Emerson Dorsch is pleased to present Felecia Chizuko Carlisle: Matter is a Verb. For this solo exhibition, Carlisle builds on her background in conceptual and new media art to bring to us studies in the dynamism of seemingly inert elements.

Felecia Chizuko Carlisle: Matter is a Verb by Amelia Brown November, 2024 Emerson Dorsch is pleased to present Felecia Chizuko Carlisle: Matter is a Verb, opening Sunday, December 1, 2024, from 11 am to 4pm. For this solo exhibition Carlisle builds on her background in conceptual and new media art to bring to us studies in the dynamism of seemingly inert elements. On the heels of the completion of a 40-foot wide mosaic for Aventura’s Brightline station in 2023, Carlisle’s experimentation accessed an undercurrent of awareness. Here, she channels this into refined, bold and austere sculptures, photographs, and multimedia installations. The exhibition is on view at 5900 NW 2nd Avenue in Miami, Florida through February 1st. What follows is an essay by Amelia Brown introducing the show: Felecia Chizuko Carlisle’s solo exhibition, Matter is a Verb, at Emerson Dorsch, confronts us with the ontological paradox of material existence. Carlisle’s work resituates matter as a dynamic and constantly evolving process, as something “in the making” rather than “made.” In her exploration of the material world through the lens of science and art, Carlisle invites us to engage with the boundaries between the physical and the metaphysical, the solid and the liquid, the static and the moving. These physical properties are neither fixed nor immutable but are, in fact, always in the process of becoming. The exhibition’s title Matter is a Verb offers a conceptual challenge to understanding the relationship between being and becoming. “Matter,” when reimagined as a verb, becomes an act—an ongoing process of formation and transformation. It ceases to be an object and becomes an event, in constant flux, never fully realized. To speak of matter as a verb is to acknowledge its inherent instability, to refuse the notion that objects are ever truly fixed. It is this dynamic, performative conception of matter that comes alive in this exhibition. Here, materiality is not something we passively encounter, but something we actively participate in—shaped by our perceptions. Carlisle’s work challenges the divide between mind and body, subject and object, human agency, and natural forces. The materials Carlisle uses—paper, glass, wood, neon, and bison skin, are not inert substances. They are agents in their own right.