Olivia Mole as IRINA ABKADINA, an actress
Sammy Loren as CONSTANTINE TREPLIEFF, her son
John Morace as PETER SORIN, her brother
P. Staff as NINA ZARIETCHNAYA, a young girl, the daughter of a rich landowner
Simon Brewer as ILIA SHAMRAEFF, the manager of SORIN’S estate
Julia Yerger as MASHA, SHAMRAEFF’s daughter
Olivier Babin as BORIS TRIGORIN, an author
Asari Aibangbee as EUGENE DORN, a doctor
Andrew Berardini as SIMON MEDVIEDENKO, a schoolmaster
Jasmine McGlade as The Narrator
In Chekhov’s The Seagull, a petit bourgeois drama set in fin-de-siècle Russia, we find a political and cultural situation not so different from our own. Following the elimination of serfdom in 1861, new class identities emerged. Even as the empire embroiled itself in costly expansionist competitions with Britain and Japan, its merchants, landowners, civil servants, and artists accrued independent wealth, social capital, and an international outlook on politics, science, philosophy, and literature.
Tripping over one another on the grounds of a lakeside estate, Chekhov’s characters are preoccupied by romance, money, and their various states of health, but their fiercest disagreements—and deepest humiliations—concern aesthetics. Constantine proselytizes a new form of theater that represents life not as it is, but as it ought to be, but his own mother decries his new play as decadent rubbish. While Nina can imagine no greater pleasure than the joy of creation, Trigorin (a celebrated author) insists to her that he’s happier fishing than writing.
Today, we’re dogged by generative automations, pervasive ‘literalism,’ and expedient iterations of the last century’s styles. Nonetheless, there are echoic abstractions, mecha-organic matrices, cool landscapes, and new approaches to realism to find pleasure in. Beyond these rarified discourses, national and global orders are undergoing relentless shifts, and appear to be inching toward collapse. Does everything look dark now, or is it only evening?
Everything looks dark now is a group exhibition featuring work by Sebastian Black, Camille Blatrix, Grichka Commaret, Guillaume Dénervaud, Dana Lok, Soshiro Matsubara, Ian Miyamura, Alexandra Noel, Leigh Ruple, Lauren Satlowski, and Erin Calla Watson.
BIOGRAPHIES
Olivia Mole is an artist based in Los Angeles.
Sammy Loren is a writer based in Los Angeles. He is the founding editor of the tabloid On the Rag, runs the reading series Casual Encountersz, and curates the biennial Made In helLA.
John Morace is a Los Angeles-based collector and founding member of the Mountain School of Art. He is a former chair of the Drawing Acquisition Committee at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles.
Simon Brewer is an Associate Director at Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles.
P. Staff is a contemporary visual and performance artist.
Julia Yerger is an artist based in Los Angeles.
Olivier Babin is the founder of CLEARING (2011 – 2025).
Asari Aibangbee is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans filmmaking, fiber/textile art, and curation. They work between Oakland and Los Angeles.
Andrew Berardini is a writer, curator, and editor based in Los Angeles.
Jasmine McGlade is a writer, director, and multidisciplinary visual artist whose work spans film, sculpture, and painting.
