For Frieze LA 2026, Dreamsong presents new work by Brooklyn-based artist Tamar Ettun (b. 1982) that expand on the artist’s practice through scientific collaborations and research into ancient healing rituals. Adapting the visual language inscribed on Babylonian incantation bowls used by artist-healers to trap demons, Ettun’s project conceptually centers and revamps the figure of Lilith, who was historically viewed as a demonic threat to women’s reproductive health.
For a series of new assemblages developed in collaboration with embryologist Yong Hyun Song, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, Ettun UV printed groundbreaking images of embryos, which hold significant potential for IVF treatment, on transparent Plexiglas. The enigmatic, pixelated images were made with a novel microscopy method and appear abstracted, like telescopic images of the cosmos. The images are layered over hand-dyed and stitched sailcloth collages embellished with syringes, matches and sewing pins.
Mother of Otherness, a significant new soft sculpture referencing both Niki de Saint Phalle’s seminal Hon – en katedral (1966) and Ana Mendieta’s exploration of the ritual body and metaphoric womb, is also central to the presentation. Developed during Ettun’s 2025-2026 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, Mother of Otherness is a life-sized soft sculpture that incorporates hand-dyed fabric, ceramic and found objects.
Backgrounded by artist-designed wallpaper, Ettun’s materially peripatetic presentation channels both personal history and ancient ritual practice in works that address gender-based oppression. In the wake of widespread violations of bodily autonomy, compounded by cuts to scientific research funding and consistently low funding for women's and reproductive health, this work weaves together materials and ideas from the ancient to the contemporary.
