David Brody's '8 Ecstasies' Installation at The Boiler Features Animation, Sculpture, and Soundtrack

David Brody presented '8 Ecstasies' at The Boiler, Pierogi Gallery's project space in Brooklyn from May 16 to July 6, 2014. The multimedia exhibition centered on an animated film inspired by St. Teresa of Ávila's writings, featuring a soundtrack by experimental video artist Zig Gron. Gron, who worked on The Matrix films, created original music that synchronized with Brody's animation, where flat lines and three-dimensional ridges moved in uncanny correspondence. The installation included time-lapse animations of Brody's drawings projected high on a brick wall, with the drawings themselves available in a foyer area. These drawings, printed in editions of 15, came on a thumb-drive inserted into their frame along with a video of the drawing process. An untitled orange-red ziggurat sculpture suspended from the ceiling and veiled in bubble wrap added an apparitional impact to the show. A newsprint catalogue featured text by Nick Flynn titled '[salvaged process notes for david brody’s 8 ecstasies]', which functioned as a stand-alone poem based on Brody's notes. Brody and Gron first met as students at CalArts in the 1980s. The exhibition demonstrated Brody's exploration of moving drawings and the interplay between sound and image, marking a departure from his primary focus on paintings.