The hollow trickster upended, dangling animated in perpetuity wants harvesting. Three Fates: the Spinner, the Snipper, and the Harpy, weave her hair into a storied tapestry of her psychic/filmic roles: Coyote/Collector of Bones, Geppetto/Pinocchio, and the Farmer/Cow.
Accosted by scale, the trickster is unbridled, nothing can hold her. The puppet is puppeteer. When playfulness disappears, what is left to follow? To be fallowed?
Film stills, demons, abstracted casts of cryptic anatomy. If recording – caught, suspended, copied faithfully – is the trickster’s domain, who processes the film? When she makes a painting, who constructs the frame?
Lust ridden lies the terrain. Quickening, the Lackeys close their fists, tightening their grip. Unsparing, the camera, busted, continues to roll. Geppetto gives birth to herself as Pinocchio. Trauma cooks the soup of steel and lace. Rubbings reveal the markings on her grave.
Let down your hair so I can tell my story now.
— Z Behl, January 2025
Installation still of "Portrait of the Artist as a Filmmaker" at Pamela Salisbury's Carriage House (3rd Floor)
Installation still of "Portrait of the Artist as a Filmmaker" at Pamela Salisbury's Carriage House (3rd Floor), Alternate View
Graphite on Paper: Architectural Rendering of "Portrait of the Artist as a Filmmaker," as designed for and installed in Pamela Salisbury's 4 Story Carriage House
The centerpiece of Behl’s multimedia exhibition, Stand in My Danger, is a giant sculpture of a lace-clad metal harlequin suspended upside-down in the elevator shaft of the gallery’s turn-of-the-century Carriage House. The figure is accompanied by ten life-size sculptures of tricksters, fates, and old crones, fabricated from concrete, metal, and found materials.
Harpy, Concrete, Steel and Resin, 50”x69”x42,” 2024
Installation View: First Floor; The Head of the Giantess features hair made from 16mm film and vintage lace, woven into a tapestry by 3 Fates
“…Combining the thrill of a rowdy circus-show infused with frisky vaudeville charm and a magical Burning Man-meets-Bread and Puppet edge, “Z Behl: Stand in My Danger” at Pamela Salisbury Gallery is a dynamic aesthetic riot that rips through the psyche and nourishes the soul. With notions of anthropomorphism and “identity as transgression” as playful conceptual threads running through the work, this ambitious solo show features 45 recent artworks by Behl (and her collaborator Kim Moloney, who together go by BALONEY), including installation, videos, sculptures, and paintings…”
- Taliesin Thomas, CHRONOGRAM