Bunker Projects is proud to present their inaugural Co-Residency show, Zoe + Lou’s debut two-person exhibition, Maybe We Can Rest Here. This is the coming-out exhibition for the two collaborators, who became both painters and musicians separately and have been collaborating since 2018. Arriving as co-residents, it’s evident that their interests are as different as they are the same. In their visual practices, they share an affinity for vibrant yellows, blues, oranges, pinks and greens. In both bodies of work the artists interrogate their respective relationships to the environment, both physical and systemic. In their music, which they make collaboratively, you can feel the vibrancy from their paintings come through in their dancey bass lines, mouthwatering drum compositions and heavenly reverbs. Both practices will be exhibited in the show that opens on October 1st.

The show’s title, Maybe We Can Rest Here, is taken from the two collaborators’ own source text around an alternate universe where the conception of time is built around practicing both music and painting. Scruggs and Tandon are in constant conversation about the absurdity of trying to be both Lil Nas X and Alex Katz in the time constraint of a 24 hour day. In the world cited in the source text, there is no concept of scarcity and no capitalist restrictions on time. No one has to worry about achieving mastery in order to have their needs met. "Maybe We Can Rest Here is a fuck you to the fact that we worked every day for 5 weeks straight leading up to this show.”

Each artist uses imagery from “nature” to explore the bounds of man made. Scruggs uses nature as an avatar to explore how she relates to labor and how she navigates racialized capitalism’s demands on her time and energy. Tandon uses natural elements to parse through gender and anxiety and to find fleeting moments of expression that don’t tether to binary systems.

Maybe We Can Rest Here will be on view at Bunker Projects from October 1st through November 21, 2021.

Maybe We Can Rest Here
Zoe Scruggs and Lou Tandon
October 1 - November 19, '21

Closing Reception Friday Dec 19th 6-7:30 pm

Zoe Scruggs (b. 1997, Bronx, NY) and Lou Tandon (b. 1996, Pittsburgh, PA) are currently co-residents at Bunker Projects in Pittsburgh, PA.

Tandon received a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BA in Computer Music and Multimedia from Brown University through the Dual Degree Program. They are a recipient of the Brand Musical Premium Award, a scholarship for residency at the Vermont Studio Center, a residency at the Brew House Association Distillery Program and a grant from the Brown Arts Initiative.

Scruggs received her BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design. She has been awarded for her work in music, agriculture, and art through the RISD LACE Fellowship, RISD Parent Council Grant, Florence Leif Award, Delaware Artist Opportunity Grant and VACE Coalition Fellowship. She has been granted residencies at BabyCastles and Pioneer Works.

Zoe Scruggs Image List

Lou Tandon Image List