Narcissister: Albert's Paintings, Rachel's Dress

Margot Samel is pleased to present _Albert's Paintings, Rachel's Dress,_ a solo exhibition by Narcissister. Continuing her work with kinetic sculpture, Narcissister fills the gallery space with her latest chain-reaction machine and activates it with solo performance interventions. Embedded in the work are seascape paintings by Abraham "Albert" Benzaquen, the artist's late uncle, an immigrant from Morocco, who sold his works on the Sheepshead Bay waterfront in Brooklyn. By fusing her current work with these pieces of family history, Narcissister gives physical form to the otherwise intangible experience of memory and return—a shifting landscape where the past is actively rebuilt in the present. Albert's seascapes appear as sites of transition and dislocation, just as immigrant family histories toggle between the recognizable public milestones of assimilation and the often unwritten, quiet traumas of displacement. This cross-generational encounter with Albert's work continues Narcissister's collaboration with her family and her family's past, most notably documented in the artist's 2018 film, _Organ Player._ Narcissister approaches the family archive not as a stable record, but as something that can be set in motion and made to speak differently in the present. Her performances in the gallery will stage a literal mechanical and physical chain reaction in tribute to the ways families and artists make and transmit meaning. In Narcissister's presence, the thump and clang of the machine, paired with her silent, masked figure, interrupt and extend the undulating flow of Albert's painted seas to create a newly punctuated sense of migratory memory. Still images acquire a rhythm; inherited objects become active participants in the telling of their own histories. With legs spread and identity muted, Narcissister gives birth to the past. Her fleshly performance enters into tension with the quiet surface of Albert's paintings, collapsing the distance between archival gathering and embodied memory. _Albert's Paintings, Rachel's Dress_ leaves the gaps within family history unresolved, allowing what has been inherited to remain alive to transformation. Performance dates and booking information will be announced later this month.