KNOTS
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Knots is a joint exhibition by artists Ann Latinovich and Eli Pla, who met across an ocean and a language barrier, and discovered something rare.
Introduced through a mutual friend for a different collaboration, their connection was immediate and unexpected. Before they ever spoke, they were already communicating through color, texture, and gesture. It was a language rooted in vision and form.
Without a shared spoken language, a different kind of listening emerged. It was a listening that happened with the eyes, body, and heart. Trust formed quickly, and deeply. Through their artwork, they had already encountered one another.
What followed was a slow and sacred unraveling. Ann and Eli began exchanging personal stories by email. What passed between them were stories held in the body, shaped by memory, and spoken with care, the kind rarely shared. Each had lived through experiences that were uncommon in their depth, and in one another, they found an unspoken understanding. They used translation tools, email, and the support of interpreters during their conversations. Yet the foundation of their connection was built visually. The act of sharing their artwork allowed them to recognize each other in ways that felt immediate, intuitive, and deeply human.
This exhibition is the result of that trust.
Knots is a portrait of relationship. It is a record of what becomes possible when two people choose to meet through presence, through creation, and through a visual language that arrived before spoken words.
The knots in this exhibition are not one thing. They are both entanglement and care. Each artist brought their own knots into the relationship, carried from memory, history, and personal experience. Through their creative exchange, these knots were offered and received with care. They were held, seen, and accepted as they are, with no need to be fixed or explained. In this way, knots became a shared language of presence. They trace what is carried, what is kept close, and what is willingly held for another. Sometimes they are tight or loose. Sometimes they ache or soften. In this work, they are always alive.
This exhibition explores what it means to be connected in the absence of certainty. It invites the viewer to consider:
What happens when art becomes the first language?
How do we create trust without shared words?
What threads hold us together when everything else is unknown?
Knots is a record of presence, of process, and of the quiet intimacy that becomes possible when we allow ourselves to be fully seen.
Exhibition: November 21 – December 14
T. MARI ART GALLERY
1023 N Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
Gallery Hours
Friday — Saturday
11:00am — 5pm
Sunday
12:00pm — 4pm