Samara Golden: If Earth Is the Brain Then Where Is the Body

Plunging the reader into the aquatic world of Golden's recent dazzling mirrored environment

Published with Nasher Sculpture Center.

For nearly 15 years, American artist Samara Golden (born 1973) has confounded viewers with her extraordinary and disorienting environments. Using mirrors to create the impression of vast spaces, which she populates with handmade figures and objects, Golden presents installations that can range from seemingly chaotic to quietly seething. if earth is the brain then where is the body commemorates her 2024 eponymous exhibition at the Nasher Sculpture Center, for which Golden conjured a rippling, glistening body of water, filled with aquatic life alongside human figures and their detritus. Encompassing the fetid as well as the paradisial, her piece became a place where memories, emotions, and thoughts converge in possibilities including the oceanic reaches of the unconscious. This volume invites the reader into Golden's world, offering vibrant, detailed photographs, taken by the artist, alongside a wide-ranging, evocative essay by curator Catherine Craft.