May 22, 2025
Nancy Baker Cahill
Seismic
Charlie James Gallery
April 12 - May 24, 2025
Nancy Baker Cahill
Nancy Baker Cahill is a Los Angeles based media artist known for her immersive installations, films, sculptures, digital photographs and technically complex augmented reality (AR) experiences. She came into prominence with 4th wall, an augmented reality public art platform that "geolocates dynamic visual content to enhance viewers perception of historic places or social situations via immersive art experiences." An illuminating aspect of Baker Cahill's practice is how seamlessly she flows between analogue and digital presentations. Though most of her work is rooted in digital technologies, not all of it requires hardware and software to view. On view at Charlie James Gallery are new printed and sculptural works from 2024-2025.
Concurrent with her exhibition at Charlie James Gallery is the presentation of Substrate on view at LACMA's Resnick Pavilion. Substrate is a work of art that can only be accessed by downloading the 4th wall app. When the Resnick Pavilion is viewed through the app, "interlocking trees with root systems and mycelial networks that produce essential nutrients for human health and well-being" appear to hover above it. Baker Cahill has also created AR installations at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Desert X, as well as the Francisco Carolinum Museum, in Linz, Austria.
In James' Chinatown Space, Baker Cahill presents Pia Maters, digital prints that combine two layers of imagery, one on silk and the other on canvas; Distortions, abstract collages that juxtapose static printed fragments from Baker Cahill's AR creations with drawn renderings and miscellaneous geometric shapes in a range of colors and textures. Also on view are Widows, a series of wall-based sculptures that cluster torn pieces of painted paper; and in the basement a large-scale installation and projection called Slipstream. It contains organically shaped fragments of ripped graphite on paper drawings that appear like arrays of feathers extending across the wall to become a living organism that ebbs and flows in sync with the different hues of an animated projection that maps to these sculptural forms.
On a modest-size screen is the short video Carbon 1 (the first in a series of six) which according to Baker Cahill explores themes of "ecological collapse, digital distortion, and cultural instability." Here, she films oscillating organically shaped expanses of green that echo a botanical landscape that suddenly morph into twisting flaming tornadoes. Images of water, as well as fire are interrupted by flickering pixels that eventually fill the screen to become digital noise signing for rampant environmental destruction.
Baker Cahill's intricate pieces examine topics ranging from scientific systems, ecological concepts, brain functionality, climate change to eco-feminism. She is a master at creating algorithms that recalibrate natural phenomena and transform them into vivid abstractions. From her experiments in VR Baker Cahill redefined how she visualized three-dimensional space and began to tear apart her drawings and fashion them into sculptures which became digital models for VR. The pieces entitled Widows are examples of this process — graphite drawings that become floral assemblages protruding from the wall and joining together in Slipstream they become static and dynamic forms simultaneously.
The seven works that comprise the series Pia Mater (the delicate innermost layer of membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord) combine two vibrant digital prints. Each piece is encased in custom armature where the background image — a pigment print on canvas — is overlaid with an identical image printed on silk. While there are subtle differences in the images because of the materials on which they are printed, they enter into a dialogue about the relationship between tenuous states of being and the delicate, as well as resilient nature of the brain. The imagery here, like in many of Baker Cahill's works, has a scientific aura with interlocking colorful planes that are at once atmospheric and dreamlike, as well as calling to mind geology.
In some ways the most compelling works on view are the simplest — Baker Cahill's Distortions. These intimate collages combine the different facets of her practice. Here, she cuts apart and reassembles fragments from drawings, AR generated imagery, as well as holographic paper. Though analog pieces, they evoke the more dynamic aspects of Baker Cahill's body of virtual works. The range of pieces in Seismic illustrate the breadth of Baker Cahill's practice. Although there are sophisticated algorithms and complex concepts that drive the work, it is a pleasure here to see the visual engulf the technological.
Seismic
Charlie James Gallery
April 12 - May 24, 2025
Nancy Baker Cahill
Nancy Baker Cahill is a Los Angeles based media artist known for her immersive installations, films, sculptures, digital photographs and technically complex augmented reality (AR) experiences. She came into prominence with 4th wall, an augmented reality public art platform that "geolocates dynamic visual content to enhance viewers perception of historic places or social situations via immersive art experiences." An illuminating aspect of Baker Cahill's practice is how seamlessly she flows between analogue and digital presentations. Though most of her work is rooted in digital technologies, not all of it requires hardware and software to view. On view at Charlie James Gallery are new printed and sculptural works from 2024-2025.
Concurrent with her exhibition at Charlie James Gallery is the presentation of Substrate on view at LACMA's Resnick Pavilion. Substrate is a work of art that can only be accessed by downloading the 4th wall app. When the Resnick Pavilion is viewed through the app, "interlocking trees with root systems and mycelial networks that produce essential nutrients for human health and well-being" appear to hover above it. Baker Cahill has also created AR installations at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Desert X, as well as the Francisco Carolinum Museum, in Linz, Austria.
In James' Chinatown Space, Baker Cahill presents Pia Maters, digital prints that combine two layers of imagery, one on silk and the other on canvas; Distortions, abstract collages that juxtapose static printed fragments from Baker Cahill's AR creations with drawn renderings and miscellaneous geometric shapes in a range of colors and textures. Also on view are Widows, a series of wall-based sculptures that cluster torn pieces of painted paper; and in the basement a large-scale installation and projection called Slipstream. It contains organically shaped fragments of ripped graphite on paper drawings that appear like arrays of feathers extending across the wall to become a living organism that ebbs and flows in sync with the different hues of an animated projection that maps to these sculptural forms.
On a modest-size screen is the short video Carbon 1 (the first in a series of six) which according to Baker Cahill explores themes of "ecological collapse, digital distortion, and cultural instability." Here, she films oscillating organically shaped expanses of green that echo a botanical landscape that suddenly morph into twisting flaming tornadoes. Images of water, as well as fire are interrupted by flickering pixels that eventually fill the screen to become digital noise signing for rampant environmental destruction.
Baker Cahill's intricate pieces examine topics ranging from scientific systems, ecological concepts, brain functionality, climate change to eco-feminism. She is a master at creating algorithms that recalibrate natural phenomena and transform them into vivid abstractions. From her experiments in VR Baker Cahill redefined how she visualized three-dimensional space and began to tear apart her drawings and fashion them into sculptures which became digital models for VR. The pieces entitled Widows are examples of this process — graphite drawings that become floral assemblages protruding from the wall and joining together in Slipstream they become static and dynamic forms simultaneously.
The seven works that comprise the series Pia Mater (the delicate innermost layer of membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord) combine two vibrant digital prints. Each piece is encased in custom armature where the background image — a pigment print on canvas — is overlaid with an identical image printed on silk. While there are subtle differences in the images because of the materials on which they are printed, they enter into a dialogue about the relationship between tenuous states of being and the delicate, as well as resilient nature of the brain. The imagery here, like in many of Baker Cahill's works, has a scientific aura with interlocking colorful planes that are at once atmospheric and dreamlike, as well as calling to mind geology.
In some ways the most compelling works on view are the simplest — Baker Cahill's Distortions. These intimate collages combine the different facets of her practice. Here, she cuts apart and reassembles fragments from drawings, AR generated imagery, as well as holographic paper. Though analog pieces, they evoke the more dynamic aspects of Baker Cahill's body of virtual works. The range of pieces in Seismic illustrate the breadth of Baker Cahill's practice. Although there are sophisticated algorithms and complex concepts that drive the work, it is a pleasure here to see the visual engulf the technological.