On View | Origin Story - Marie Heléne Boone

• Saturday, Oct 23, 2021  6-9pm
• Fri, Oct 8, 2021 - Sat, Jan 8, 2022  On view from 9-5, Mon-Sat

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Marie Heléne Boone
Origin Story

TANK Space at Spring Street Studios
1824 Spring Houston, TX 77007
On view from October 8, 2021 - January 8, 2022

Opening reception October 23, 2021, 6pm - 9pm

“Living matter is the most powerful geological force.” - Vladimir Vernadsky

In “Origins Story,” Brooklyn based artist Marie Heléne Boone does an extensive excavation through the past, exploring primordial earth and the origins of life itself. In this exhibition,  Boone installs an architectural column in the center of Tank Space which performs as a  fossilized vessel for the contents within. Enclosed within this pillar is one of the first living  organisms on earth; the cyanobacteria.  

Billions of years ago earth was a hostile environment, however when cyanobacteria began  populating the oceans, they produced oxygen as a waste byproduct resulting in a dramatic  atmospheric alteration— forming life as we know it today. The cyanobacteria has survived  through these eons by using symbiosis, where a cell merges with another cell in a way that  helps both survive.  

By starting with the genesis of earthly existence, Boone uses the past atmospheric narrative of  the cyanobacteria as a reflection to contemporary cultural and environmental events humanity  faces today.  

Suspended above the sculpture are valves of iron oxide acting as veins to the structure. Iron is  a key food source for Cyanobacteria, giving life to the bacteria that gave us breath. Over the  course of the exhibition, the piece will be altered daily by the iron oxide seeping into the pillar’s  surface, creating a visual of weathering change. The viewers of the installation become  spectators of its evolutionary progression. 

Boone uses the blue pigmented cyanobacteria as an artistic medium and point of reflection on  how humans aren’t the first organisms to cause a complete environmental shift on Earth, only  the first ones to be aware of the changes being caused by their actions. This exhibition takes  an objective perspective on life by using a cosmic timescale, viewing consciousness not as  something that happens on a planet, but something that happens to a planet.  

Working at the intersection of art, science, and philosophy, Marie Heléne Boone delves into the  realm of materiality in the built environment; using the tangible and speculative world as a basis  to imagine how life began and where it is headed. Boone deconstructs sculpture into a  simplified connotation, using Aristotle’s theory Hylomorphism which proposes that all objects  are a combination of matter and form. However, through Boone’s process of simplification,  deep hidden complexities emerge.  

Marie Heléne Boone (b. 1995, Houston, TX) lives and works in New York City, NY. She briefly  studied Design in Houston, however, is mostly self taught. Solo exhibitions of her work have  been held at Kime Contemporary, Indianapolis, Indiana; Neighborhood Gallery, Dallas, Texas;  Studio Kura, Fukuoka, Japan. Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions  including, Public Gallery, London, UK; Bellevue Art Museum, Seattle, Washington; Gallerie  Benjamine Eck, Munch, Germany; Touba London, Paris, France. She has taken part in artist  residencies with Plop Residency, London, UK; Studio Kura, Fukuoka, Japan; Belmont Hotel,  Dallas, Texas. 

All exhibitions are free and open to the public Monday - Saturday 9 AM - 5 PM.