A.P.E. Ltd. Gallery presents WAVE/ SURGE / SPIKE, curated and exhibited by Amanda Maciuba, Jen Morris, and Jessica Tam. The extreme isolation of the past year provoked feelings of helplessness about COVID-19, natural disasters, and racial violence. In an attempt to contain what they perceive as uncontrollable, they use ecological language to create an embodied response for invisible phenomena like political currents or viruses. Politicians, the media – even everyday conversations – use these metaphors to create visceral reactions like fear, anxiety, or vindication in an audience. In WAVE / SURGE / SPIKE, Maciuba, Morris, and Tam question how these reactions are normalized through the use of language, and experiment with the metaphors that shape our public and private lives. 

For 365 days, Amanda Maciuba responded to collected data from news and weather headlines. The resulting installation and video work is a daily, in-the-moment response to the intersection of the political and natural environments reflected in the media. More images of work can be found here: amandamaciuba.com 

The word “bittersweet” evokes loss but also hope – however small – for what’s next. Jen Morris’s photographs depict the plant that shares the word “bittersweet” as its common name. Impenetrable walls of the invasive vine fill the frames of the images, beautiful yet awful at the same time. More images of work can be found here: jenmorris.com 

Jessica Tam’s paintings use the Chinese phrase “ren shan ren hai,” or a “human mountain” and “sea of humanity” to imagine the crowd as a torrential force that is potentially powerful in both threatening and uplifting ways. More images of work can be found here: jessicaJtam.com 

The exhibition is made possible with the generous support of the Massachusetts Cultural Council.