Photographed by Jonathan Vasata
Written by Anna Robertson
Philophobia is the persistent, irrational fear of love and intimacy.
Sulfur Studios hosted the collaborative exhibition, “Philophobia,” from Oct 19 – 21, with an opening reception on Oct. 20.
Sulfur was a perfect place to hold the exhibition. It is an intimate setting; a small room crammed with people. In juxtaposition with the theme of the exhibit, people were forced to touch others in order to see the work. In the back corner, past the photography and canvases, a stylized tree emerged from the walls, growing handwritten letters written by the artists to people that they had once loved.
After a short welcome speech by the curator, Adriana Guerra, a performance piece began. Everything went silent save for soft classical music. The performer, a young woman dressed in all white, came out. She played the part of a heartbroken woman searching for the tiny breadcrumbs—or in this case, pennies—of love that my be given in passing by people. She begged with a cardboard sign for love, as if the little pennies of kind words were what was keeping her alive.
Sasha van Schalkwyk, another exhibiting artist, used the ending of a long friendship as inspiration. Her piece, “Choking,” portrays two painted figures choking a smaller figure in the center. The toxic and emotionally abusive relationship lasted most of her life, she said, and this exhibit was a way to cope.
David Aguilera collaborated with Guerra, the event’s host, to create a series of photographs with models coping with their own romantic insecurities as well as their own self-consciousness. The photographs were attached to the wall with bandages. The models, like the artists, all wrote letters to their former partners.
One woman, Aguilera explained, wrote a letter to herself, vowing to love herself. When asked about how he felt about his work, he explained that this was something new that he had done. “I’m happy,” Aguilera said, “this is something with purpose . . . we are all insecure when it comes to love.” He said he was honored to show his personal insecurities.
Guerra was inspired to create this multimedia exhibition from personal experiences. She walked through the studio space, looking at the art like it was her child. She gestured to a piece with a bottle full of golden liquid on an altar, her former lover’s perfume. She explained she put her entire being into him. “I just wanted to please him,” she said.
She smiled happily at the four panels of trees with eyes for leaves. The trees represent growth, and the answers she was searching for in her depression after her relationship ended, she said, while the eyes represented the people that had been with her through her journey to find herself after the end of the relationship. The panels secretly spelled out “love.”
Guerra said that she realized she had to learn to love herself so that she could really be happy. She created this exhibition for the people who had experienced what she had, the passionate, but toxic love affair that had torn her away from the person she was. She now knows that she is not alone, and through “Philophobia,” she wanted to show others that they aren’t either.
