“Knows for a Nose” This Sunday, May 18, 6pm - 8pm, Maccabee Shelley is leading an instructional workshop on how to create and use silicone molds using readily available and relatively affordable silicone caulk. All for the fair (free) price of making an alginate [non-toxic] mold of your nose on-site at the gallery. (Demos will be performed on a rolling-basis throughout the timeframe—but be aware that you will need to wait for around 45-minutes for the silicone to cure.) Anyone who would like to participate should email the gallery (gallery@reisigandtaylorcontemporary.com) or signup via this Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/knows-for-a-nose-silicone-mold-making-workshop-with-maccabee-shelley-tickets-1364747028099?aff=oddtdtcreator *Guide for Silicone Mold-Making Workshop with Maccabee Shelley: + Materials are provided at the gallery; however, you will need to: --Bring: an object “of value” that fits in your hand. The value is, ideally, valuable in a way which is unique to your relationship with the object, sentimental or otherwise. --Exchange: an alginate mold of your nose as the “cost of admission” into the workshop. (Maccabee is, quite emphatically, serious about this aspect.) This is the cost of admission. You will be able to keep the alginate mold (of your nose) and the (and whatever you make with it). Maccabee is only keeping a cast from the mold. This is as much an experiment with “value” as an instructional “workshop.” [Disclaimer: Maccabee plans on incorporating the noses into future works that combine objects and human or animistic traits. (You can see examples of this way of working with the Got your nose! (2025) series of works included in the current exhibition.) He will not associate your identity directly to the resulting cast; instead, he will assign a number to each nose, and ask the nose-lender to write whatever attribution they would like the nose to receive if it is incorporated into future works. By agreeing to give-up your nose you are giving him permission to use its likeness for artistic purposes.] …. << Noses on statues, particularly in ancient Egyptian art, are often broken off due to vandalism and religious or political motivations. Ancient Egyptians believed that statues could be imbued with a spirit or soul, and removing the nose was seen as a way to "kill" the spirit by disrupting its ability to breathe. This act of iconoclasm was also used to disrupt the power associated with the statue. >> (—Maccabee) _ _ The Merchant of West Adams He’s been here for weeks—since he wandered to town with a suitcase full of hats and lighters. At first, only dentists, who were of common trade, could understand why this was necessary. They took him in as one of their own. They called him by his name. But they never named him so he calls himself “mnŋ.” Though, by then, everyone knew him by his barter: “Knows for a Nose.” If you wanted to learn the art of silicone mold-making, you had to pay a peculiar price: a mold of your own nose. “No Nose, No Knows,” he’d say, tapping his temple and then your nose. People came, curious and eager. They sat patiently while their nostrils were cast in goo, flaring slightly as the mix hardened. He kept each nose on a wall in his mobile workshop, a treasured gallery of traits—aquiline, crooked, pert, noble, stippled(, freckled). Tiny and tall, hugely small. But when he left town, so did all the noses. Except for the noses he made molds of—and except for those five men who grew identical moles overnight (well, there was nothing left but the same exact mole: five times, in a manly way). But when the noses disappeared the people did too. Or at least nobody could remember them because they didn’t know what they looked like. But it’s obvious they didn’t die—and even more obvious that they were still there—because three people kept saying they heard their own noses whisper, “He knows now, his nose now.” __________________________________________________ Born in Los Angeles, Maccabee Shelley studied environmental and Earth sciences before earning degrees in studio art and ceramics. Intrigued by the perception and projection of value and obsolescence, Maccabee translates refuse through various materials and processes exploring the space between object, image, and experience. Works by Maccabee have recently been exhibited in: spleen iiiii (Reisig and Taylor Contemporary: Los Angeles, California); Junque Show (Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, California); Power of Ten (Steve Turner: Los Angeles, California); as well as numerous other group shows and projects in Los Angeles and Northern California (where he currently lives and works). In 2019, he received an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles. {Biographical information courtesy of the artist.} __ 04/19/2025 - 05/24/2025 Reisig and Taylor Contemporary (Los Angeles) is presenting the debut solo exhibition of Maccabee Shelley: the middle of the end. The presentation includes 21 kiln cast glass works produced through lost wax casting methods. Shelley works-through experimental techniques at each phase of the process: scavenging (finding), molding, sculpting, firing/casting, and finishing. Most of the works (or their parts) are initially or partially formed through molds made from found or disused (obsolete) technological objects. However, the pieces are reworked at each stage of the process, with each step being its own momentary sculptural process offering unique ways of transforming the forms and the materials. The exhibited works display a combination of commercially-available and post-consumer types of glass that yield distinct colors, consistencies, and irregularities. Many of the works also include the metallic and ceramic electrical components that were inside the ‘original’ objects. These bits of metal and ceramic also contribute to the colors and consistencies of the cast glass sculptures: ranging from blue-greens to deep, vibrant reds that run-through the works.