‘APOLOGY’ by Kata Mejía

The LAB Gallery Presents: Apology from TheLABGallery on Vimeo.

APOLOGY
Kata Mejía

We are pleased to announce Kata Mejía’s fifth show at The LAB (for installation + performance art).

APOLOGY, a performance installation, questions the meaning, effects and repercussions of both asking for, and being asked for forgiveness.  Through physical actions that transcend the spoken, written and felt qualities of an apology, the performance installation will focus on the idea that an apology cannot repair damage. “Receiving an apology may at times even cause a feeling of emptiness within those wronged.” explains Mejía.  The artist  will use her body to paint the gallery floor. Using a paint soaked thread to create winding, meandering traces in an abstract oval shape, she will use only her feet to pull her proned body and the thread backwards through the space. Mejía’s struggle to complete the action will reference the idea that an apology is a difficult journey for those who receive it as well as a weight laden with guilt for those who offer it. Furthermore, as the artist moves throughout the space the lines on the floor will build up causing past lines to become less intense and less significant, reflecting the way memory and possibly pain diminish with time.

Photo Montage  Kata Mejía is a performance artist with a background in painting and dance who lives and works in Philadelphia. She graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a Masters degree in Performance in 2004. She received her BFA from Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Medellin. She has been awarded several grants and scholarships, including the James Nelson Raymond Fellowship in 2004, the Trustee Scholarship from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, a Colombian Government Scholarship for Graduate Studies abroad, and a Graduate Studies Scholarship from Universidad Nacional de Colombia in 2002. Kata Mejía received a 2009 Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

http://thelabgallery.com/2011/10/apology/