Observing the patterns of the world
Mixed-media artist Lahana Palencia sees the world through math and relativity. A self-described “observer”, she finds pleasure in unnoticed details and organic versus logical thought. Her latest show will feature her love of platonic solids.
For those with an aversion to math, there are five platonic solids: the tetrahedron, with four triangular faces; the cube, with six square faces; the octahedron, with eight triangular faces; the dodecahedron, with 12 pentagonal faces; and the icosahedron, with 20 triangular faces.
Palencia cites the book “The Flatland”, which takes place in a two-dimensional world.
“It got me thinking, “What would it be like to only see two dimensions?” she says.
It’s a question she has been exploring since growing up in Maine, one that probably influenced her collecting vinyl records.
Born and raised in Pittsfield, Maine, Palencia moved to Portland, Maine to escape a small town she compares to the movie Footloose.
“Growing up, I felt alienated in Pittsfield,” she says. “And I know every teenager is going to feel angst, but no one looked like me in this small town.”
The daughter of Venezuelan and Caucasian parents, Palencia thought she was going to become a vocalist, but some health problems held her back.
“I was obsessed with singing jazz but then I started having these crazy seizures,” she says.
She ended up enrolling at Southern Maine Community College, while working and taking classes at Maine College of Art, where she learned most of her printmaking skills. She graduated with an associate’s degree in liberal studies and became a member at the artist collective Running With Scissors.
Vinyl records and math were the theme for one of her first showsm “33’s in Threes”.
“I asked myself what made the vinyl record what it was and realized it consisted of several different components,” she says on her website. “It spun at 33 & 1/3 reps per minute, measured 12 inches in diameter, and could play up to 22 minutes of a recording.”
And here’s where the relativity comes in to play.
“If one of those values changed, the other two would have to change as well in order for the recording to maintain its integrity,” she continues.
She wanted to create a series that shared a recognizable uniformity while still allowing each piece to have its own unique beauty.
“33s in Threes” was a perfect name for the series for its sense of uniformity through the number three. There are three different patterns, each pattern is based on a different special triangle, and each consists of three prints for a total of nine.
The series is now being shown in a hip gallery in Rockville, Maryland, and was so popular it was recently extended.
Palencia built up her contacts and made friends at the Maine College of Art, where she also she responded to a lot of artist’s calls and submitted applications “to a lot of crazy residencies.”
It ultimately led her to Morocco for a month in February, where she completed a residency at Green Olive Arts in Tetouan.
She remembers one time wandering around some winding city streets in the white-washed town when a small boy approached her and led her to one of the local restaurants.
“It was probably not the smartest idea because I didn’t know what was going to happen,” she says. “I didn’t know if I was going to be killed or what.”
Turns out her fears were eased when she realized the boy was just leading her to a place where they waited on her and hand and foot.
“I didn’t want to come back,” she laughs. “It felt like I was in Aladdin. I get Arabic culture.”
But like a genie on a flying carpet, she did return to the states when Aaron Cowan of ARC awarded her a short-term artist residency (S.T.A.R.) her in town.
“I kept bugging him,” she says talking about Cowan. “I just wanted to come back (to Chattanooga) to visit my friends.”
Since she set up shop in the Scenic City, she has presented a sideshow slideshow at StoveWorks, where a little stage fright has helped her with her work.
“Even when I get positive reinforcement or reviews or some say, ‘That’s cool, I like it,’ I might not like it because I don’t understand it,” she says of some of her work.
She is still adjusting to a slower pace of life in the south.
“I need to get used to how chill it is here,” she says. “There is no urgency. My mom always used to say to me, ‘Your mind never quits reeling.’”
Her work will be on display August 30th at Frequency Arts Gallery at 516 Tremont Street.