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Eileen Quinlan
Wed, Nov 14, 10:00 AM (5 days ago)
to tamar
hey tamar.
i’m not ready to fully write a press release, but i thought i’d ramble a bit to help us get started. what you think??
x e.

tamar halpern and eileen quinlan are close friends and collaborators. their shared work exists at the intersection of photography and painting. this is their first exhibition as conversation, Bitch-es Talkin. Working back and forth with their “signature” imagery, processes, and materials, eileen & tamar (ET) look to trouble questions of authorship by dressing up in the other’s clothes. patron saints of a sort (such as miss havisham) animate an expanded field where lifestyle, mortality, and agency are explored through tactile encounters with paper, silk, canvas, chemistry, technology, ink, and glass. In a time of draining grim tidings, ET channel new energy through transgressive, playful recycling where mediums, messaging, and artistic identities merge and collapse.
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tamar halpern
Fri, Nov 16, 6:59 PM (3 days ago)
to Eileen Quinlan
In response...
Friendship
A shared experience.
An exchange, a conversation
Shared energy.... Giving and receiving of energy
Me, myself, and I becomes us, ours. Disintegration of self.
Not halloween but...switching of bodies.

Tamar Halpern
1:55 PM (5 hours ago)
to Eileen Quinlan
Hey...
you and I have known each other for ever.... I think of you as family. We visit each others studios all the time, support one
another, love one another. Watched each others practice develop. However, by actually working with you, collaborating.... You mention in your email below “ eileen & tamar (ET) look to trouble questions of authorship by dressing up in the other’s clothes. “ its true, by actually collaborating w you I’ve learned more about your day to day practice, the steps you work thru to develop some of your work, what your habits are, your daily schedule is like... even a deeper understanding of your thinking.
Ahhhhh.... I was thinking of this note I wrote earlier of : SHARED EXPERIENCE. I’ve been meditating lately, since this summer. Its a new thang. One of the lessons is to let go of the I. And to accept being a part of a shared experience. That the narrative in reality isn’t only about me. This collaboration in a funny way is just that.
My thoughts traveled to our social time in the world... politics, nationally and globally. How truly to understand someone else I get the feeling that one has to live as the other person to get an understanding. Reading and watching... listening... isn’t enough. If we can somehow let go of the ME and the I, and accept that in truth its a WE.... To collaborate perhaps would bring better understanding. I am excited and nourished by our collaboration especially because of these difficult global times....
I thank you for it. I look forward to the development of ET’s practice and vision.
xx
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Eileen Quinlan
Mon, Nov 19 18:38 PM
to tamar
hey tamar. i’m tired. what we’ve done for this show feels like a beginning, which is why i’m reluctant to limit it with these words. there are so many questions when it comes to working together. practical ones like what do we call this? what do we call us? is some of this work mine? is some of it yours? should all of it be ours? where does appropriation end and collaboration begin? is it always a little bit of both? and i’m not even mentioning what it’s about. we both know miss havishams, in their crumbling environs. we both think about play and percussivity in art. we toggle between abstraction and figuration, surface and substance. we love fashion theatrics and code mixing. our natural inclination is to dress like twelve year old boys. we are the youngest in our families. we lost our fathers young. we went to school together. we are ET.

ET
Tamar Halpern
Eileen Quinlan

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