…” can brighten the worst feeling of days and open up a world of feelings I know it does for me and I’m pretty certain that it would for you, as well.
That’s the kind of all-encompassing caring and attention I’m sure more of us could use in today’s world. Entering the space of Jay Katelansky’s show, You’ve been on my mind…, one can feel a sense of love, joy and care emanating from every corner of the room. Just the title alone invites us to let our guard down a little and feel that someone out there is looking out for our well being, even if that someone is a complete stranger.
Try passing on some love and encouragement to someone today. You never know much they may need it.
You’ve Been On My Mind is on view until September 28, 2024 in the Alumni Gallery at Moore College of Art & Design, located at 1916 Race Street, right next to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in downtown Philadelphia, PA.
There is a virtual artist talk with Jay Katelansky this Thursday, August 1st, at 12 noon. [Register here]
Website: Jay Katelansky
I loved this Tim! Among all the text based exhibitions this one seems full of heart. I love the sparkly thing going on, mirrors, mirror balls as an invitation to reflect but also into joy.