SPIT IT OUT
SPIT IT OUT
How do you separate feeling and belief from fact and reason?
What information is valid and who can we trust?
Ola Aksan’s exhibition SPIT IT OUT is a reaction to the chaos and confusion of misinformation. Using disco balls, light, drawing, and painting, Aksan captures how the growing spectrum between truth and lies has left her unsteady. If light symbolizes truth and knowledge, then catching light has proved nearly impossible.
Scroll through the online exhibition below to see each piece —Phantom Fury, Mirror Mouth-Spit It Out, and Battleground—and for a behind the scenes look into Aksan’s inspiration. Then visit the street-facing gallery windows to view the artwork from the sidewalk outside the Ed Portal! If you are interested in purchasing a piece of artwork, please contact the artist directly at ola.marie.aksan@gmail.com. 100% of purchases will go directly to the artist.
Phantom Fury
Aksan attempts to capture moving reflections from disco balls onto canvas. Racing to trace the squares of light with charcoal, the result is three frenzied drawings.
Read More from the Artist
"In Phantom Fury, I attempt to catch the light reflected off a group of disco balls hanging in linear formation. By tracing the constantly changing light patterns with charcoal onto canvas, the drawings capture a chaotic state. The act of tracing fleeting light from disco balls feels like trying to catch the quantity of information, and misinformation, blasted out through the media. As the mark-making builds up—starting slow and steady then escalating as the lights moves faster—it traces the chaotic environment that leaves me angry and dizzy from the frenzy.
Disco balls make me smile, they are joyous and bring people together in times of celebration. As a metaphor, the disco ball is weighted with party, glam, and escapism but bears the question, what are we trying to escape from? In this current moment of violent loss, mourning, and distrust, the disco ball represents the need for reflection. It is constantly reflecting its surroundings and casting light outward."
Details & Price
Phantom Fury, 2021
Charcoal on canvas, disco balls, light, latex paint on wood 1 of 3:
35 x 50", 2 of 3: 35 x 52", 3 of 3: 35 x 52"
Price: $2100
Watch the video of Aksan drawing Phantom Fury. Listen to the beat of disco music build as the density of the charcoal marks increases.
"I wanted to bring in two sides of disco music, one that embodies the feel-good freedom and the other that articulates political division: one being the arguably most iconic disco song, "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer and the other, "Why?" by Bronski Beat. Both songs encapsulate this time of conflict and change and are still relevant today."
— Ola Aksan
Battleground
In this painting, Aksan depicts a sharp mountain range in the background of rolling hills with small buildings. Setting the structures on cracked blue and red paint, she comments that rooting foundations on shaky grounds will inevitably lead to catastrophe.
Read More from the Artist
"Battleground encapsulates a war on Reason. The sharp and looming mountain range in the background, with the buildings on rolling hills of cracked earth in the foreground, exposes systematic flaws in our communities. There is no way it can be ignored—to continue to build on such shaky grounds will inevitably lead to catastrophe and history repeating."
Details & Price
Battleground, 2021
Acrylic and latex paint on canvas
Price: $800
Mirror Mouth-Spit It Out
This wearable sculpture is crafted by covering medical masks with disco balls’ reflective squares. Masks, a symbol of division during COVID-19, are converted into objects that act as armor and reflect the consequences and power of words.
Read More from the Artist
"The title of this piece, Mirror Mouth-Spit It Out, contrasts the spread of misinformation about mask-wearing with the fact that spit transferred between people is literally causing harm. The disco mirrors adhered to protective face masks add enough weight to make the masks too heavy to wear, rendering them ineffective."
Details & Price
Mirror Mouth–Spit It Out, 2021
Disco mirrors, face masks, white shadow box
16 x 20"
Price: $600
Ola Aksan
Ola Aksan is a working artist in Boston, MA. The child of Polish immigrants, Aksan's duality, and sometimes clash of culture and language, influences her work through high contrasting colors and textures. Bouncing around the American South before settling in Boston, she received her BFA from Texas State University and her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Ola is currently making artwork, taking commission requests, and teaching at the New Art Center.
History Lesson: The Disco Ball
The first record of the disco ball is found in Charlestown, MA in the 1879 publication of the Electrical Worker. The "mirrored ball" was illuminated to flood the electrical union's ballroom with glittering light for enjoyment at their annual party. Re-introduced during the Jazz Age, the "myriad reflector" was patented by inventor Louis B. Woeste in 1924, who labeled it the "myriad reflector" (see photo).
After disappearing for a few decades, it was resurrected in the 1970s. Disco music was on the rise with repetitive beats, electronica, and lyrics of love and survival. The named changed from myriad reflector to disco ball as it became a symbol of social liberation.