“Requiem: Aching for Acker” a solo exhibition of multimedia works by Aline Mare opened at Beyond Baroque on May 6, 2018. 
Death, I Know
Mare’s exhibition of new photo-based, hand-finished works interprets literary iconoclast Kathy Acker’s final writing, in which Acker filters her cancer diagnosis through Greek mythology. Mare first met Acker in NYC in the 1970s and they remained friends on and off for decades; she was among those closest to her when she passed in 1997. After author Chris Kraus (I Love Dick) interviewed her for After Kathy Acker: A Literary Biography (2017), Mare was inspired to engage with Acker as a subject.
In these multimedia pieces, Mare uses imagery and elements – including actual artifacts of Acker’s – that infuse the series with magic and myth as she explores the universality of confronting mortality.
Left image: Tattooed Winged Angel Right image: Bloody Glove
In her artist statement, Aline writes, “I was looking for a vision to match the feelings: the loss and the power I felt reading this final piece. Something that would remind the world of her power as a creative female force of nature – her self-mythologizing a form of empowerment and vulnerability: to marry the past and present in a rich body of work that speaks to the universality of the path we must all take: the path to the underworld.”
Mare sent several images from the series to Chris Kraus after reading After Kathy Acker. Kraus responded, “There’s nothing better than to see my book as an instigator for other work. The glove image you sent is harrowing…it feels like the real thing, and suggests all kinds of unspoken suffering. I can’t stop thinking about what Kathy would make of all this, our extrapolations from her life and her work.”
Although the opening has taken place already – be sure to pop in for an art talk with Aline Mare in conjunction with this exhibition on May 19, 2018 at 2:00pm. The info for that event is located our LAArtParty’s Additional Events Page.
On view: May 6 – May 30, 2018
Where: The Mike Kelley Gallery at Beyond Baroque, 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://www.alinemare.com http://www.beyondbaroque.org
