January 25 – March 7, 2024
1/25/2024 Opening Reception 5 – 6:30pm
2/8/2024 Artist Talk: 5p.m.
Relationships don’t finish, they change is a body of work comprising music videos, objects, and paintings that developed from six songs which were initially written for two different performances: Mountains (2022) and The Frontier (2023).
The songs were inspired by conversations with untrained performers who participated in those pieces, responding to my existential questions about longing, motivation, and purpose in the post-internet, transapocalyptic grind. These conversations shared a sense that people missed interdependency, connection to the practical tasks of physical survival, and nature.
I developed a series of choreographic music videos for the songs, thinking about the aesthetics of adjusting (an act of searching for comfort), and nostalgia as a haze-machine (that remembering the past as better interferes with making the present good).
I later translated the six titles — Death-bo-beath; Unsatisfied; I Got My Cult; Neon Purple Glow; Everything has already happened; Sub Song — into objects and paintings, thinking about tactile childhood memories of drawing with crayon on wooden furniture, and agreeing to believe in magical suggestions like Santa and safety.
Remember when we were orphans lost in the woods
Remember when you were the sick patient and I took care of you
Remember when you were the baby whale and I was the whale mother
Remember when I didn’t know if I’d ever recover
Remember when you told me Santa wasn’t real
Remember when I didn’t know how I wanted to feel
— from Sub Song.
This work was produced through generous support and collaboration with:
Cinematographer: Tristan Gellatly
Music producer / instrumental composition: Derick Evans
Production assistants: Carl Lee, Lauren Pullano, Lisa Brown Carosa
Performers: Alex Kerr, Bello Bello, Casey Sampson, Charlie Finan, Danny Gray, Devin Finan, Eve Johnstone, Gabriella Victoria, Jarrett Szymanski, Kayleah Aldrich, Lauren Lerner, Lydia Kegler, Meghan Arnold, Nicolee Jimenez, Natalie Hayes, Nolan Barry, Suzanna Vaupen, TD, Ülgen Kılıç, Zach Kushner, Zachary Nosbisch, Zander Raymond
Song book designer: Robert Rusch
Artist statement consultant: G. Wallace
Trailer consultant: Evan Ortolani
Bio
Kyla Kegler is a choreographer, visual artist and curator who makes paintings, songs, videos and performances that explore existential humor, power dynamics, and pleasure.
Kegler’s practice draws from her past work with Bread and Puppet Theater (Vermont) and as co-founder of the underground theater, “Zuhause” (Berlin). She received an MA in Solo/Dance/Authorship from the Art University of Berlin and an MFA in Studio Art from the University at Buffalo. Her past projects include: Feel Me, a multi-modal project exploring the mindfulness industry exhibited at Box gallery, Canisius College and Big Orbit; The House on Fire Show, a teen web-drama about the climate crisis screened at Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art; Mountains: a puppet soap opera performed at Artpark, Torn Space Theater, and Undercurrent Gallery (Brooklyn) and The Frontier, a performance about cults and community (2023). In addition to making her own work, Kegler runs Agatha's— an exhibition and performance space.