Base 10: Kodama

Lindsey Muscato + Joshua Friedman

Artist reception | Saturday, May 7, 2022 | 4–7 pm

Themes+Projects gallery presents Kodama by Los Angeles-based artists, Lindsey Muscato and Joshua Friedman, under the collaborative alias of Base 10.

The word kodama can be loosely translated from its roots in Japanese folklore as "the spirits of the trees." Throughout these half-dozen works, the natural properties of the wood that defines them are explored with reverence. Timbers are sawn, chiseled, joined, and finished with yakisugi surface-burning, and finally further blackened with an alchemical patination. This darkening of the wood reveals natural texture and grain in stark relief, at times making the commonplace material strikingly unfamiliar in quality and character.

Made entirely without glue or fasteners, the exposed joints that are inherent to the works’ construction also become the pieces’ subject. The vertical and horizontal elements of everyday furniture surfaces are explored in simultaneously exaggerated and minimal nodes of connection.

Throughout the series, Kodama engages with the meeting points of craft object and art object, function and beauty, tradition and permutation.

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