Amanda Ross-Ho: ICE TIME
August 25 – october 28, 2023
ILY2
925 NW Flanders St.
Portland, OR 97209, USA
ILY2 is honored to present ICE TIME, a solo exhibition of new works by Amanda Ross-Ho. Presented in conjunction with Converge 45’s 2023 biennial program, Social Forms: Art as Global Citizenship, Ross-Ho’s exhibition draws upon her formative years as a competitive and theatrical figure skater in the 80s and 90s.
Boot Covers, 2023Capezio Professional Fishnet Seamless Tight
(Toasted Almond), Air Force Ones14 x 22 x 1.5 inches
Using this as a formal departure point and a tracking device, ICE TIME outlines parallels between the variable logics of arenas that present, record, accumulate and erase gestures (rink, tabletop, studio, gallery). Skins, surfaces and corporeal forms are explored for their response to pressurized and formulaic systems of training and inscription. The body is invoked as a tool, a material, a witness, and a unit of collateral damage.
Time is both subject and a direct material in Ross-Ho’s work. ‘Ice time’ is a practical term describing a unit of measurement for temporal access to an ice-skating rink. Clocking hours on the ice and on the body quantifies an investment into transformation. The words “ice” and “time” also invoke the slowness of deep geological or archaeological time, ice itself suggesting the cadence of arrested form, preservation, or transformation between states. Repetition is an index that archives the passing of time and an operation that informs memory and choreography.
ICE TIME Installation view. Courtesy of ILY2
For ICE TIME, Ross-Ho specifically focuses on muscle memory, drawing on a repetition of figures that condition and form both body and subject. The gallery becomes an extension of the body as a container for both authentic gesture and stagecraft, populated with surrogate artifacts shaped by a corrupted link to the past.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Ross-Ho will present a performance at the Lloyd Center Mall Ice Rink, notoriously the rink where the tragic figure Tonya Harding learned to skate. The performance, Untitled Figure (THE CENTER OF IT ALL), at the Lloyd Center Mall Ice Rink will take place Friday, August 25 at 11 am, followed by a reception and free skate, sponsored by ILY2, from 12 to 1 pm. Admission is free and open to the public. Ross-Ho’s performance is presented in conjunction with the opening weekend of the Converge 45 2023 biennial program, Social Forms: Art as Global Citizenship.
©2023 Amanda Ross-Ho
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