Laima LEYTON: Infinite Past, Infinite Future and NOW

11 January 2021 - 26 March 2022

  • Amelia

    On Hannah Arendt: the conquest of space

    15 February - 26 march 2022

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    To accompany Richard Saltoun Gallery's 'On Hannah Arendt: Eight Proposals for Exhibition', Laima draws on her multifaceted identity as a producer, musician, activist, artist, mother and teacher to create eight unique sound pieces in response to each exhibition in the programme and each chapter in Arendt's book. Titled collectively as Infinite past, infinite future and NOW, the works together engage with themes of time, culture, truth and spirituality.

     

     
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    Hello, hello, are you there? 
    Can you hear me?
    I've lost connection.
    Amelia, please turn off the lights.
    This is the mind, the mind that will decide.
    This is the mind, the artificial mind that will decide.
    I've lost connection.
    The sun moves every day, but really, we rotate, the sun stays.
    This is the mind, the artificial mind that will decide.
    Amelia, can you turn off the lights.
    And maybe we will merge, in the
    meta...
    meta...
    meta..
    metaphysical realm.
  • For this piece, I've let the machine flow. What if the machines could decide? I insist for Amelia (AI) take...

    For this piece, I've let the machine flow. What if the machines could decide? I insist for Amelia (AI) take me back to darkness, where we humans could merge in a metaphysical realm. 

     

     
  • Rooted in the São Paulo contemporary art scene, Laima's credentials in the world of music are firmly established as one...

    Performance at Richard Saltoun Gallery. Photo by Babycakes Romero.

    Rooted in the São Paulo contemporary art scene, Laima's credentials in the world of music are firmly established as one half of Mixhell alongside her husband Igor Cavalera and for her work with Soulwax. Her last work ‘Home’ is a conceptual double album released by DEEWEE in collaboration with The Vinyl Factory that revolves around the themes of routine, power, life and death. She has performed her music in people’s own homes, creating intimate spaces for audiences to reflect upon themselves, including a performance at Richard Saltoun Gallery in early 2020.  In 2021, Laima will explore opportunities where the audience can experience sound as a reflective and healing tool.

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  • FALLING

    'On Hannah Arendt: Truth and Politics'

    1 December 2021 - 5 February 2022 

  • Lies have always been a tool for Politics, often used to deceive the enemy. In the modern world, lies become a tool to build a false image. We lose ground, the lack of truth. All that is left is our wander around so we can develop our own opinions. Meanwhile, the truthtellers are endangered, flying above us all. 

  • THIS IS

    'On Hannah Arendt: The Crisis in Culture'

    28 September - 13 November 2021 

  • "This Is" refers to Culture as a collective consciousness cultivated by humans and nature. It is non-consumable, it is long-lasting. Above us, Culture should be available for all, but it is not. Loneliness and misinformation lead the majority to entertainment.

  • EVERYTHING GROWS FROM DARKNESS

    'On Hannah Arendt: The Crisis in Education'

    10 August - 18 September 2021 

  • "Everything that lives emerges from the darkness and (...) needs the security of darkness to grow at all" - Hannah Arendt. Be it the womb or the soil; darkness is the state of being of growth. In "Everything Grows from Darkness", Laima is inspired by holding and keeping the telluric realm to allow expansion, while the outside world repeats its patterns, where nothing is new, disease of repeat. 

  • We ARE HERE

    'On Hannah Arendt: What is Freedom?'

    15 June - 24 July 2021

  • We Are Here is Laima's fanfare response to Hannah Arendt's essay 'What is Freedom?’. 

     

    "We Are Here" is about being present for each other, being listened to, and listening to others. The music acts as a loop, resonating in one's mind. Is it the search for inner freedom or the assurance of outer freedom?"

  • NO PILOT

    'On Hannah Arendt: What is Authority?'

    26 April - 6 June 2021

  • No Pilot is Laima's fanfare response to Hannah Arendt's essay 'What Is Authority?'. 

     

    Authority is necessary but "authority" has been lost. What happens when there is no pilot? Maybe we drown, maybe we fall, maybe we find freedom. Rules are constituted to protect us all, but even then, is justice really made?

  • AMNESIA

    'On Hannah Arendt: The Concept of History'

    18 March - 16 April 2021

  • In the Ancient World, extraordinary events defined history with impartiality, clarity and objectivity. The shift of the Modern Age sealed history as a human-made process, where man's actions are processes that have an impact on the world, thus defining history.  Amnesia is about which actions have we been learning? Who are the humans that “make history”? Who are the humans that “make nature”? Who are the forgotten humans in this process?  Although history and music seem linear in time and space, I find that the beauty is that they transcend time and space into a non-linear existence connecting with memory and remembrance. Amnesia (αμνησία) and Hysteria (υστερία) are Ancient Greek words that I use to play with language and sounds, inciting the power of memory and its lack.

  • Lack Of

    'On Hannah Arendt: The Modern Age'

    11 January – 26 February 2021

  • Lack of is a dreamy and meditative piece inspired by the idea that science unsettles truth since it is based on doubt and mistrust. Without passing judgement on this idea, Lack of ponders the losses and gains of this ‘lack of tradition’ or ‘lack of truth’ and suggests that, ultimately, the truth sits inside each one of us.