In So Fierce a Dancing, artist John Brooks brings together light, memory, and desire in a radiant series of works on paper made in response to his brief time in Basel and a lifetime of longing toward Europe. The exhibition draws its name from Hermann Hesse’s poem A Swarm of Gnats, in which the ecstatic, ephemeral dance of insects surpasses the memory of fallen kingdoms.

For Brooks, who grew up queer and Catholic in Kentucky, Hesse has long been a guiding figure - a writer of seekers. “I think the reason it resonated so deeply with me,” Brooks reflects, “is because I was trying to replace the grandeur of Catholicism with something existential - something just as vast, but rooted in the passing of time.”

These drawings are the smallest works Brooks has made in two decades - compact but charged. Scenes of swimming, sunbathing, and floating unfold in neon-hued stillness, drawn from photographs of friends, lovers, and self-portraits. But under the surface of their beauty is meditation on impermanence: the shimmering surface of water, the speed of summer, the bittersweet pleasure of a fleeting moment.

“I realized the best days of my life all involve water,” Brooks says. “Especially swimming - lakes, seas, pools. It’s pleasure, but it’s sacred, too.”

Drawn with luminous neon pencils that vibrate in person more than in reproduction, the works hover between stillness and movement. “I like thinking of the work as something the viewer encounters just after something has happened, or just before. It’s static - but then it starts to shimmer.”

Throughout the show, Swiss and European figures appear - Ursula Andress, Le Corbusier, Ferdinand Hodler, and Hesse himself - not as icons, but as part of a personal, transhistorical constellation. Brooks’ relationship to Europe, shaped by childhood longing and adult travel, becomes not just geographic, but emotional and symbolic.

So Fierce a Dancing is a luminous offering: a queer, temporal meditation on pleasure and its vanishing. A flash of connection across time. A single swim that becomes a whole world.

So Fierce a Dancing is a one-day exhibition in Basel, Switzerland. The opening reception will take place on August 14th from 5 to 9 PM and is open to the public. Please RSVP as space is limited.

We invite you to join us at Sabbatikal in Basel, Switzerland, and experience this convergence of art, reflection, and community. 

With special thanks to Vero Schmid and Vero’s Kunst & Rahmen for making this possible through their collaboration.

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For inquiries on price and availability please connect with Sacha Cohen either in person or by way of one of the resources provided below:

Tel. +1 (508) 237-9457 | E-mail. on@sabbatikal.com | Website. www.sabbatikal.com