“I anticipate the unseen side of the lamp because I can touch it. . .
 Perception does not give me truths like geometry, it gives me presences. The
  hidden side of an object is present, it is in my vicinity. It is not just a
                  needs to be considered when perceiving. . .
  sensory experience of an element it is the whole setting (l’entrouage) that
          The unseen sides of objects are possible and are present.”
              (Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Primacy of Perception)

The familiar in the built environment is often unseen, unnoticed. The effects
of making the familiar strange may shift what Merleau-Ponty describes—this
sense we have of the unseen sides of the objects populating our world. In
Orr’s sculptures, this shift is ultimately pleasurable as Orr dotingly attends
to the typically unnoticed. Creating “different perceptual scenarios,” Orr
pinpoints a felt potential that exists but is not seen, one that is suggested
by all the other visible parts of the object and by the form of the object
itself.

Time-based and lyrical, the process of composing these works is reminiscent of
Orr’s video editing practice. Using intuition and precise construction, these
objects give way to patterns. These patterns, like measures, are musical—each
proposes their own pacing. To this effect, Orr refers to the louvered pieces
as “measures” and calls the aluminum and glass works “rests.” We fall into our
own patterns of movement when facing these objects. An idiosyncratic rise and
fall between meaning and no meaning, pleasure and pleasure’s tension, story
and no story, abstraction and figuration. 

Elizabeth Orr (*1984, Los Angeles, CA, USA) Orr’s work has shown
internationally including recent solo exhibitions: “Spirits in Rotations,”
RPFA, Los Angeles, CA, 2020, “Vivid” Pylon, Dresden, NY, 2018, “Our Hallway is
Surrounded,” Bodega, NY, NY, 2017. She has given talks at institutions
internationally including Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA,
2018, Bard College, 2018, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, Stedelijk Museum,
Amsterdam, NL, 2017, Triangle Art Association, NY, NY, 2016, Swiss Institute,
New York, NY, 2016, and Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 2017. 
Her videos have screened with Art in General, NY, NY 2018, Caro Sposo, Paris, FR, 2018, Tranzit Display, Prague, CZ, 2018, Santarcangelo Festival, Santarcangelo di Romagna, Italy, 2017, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, Georgia, 2015. Her video works have been commissioned by The Harvard Carpenter Center, Cambridge, MA, and MOCAtv, Los Angeles, CA.
In 2018 she received a Public Affairs Grant Program, from the US Embassy and in 2016 she won the MAAF NYC award for her video MT RUSH (2016). She has taken part in various residency programs including EMPAC, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY) Shandaken (New York), Bemis Center (Omaha, Nebraska), Real Time & Space (Oakland, CA), and Recess (NY, NY).
Orr manages the estate of her late father, artist Eric Orr (1939-1998) and is on the board of KAJE, Brooklyn, NY. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and graduated from the Bard MFA program with Honors in 2015.