Smiling Frown: Holy Room

PostScript is pleased to present Smiling Frown: Holy Room, featuring work by Mumbi O’Brien, curated by Phoebe Wang. In her first solo exhibition, O'Brien creates a meditative sanctuary for the head council of her Color Mythology. The exhibition opens with a night of worship and reflection, with the 6 color deities – Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple – in physical attendance.

What’s striking about Mumbi O’Brien’s Holy Room, is its lack of overt specificity.

Why are we in this room?

What are we supposed to do?

Who the fuck are these deities, and why are we worshipping them?

Despite their obvious differences, the ambiguity in the roles of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple allow them to exist together. There is something both liberating and troubling about our ignorance; and while O’Brien acknowledges a hierarchy among the color deities (some are marginalized, others are celebrated), we are not privy to that information.

O’Brien has spent seven years building her Color Mythology, from origin stories to social orders – yet she chooses to withhold such details from us. In doing so, she offers the gift of ambiguity. Or is it erasure? We don’t know how or why each deity is valued (or not) – and because of that, the deities do not exist as monoliths, purely one thing or another. They embody complexity, evolve in personality and meaning, while playing a role in something beyond themselves – something that in and of itself, is embedded with a contradiction:

Is a rainbow actually a frown?

The Holy Room is a space for stillness and introspection; a place to give and receive.

You are invited to come as you are.