Welcome to LACE

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions

  • Programs
    • Projects
    • Emerging Curator Program
    • Apprenticeship
    • Lightning Fund
    • Se habla español
  • Archive
    • Archive
    • Publications
  • About
    • Visit
    • History
    • Ethos
    • Board of Directors
    • Team
  • Support
    • Benefit Art Auction
    • Give Now
    • Membership
    • Supporters
    • Special Editions
  • Shop
    • Online Shop
You are here: Home / LACE / 2000-2004 / 188 loose elements things like pure sound associations improvisational jazz free form where in principal everything is equal the id and the superego supersystems

188 loose elements things like pure sound associations improvisational jazz free form where in principal everything is equal the id and the superego supersystems

February 16 – April 20, 2002

Featuring Sarah Seager

Opening Reception: 16 February 2002 5 – 7pm.

188 loose elements
things like
pure sound associations
improvisational jazz
free form where in principal
everything is equal
the id
and the superego
supersystems

It is the moments of connection and disconnection, presence and absence, visibility and invisibility which are recurrent themes in the work of Sarah Seager. She does not limit her use of materials to paint, photography, or collage, though she has used each of these as well as axe handles, old personal correspondence, and white record albums.

For her new installation at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Seager composed a dialogue about blindness, invisibility and the desire for vision. The text is sand blasted on large panes of glass which lean precariously against the walls and floor, acting as cue cards for the “actors” in this dialogue. The “actors” are represented by paper sculptures which are carefully balanced on the floor and can be easily shifted or transformed by a stir in the air, such as the passing of a viewer. The changing relationship between the paper sculptures; how they wrinkle and fold, if and how they touch, or how the light reflects off their surfaces, is at the center of this work. She also incorporated some of her earlier sculptures into the installation, such as an axe handle piece and her sculpture of multi-colored tacks “Why do we circulate all these papers when everyone says it will make no difference?” allowing the viewer to examine the relationships and recurring themes within Seager’s past and present work.

The fleeting, elusive nature of everyday human interactions is an ongoing interest in Seager’s work. Curator Marilu Knode wrote: “…Seager seeks the human self, lost in the arbitrariness of language and the overabundance of worldly objects.” She encourages the audience to create their own meaning for her work by producing sculptures and other objects which lack any obvious association or reference. By doing so, Seager asks the viewer to recognize and contemplate the subtle and often neglected aspects of life which, for Seager, are the most important.

Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight described her work as “spare, mixed media minimalism [that] has an unexpected dadaist edge of great wit and provocation.” Sarah Seager is not an artist from whom one can predict what will come next.

Sarah Seager’s work has been included in exhibitions at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, and Westfalischer Kunstverein in Munster, Germany as well as many other local, national, and international galleries. She teaches at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.

Filed Under: 2000-2004, Exhibition, Installation, LACE Tagged With: 188 loose elements things like pure sound associations improvisational jazz free form where in principal everything is equal the id and the superego supersystems, 2002, collage, Exhibition, installation, mixed media, photography, Sarah Seager, Sculpture

Visit

TEMPORARY OFFICE LOCATION
6464 Sunset Blvd.
Ste. 1070
Los Angeles, CA, 90028

tel: 1(323)250-0940
info@welcometolace.org

LACE recognizes our presence on Tovaangar, the unceded ancestral lands of the Gabrielino-Tongva people who are its rightful caretakers.

Lace Logo

Follow

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

GIVE NOW

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo
  • YouTube

News

LACE’s Lightning Fund Opens August 15, 2025!

PRESS RELEASE: Announcing LACE’s Next Emerging Curators

Announcing the 2025 Lightning Fund and Jacki Apple Awards

More News

LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions)

welcometolace

Join LACE for a special screening of Marnie Weber’s film “Song of the Sea Witch” (2020), alongside the Los Angeles premiere of her latest film, “House of the Whispering Rose” (2025). “Song of the Sea Witch” captures a mysterious Sea Witch who lives in isolation at a cabin on the edge of the ocean. Her solitude is broken when one day a group of raucous birds appear on the Sea Witch’s beach. Their presence threatens to take over her peaceful existence.

Join us Thursday, November 13 from 7-9 PM at the Philosophical Research Society (@philosophical_research_society). Following the screening, LACE’s Curator and Director of Programs Selene Preciado (@selene__preciado) speaks with Marnie Weber (@marnieweberstudio) to learn more about the making of the films and her collaborations.

Light refreshments will be provided. Marnie Weber’s exclusive merch will be available for sale before and during the screening. Stick around until the end for a surprise guest appearance! Reservations are filling up quickly and space is limited. RSVP at the link in our bio.

This program is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
VideoLACE is now live as part of the LACE Digital VideoLACE is now live as part of the LACE Digital Archive! Check out the link in our bio to watch documented performances from the last few years with more to come. Explore documentation from LACE projects including “This Home, Forever” (2025), “ENDURANCE” (2025), “ABUNDANCE” (2024), and “APOLAKI” (2023).
“A Tender Excavation” approaches research-base “A Tender Excavation” approaches research-based artistic practices through propositions of alternative histories, bringing together a group of artists who work with historical and familial photographic archives as a point of departure to construct new narratives and elicit transformation.

LACE is thrilled to introduce three of the artists featured in the exhibition...

❥ Jamil G Baldwin (@juh_mile) was born in Lancaster, CA and raised in and across the Inland Empire and Los Angeles. Baldwin’s work explores the ability of the photographic document to reconstitute the histories of images and material into value systems of care.

❥ Camille Wong (@camillexwong) is a research-based artist living in Los Angeles, CA. Their practice examines power, geopolitics, and historiography through the lens of media and spectacle. They approach the gaze of ethnography by authoring the personal into the world through experimental documentary.

❥ Artemisa Clark (@bustilacaca) is a multidisciplinary artist from Los Angeles. She received a MA in performance studies from Northwestern University in 2016 and a MFA in visual arts from the University of California, San Diego in 2015. She has exhibited and presented research in spaces such as MOCA, The Hammer, the Mexican Consulate, the Vincent Price Art Museum, and more.

Join us at the opening reception on Saturday, November 1, 2025 from 2–5 PM at CSULA’s Luckman Gallery. Light refreshments will be provided. RSVP at the link in our bio.

Support for this exhibition is provided by the Teiger Foundation.
Swipe to see selections from LACE’s archive over Swipe to see selections from LACE’s archive over the last almost 50 years!

LACE is excited to announce that we will be at the Los Angeles Archives Bazaar this Saturday, October 18, at CSULA! The event will feature 80 local and regional collections, along with practical workshops and exclusive presentations by archivists, filmmakers, and preservationists.

This year’s Archives Bazaar is presented by the LA as Subject Research Alliance in partnership with the USC Libraries, the Cal State LA University Library, and the Cal State LA Pathway Programs Office.

The Archives Bazaar runs from 10–3 PM in the Golden Eagle Ballrooms at Cal State LA. Admission is free. For the full program and exhibitor list, visit laassubject.org.

Slide 1: “The Archival Impulse: 40 Years at LACE” (March 15, 2018 – November 7, 2021). Photos by Chris Wormwald (@christopherwphoto).
Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2025 Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions