Pleasure Machine is thrilled to current Communicate of the Satan, a joint exhibition of ceramic and mixed-media works by Chicago artists Haylie and Sydnie Jimenez. The exhibition runs from August 9 to September 20, 2025.
An expression of endearment and shock, “speak of the devil” is about manifesting what one wishes. The idiom connotes an odd, even magical skill to conjure somebody’s presence with a mere point out. Merely say their identify and look forward to them to look.
For Haylie and Sydnie Jimenez, making artwork can also be an act of conjuring. Twin sisters with parallel and typically collaborative practices, the artists work primarily in ceramics and share an identical aesthetic, one rooted in narrative and wealthy with tattoos, piercings, and a usually punk model. The place Sydnie focuses on three-dimensions and builds figurative sculptures and totemic heads, Haylie prefers to etch scenes into flat panels. Each artists act as world-builders, depicting their queer, Black and brown associates and neighbors embracing their chosen kin.
“These groups of people we call family and friends are the best of us and should be recognized as such,” the artists say. “We want to fully acknowledge our wonderful communities and depict them as they should be.”
The Jimenez sisters have been raised within the South, first in Florida after which in Georgia, with a Catholic mom. Born from non secular concern, the phrase “speak of the devil” originated as a Seventeenth-century superstition of summoning evil. The expression has since misplaced its sinister that means, though a floor studying nonetheless elicits the diabolical.
This contradiction between a superficial interpretation and actuality is one Haylie and Sydnie are endlessly all in favour of teasing out. They’ve lived in Chicago for almost a decade and have discovered commonality between their adopted metropolis and the South: “both places that often get a bad rep but are so rich in culture, shared histories and positive aspects,” they are saying.
Communicate of the Satan invokes the cultural and social similarities between Chicago and the South. Centering individuals firstly, the artists spotlight the colourful communities that thrive in each areas. Architectural particulars like Sydnie’s gargoyle-esque sculptures and home objects like Haylie’s lamps and inlay tables reference the very areas essential to establishing significant relationships and a group of care.
Whereas celebrating their associates, household, and people who would possibly grow to be such sooner or later, the artists create a heat, welcoming atmosphere–full with custom-stenciled partitions—that provides a substitute for each oppression and violence and enduring stereotypes proliferated by common tradition and the media. That is their very own magical act of conjuring. By visualizing a world of radical acceptance, pleasure, and infinite pleasure, the artists lay the muse to make such a world seem.
