`   Beginning at disorientation, displacement, discomfort, distance, even disenchantment… I ask how the intimacy of a compassionate scrutiny—even when it is not elegant—can lead us to deepening truths. Giving shape to this question, the exhibition seeks to think with you about the worlds we commit to. Each of these artists knows a specific mode of negotiating their existence, and here I envision abandoning proof so we may point towards that far away possibility of joyful ongoing negotiation between all of our relationships, a process of learning how to connect our shapes and create impressions on each others surfaces, how we push each other to adapt and take shared forms in exercises of a sovereignty that is relational.

      Friction as a fertilizer is an unassuming treasure. The friction between our foreheads in a promise,  your words when you protect, feet at the different layers of ground, or our familiar paths and the chafing reminder of change. Resistance generates countless gifts and there is space, or we will learn to make it, for all of our pluralities.

You Say You Love Me and I Commit to Friction brought together six Minnesota artists whose works connect through themes of sculptural + bodily orientations to space, sovereignty, and disorientation as a futurism. The exhibition was presented as a part of Public Functionary’s exhibition program September 7-28, 2024.

Participating artists: Ifrah Mansour, Nat Kim, Nailah Taman, Delaney Keshena, Cameron Patricia Downey, Baki Baki Baki

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