ZKM | LYNN HERSHMAN

Lynn Hershman Leeson, Shower, 2002. Film still from Teknolust. Archival digital print. © Lynn Hershman Leeson.

ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe Lorenzstrasse 19 76135 Karlsruhe Germany Lynn Hershman Leeson. Civic Radar December 13, 2014–March 29, 2015 Hours: Wednesday–Friday 10am–6pm, Saturday–Sunday 11am–6pm T +49 0 721 8100 1200 info@zkm.de zkm.de

American artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson will be honored by ZKM Karlsruhe with the first comprehensive retrospective of her work. One of the most influential media artists, Hershman Leeson is widely recognized for her innovative work investigating issues that are now recognized as key to the workings of society: the relationship between humans and technology, identity, surveillance, and the use of media as a tool of empowerment against censorship and political repression. Over the last forty years she has made pioneering contributions to the fields of photography, video, film, performance, installation and interactive as well as net-based media art. Curated by Peter Weibel and Andreas Beitin, the exhibition will provide an overview of the artist's various creative phases and the opportunity to view early works that were never shown before. It will also feature Hershman Leeson's most recent productions, including The Infinity Engine—a live cinematic installation that exposes critical questions about the ethical and social implications of genetic manipulation. In 2014 Lynn Hershman Leeson was named one of "21 Leaders for the 21st Century" by Women eNews. Her work has been shown in over 200 large-scale exhibitions throughout the world and is featured in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Tate Modern (London), Lehmbruck Museum (Duisburg), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester), and Berkeley Art Museum, in addition to celebrated private collections. First working in drawing and sculpture, Hershman Leeson turned to performance and conceptual art in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her most influential performance work is Roberta Breitmore (1973–78)—the fictional character that she, then three subsequent female personas, enacted in real time and space, using artifacts of the time. Roberta Breitmore's conceptual idea of fractured identity and multiplicity of contemporary life anticipated the exploration of surrogate identities that flourished in the digital and virtual worlds several decades later. Hershman Leeson's investigation of identity and various modes of surveillance developed into a variety of works, ranging from Lorna (1983/84), one of the first interactive projects on video disc; to Teknolust (2002) which addressed cyber-identity, artificial intelligence, cloning, and the decoupling of sexuality and human reproduction; to Present Tense (2014) which tracks environmental pollution via color-coded films of swimming babies. In her most recent works, Lynn Hershman Leeson includes robots, mass communication media such as smart-phones, as well as the latest scientific developments in the field of genetics and regenerative medicine including 3D bio-printers that create human body parts. A strong feminist voice, Hershman Leeson released the ground-breaking documentary, !Women Art Revolution, distributed by Zeitgeist, in 2011. !W.A.R. charts the history of the feminist art movement in America and features footage filmed and collected by Hershman Leeson since the late 1960s. It was screened at major museums internationally and received first prize at the 2012 Montreal Films on Art Festival. Among Hershman Leeson's feature-length films are Strange Culture (2007), an examination of the state control of art, science and public policy through the case of Critical Art Ensemble's member Steve Kurtz; Conceiving Ada (1997); andTeknolust (2002)—all featuring actress Tilda Swinton. Her films have won many awards and have been featured at the Sundance, Berlin, and Toronto International Film Festivals. Lynn Hershman Leeson studied at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and San Francisco State University. From 1993 till 2004 she was Professor of Electronic Arts at the University of California at Davis where she became Emeritus, before accepting a Chair at The San Francisco Art Institute. She was recently A.D. White Professor at Cornell University, and Visiting Artist at the New School for Social Engagement. Over the years, Hershman Leeson has received numerous awards and distinctions, including ZKM's Siemens International Media Arts Award, Flintridge Foundation and Siggraph Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts, Prix Ars Electronica, John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize. The Digital Art Museum in Berlin recognized her work with a 2010/2011 d.velop Digital Art Award [DDAA] for lifetime achievement in the field of new media. Curators: Peter Weibel and Andreas Beitin Press contact Dominka Szope: T +49 0 721 8100 1220 / F +49 0 721 8100 1139 / presse@zkm.de

ALIGHIERO BOETTI | MAPS

Alighiero Boetti – Map of the World, 1971-72, embroidery

In 1971 upon his departure from Italy and his arrival in Afghanistan, Alighiero Boetti began a continuous collaboration with local weavers to produce embroidered tapestries, using himself only as the referential artist but considering the works a creation of a combined effort. Mappa del Mundo is a colorful, beautiful crafted tapestry showing each country emblazoned with its own flag, examining borders, frontiers, nationalism, and patriotism. The borders are emblazoned with Italian and Persian texts, selected by Boetti and the craftswomen. Over the next two decades, more than 150 Mappe of different colors and sizes were created in this way. From this, geopolitical changes were tracked throughout the world, transforming a simple idea into a political vision by visualizing territory disputes and regime changes. Halfway through their endeavour, the embroiderers selected a pink thread to fill in the oceans, completely altering the look of the works. Boetti loved the intrusion of chance into the artistry of the craftsmen, and let them select the thread colors from then on. Because of this, he has little say in the appearance of the maps.

About Alighiero Boetti

Alighiero e Boetti was born in Turin, Italy in 1940. Although not formally trained in art, Boetti was preoccupied with the theory of creativity from an early age. Traveling to Afghanistan at the beginning of the 1970s, he was introduced to the traditional craft of embroidery, which marked a turning point in the artist’s career. His fundamental concern with the relationship between order and disorder is manifest in his grid structures, derived from the magical squares, that feature sayings and aphorisms that stem from cultural, philosophical, mathematical and linguistic contexts.

He had exhibitions throughout Italy and the United States until his premature death in 1994. Boetti has been honored post-humously with several large-scale exhibitions, most notably at the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Vienna in 1997 and the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main in 1998.

Alighiero Boetti – Map of the World, 1971-72, embroidery on linen, 200 x 360cm

Alighiero Boetti – Map of the World, 1979, embroidery, 86 x 139cm

Alighiero Boetti – Map of the World, 1979, embroidery, 93 x 131cm

Alighiero Boetti – Map of the World, 1984, embroidery

Alighiero Boetti – Map of the World, 1979-85, embroidery, 103 x 155cm

Alighiero Boetti – Map of the World, 1988, embroidery

Alighiero Boetti – Map of the World, 1989, embroidery

Alighiero Boetti – Map of the World, 1989, embroidery on fabric, 118 x 229cm

Alighiero Boetti – Map of the World, 1989-94, embroidery

Alighiero Boetti – Map of the World, embroidery

Alighiero Boetti – Map of the World, embroidery

http://publicdelivery.org/tag/alighiero-boetti/

MING WONG | INTERVIEW

© Ming Wong, Life of Imitation, 2009, 3 channel digital video installation, Courtesy of the artist.

53rd Venice Biennale 2009 Series - Ming Wong

Paul Chan (Making Worlds) on Sade, Freedom, Sexuality and Morality
Zilvinas Kempinas (Lithuania) on Sculpture, Senation, Space and Time
Elke Krystufek (Autria) on Female Sexuality and Social Taboo
Andrei Molodkin (Russia) on Negative and Positive
Tozer Pak (Hong Kong) on a Perfect World
Ming Wong (Singapore) on Language and Identity

Among the Asian pavilions in this year’s Venice Biennale, the real surprise comes from Singapore’s A Life of Imitation, curated by Tang Fu-Kuen, in Palazzo Michiel del Brusa. A series of poster paintings in the style of the 1960s, a photo collection of disappeared cinemas, re-interpretation of famous scenes form classical movies, the artist Ming Wong (b. 1971) creates digital media installations that explore slippages in language, performativity and cross-cultural experiences through the appropriation of iconic moments in world cinema. Cinema as a collective memory also becomes a way of articulating the fluidity and conflicts of different gender, cultural and identity roles in a multiracial society such as Singapore.

In the interview, Ming Wong talks to us about Language and Identity.

Selina Ting
Editor
Paris, 2009 summer

MW– Ming Wong
ST – Selina Ting for initiArt Magazine

ST: We all know that Singapore is a multi-ethnic country consisted mainly of Chinese, Malay and Indian. A small island with a 4.8 million population, yet you have four official languages, English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil, it’s such a highly cosmopolitan and diverse place to live. Can you take yourself as an example to share with us this diversity? (Such the history of your family, what kind of education, schools, friends you have, your cultural hybridity and recognition, etc.)

MW: When i was growing up the population was only 2.5 million. My family history in Singapore is typical of many of my generation. My paternal grandparents migrated to Singapore from Guangdong in Southern China, and they and their children went through the Japanese Occupation during WWII. My mother was born in Malaysia, and came to Singapore to work where she met my father. I was born in the 70s, a few years after Singapore became independent in 1965. I went to a catholic missionary primary school, then later to a 'good' state school where a lot of the alumni would go on to work for the government. My parents learnt Malay in school, the national language at the time, whereas i learnt Mandarin as a second language.

ST: You were born in 1971, six years after the independence of Singapore, and you grew up under the government of Lee Kuan Yew (Prime Minister 1965 – 1990). In the 70s and 80s, Lee’s policy was preoccupied with the creation of a unique Singaporean identity, one which heavily recognized racial consciousness within the umbrella of multi-culturalism. Today, what does it mean to be a "Singaporean"?

MW: This 'racial consciousness' was inherited from British colonial rule, where the races were kept separated. After the racial riots in the 60s, the new Singapore government introduced measures to integrate the races, for instance, having racial quotas for social housing. The categories CMIO (chinese, malay, indian, others) became ubiquitous in social administration. Racial and religious issues are scrutinised closely in the arts, even today. New immigrants mainly from mainland China and India in the past few years, contribute to the new generation of 'Singaporeans'. I don’t know what it means anymore to be a Singaporean. Things have always changed and are changing, the 'landscape' and the 'mindscape'.

ST: One of Lee’s policies that obviously related to you and your work is the discourage of non-Mandarin as the “Mother Tongue” of ethnic Chinese, such as the cancellation of TV broadcast in non-Mandarin dialects. How was your personal experience in this regard? Do you speak Chinese or other Chinese dialects? How do you communicate with, say, your grandparents? How good is your “Singlish”? Looking back, how do you access this kind of top-down social identity policy?

MW: I am sad that my Cantonese has degenerated, and its typical that in subsequent generations, dialects have been lost. I see this as a loss of identity, it cuts me off from earlier generations, the gap is wider. I used to only speak Cantonese to my grandparents and their generation, who are now dead. When i started writing for the 'english' language theatre in Singapore, i wrote for characters who spoke different languages, including Singlish. I found languages and their idiosyncrasies to be a tool to get straight to the solar plexus of an audience, a form of identification which is at once emotional and deeply imbedded in once's psyche and being. At the time, theatre was one of the few arenas of exploration, you wouldn’t have been able to do the same on TV for example. The multitude of languages, influences and accents in the country are contrary to a unifying standard 'English'. I think this helped me develop my sensitivity for communication beyond language barriers.

ST: Your work goes back to the golden decades of Singaporean Cinema in the 1950s and 1960s, the pre-independence period. Can you tell us more about this rather unknown period in history? What was the uniqueness of it?

MW: Chinese producers (who owned the cinemas) invited film directors and cameramen from India (where there was already a mature film industry) to make films in Singapore with local Malay performers (from Malay stage traditions). This kind of cultural diversity in the film industry at that time was unheard of. The influences in the films came from Hollywood, Europe, Japan, Bollywood, China, transposed to a local context, watched and enjoyed by all regardless of race or language.

ST: What about the subject matters of the films produced in that period?

MW: The films covered everything from slapstick comedies to historical epics, there were detective thrillers and lots of musical romantic comedies, melodramas with music were popular. Horror movies were a staple, with the tropical jungle as a backdrop. The Pontianak or Malay Vampire and the ‘Oily Man’ became everybody’s nightmare figure. There were also modern ‘urban’ dramas that dealt with the modernisation of the country, looking at the relationship between the urban city-life and rural countryside.

© Ming Wong, Life of Imitation,2009, 3 channel digital video installation, courtesy of the artist.

ST: In your work, for example, Life of Imitation which features 3 actors from the 3 main ethnic groups in Singapore (Chinese, Malay, Indian) taking turns to play a black mother and her ‘white’ daughter in a scene from Douglas Sirk’s Hollywood melodrama Imitation of Life (1959). What are your ideas and cultural politics behind these swaps of identity, speeches, relationship?

MW: The key moment in the scene is when the daughter turns to the mirror and declares to her black mother that she is 'white'. I used 3 actors from Singapore for the roles, and they are all neither white, or black, nor are they female, or from Hollywood, and they are the wrong age to play either mother or daughter, a total mis-casting.

© Ming Wong, In Love for the Mood, 2009, 3 channel digital video installation, 4 mins loop. Courtesy of the artist.

ST: Do you usually use the strategy of “total mis-casting” in your work? What about the reversal of having a Caucasian actress double-acting in In Love for the Mood (2009), as the hero and the heroine and speaking a language that she doesn’t speak in real life?

MW: I put the actress in a similarly vulnerable position that I take up when I act in my work. This work was made for the Venice Biennale for a predominantly European audience, so I wanted to cast a Caucasian actor in it, as a more direct source of identification for the Venice audience. I chose a Chinese film that was the most well known to a European art crowd, “In the Mood for Love” by Wong Kar-Wai.

© Ming Wong, Four Malay Stories, 2005. 4 channel digital video installation, black/white, looped DVD, 25 mins each. Courtesy of the artist.

ST: In Four Malay Stories where you acted yourself all 16 characters. What’s the idea behind one single actor to play all the roles? Can you share with us your experience of making and acting in this video?

MW: In Four Malay Stories I took on the responsibility of representing the Malay community of the time, so I had to be everybody – man, woman, young, old, poor or rich. This was the first work in which I acted out the roles myself. I had to repeat each line in Malay over and over again, which I captured on camera, until I got it almost perfect, before moving on the next line or shot. I can’t speak Malay fluently, but I can suprise my Malay friends by quoting from the movies they hold so dearly to their hearts.

ST: In your work, language becomes a tool to reveal conflicts of social roles and identities. It is further complicated by different artistic devices, such as transvestite, trans-racial, parroting, rehearsals, film-within-film, reverse of the film titles, etc. How do you interpret the relationship between language and identity?

MW: I find it hard to answer this. All i can say is that, everything is tied up together. Spoken words play only a minor part. Quite a lot depends on who is looking, and what is able to be seen or unseen. There's quite a lot that goes beyond language. I feel this is becoming more apparent now with globalisation. A lot of conventions are being overturned, so there are no rules anymore.

ST: So, language is longer one of the social construction of our cultural identity? Is your total miscasting a way of breaking down, deconstructing this conventional bound between language and identity?

MW: Besides miscasting, there are also breakdowns in conventional filmmaking methods, as well as ways of presenting moving image to an audience. There is the breakdown of illusions in the editing, directing, acting, styling, etc. Beyond questions of ‘language’ and ‘identity’, is the question of what is filmic language, and what is the role of the audience, questions that are asked in film and performance circles as well. How are we supposed to act or react to a film installation? Where am I supposed to look at?

ST: How did you conceive your show in Venice?

MW: I worked very closely with the curator Tang Fu-Kuen, who is better known in the performance and dance circles. We both have a love for the cinema, especially the film culture in pre-independent Singapore, so we were both drawn to this topic when conceiving our ‘national pavilion’. We look back at our past to ask questions about the future, not just for Singapore, but for the world, using the Singapore situation related to hybridity and the flux in identity. It has struck a chord with audience, a lot of places in the world are going through tremendous change, and along with it a crisis in identity. So they totally identify with the issues that emerge in our exploration.

ST: Is there any imagined audience in your mind when you were preparing the show?

MW: I take into consideration what language barriers there might be. I don’t agree with a lot of work out there that supposes you can understand English. I don’t agree with work where there is an authoritative voiceover in English. In the show in Venice you can find items in Tamil, Malay, Cantonese, Italian, Japanese, French, even Singlish and Flemish!

ST: Since when are you working in Berlin? Why did you move there? How do you find it?

MW: I moved to Berlin 2 years ago to do an artist residency at the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, and then decided to be based here. Before that I lived in London which became too expensive. Berlin seemed to be a better option at the time.

ST: Everything goes well?

MW: At the moment, things are very uncertain! I wish I spoke fluent German!

About the Artist:

Ming Wong was born in 1971 in Singapore. He currently lives and works in Berlin.
Originally trained in traditional Chinese painting, Wong also made a name for himself as a playwright in the Singapore theatre scene, before obtaining his Masters in fine art media at the Slade School of Art in London. He recently presented solo exhibitions at MKgalerie in Berlin and Rotterdam, and Gallery 4A in Sydney; his works have also been shown in the past year at the Jakarta Biennale, Images Festival in Toronto, Art Forum Berlin, Preview Berlin, ZKM Center for Art & Media in Karlsruhe, Centro Cultural Montehermoso in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Singapore Art Museum, S1 Artspace in Sheffield, Galleria neon campo base in Bologna, etc.
www.mingwong.org

THANKS TO   http://www.initiartmagazine.com/interview.php?IVarchive=12

HORST GRÖGER | FORMA-T

• Friday 28 November 2014 At 18:30h-
• Sunday 14 December 2014 At 18:00h

Forma-T, Lehrter Straße 9 Berlin 10557

A selection of Horst Grögers handmade b/w-prints of mysterious landscapes and decayed fruits and flowers will be presented at forma-t.

The show starts on 28. November at 6.30 pm.

Opening times: 29. November - 14. Dezember 2014, Wed - Sat 3 - 6 pm

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INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART MIAMI

Installation view, Andra Ursuta, Conversion Table, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, 2014. Private Collection. Photo: Uli Holz. Pedro Reyes: Sanatorium Andra Ursuta: As I Lay Drying December 3, 2014–March 15, 2015 The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami 4040 NE 2nd Avenue Miami, FL 33137 Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11am–7pm Free admission www.icamiami.org

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami) opens to the public on December 3, with two major exhibitions dedicated to the work of contemporary artists Pedro Reyes and Andra Ursuta. On view through March 2015, and curated by Deputy Director and Chief Curator Alex Gartenfeld, the exhibitions reflect ICA Miami's mission of presenting boundary-pushing experimental contemporary art for audiences throughout the Miami region, across the country, and internationally. Located in the Miami Design District's landmark Moore Building, the museum will be free to the public, supporting its goal of expanding educational resources and providing the widest possible access to contemporary art. In honor of the exhibitions and the inauguration of its new museum galleries, ICA Miami will host an opening celebration on Tuesday, December 2, from 7 to 9pm. Hosted by Interview magazine, and presented by Forevermark, ICA Miami's opening celebration is the official museum kick-off event for Miami Art Week during Art Basel Miami Beach. The event will be open to all ICA members. Andra Ursuta: As I Lay Drying presents new and recent works by the New York-based artist, whose sculpture and installation engages with the psychology of power and modernism and is rooted deeply in personal history. Amidst the gridded architecture of ICA Miami's Atrium Gallery, the artist has created a dramatic site-specific installation, involving platforms that elevate the works above the ground floor, reconfiguring the viewing experience. Among the works on view in ICA Miami's Atrium Gallery are Soft Power 1 and 2 (2013), monumental inflatable fists made of patchwork-quilted comforters, whose fabrication and motion reflect upon the complex histories of patriotism and protest. Ursuta's work was recently featured in The Encyclopedic Palace at the 55th Venice Biennale, and in solo exhibitions at Milan's Peep-Hole (2014) and at Los Angeles's  Hammer Museum (2014). Andra Ursuta: As I Lay Drying is accompanied by a catalogue published by Walther Koenig in collaboration with ICA Miami and the Kölnischer Kunstverein. The exhibition in Miami is curated by Alex Gartenfeld and organized by ICA Miami in collaboration with the Kölnischer Kunstverein, Germany. On view concurrently in ICA Miami's second floor galleries is Pedro Reyes's installation Sanatorium, an ongoing performative project that mixes art and psychology. The installation takes the form of a transient clinic, in which receptionists and "therapists" trained by the artist, help visitors with their individual needs. Reyes's therapies leverage a range of methods—from Gestalt psychology, psychodrama, and hypnosis, to theater warm-up exercises, conflict-resolution techniques, and trust-building games. First presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2011, and radically adapted with each subsequent iteration, Sanatorium at ICA Miami reflects the region's dynamic landscape and community. Trained as an architect, born and based in Mexico, Reyes is known for his structures, relational installations, and his performance and video work, which have been presented internationally including at the Walker Art Center, Documenta, and the Carnegie International, among many others. About the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami  The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami), is dedicated to promoting continuous experimentation in contemporary art, and to the exchange of art and ideas throughout the Miami region and internationally. Through an energetic calendar of exhibitions and programs, and its collections, the ICA Miami provides an important international platform for the work of local, emerging, and under-recognized artists, and advances the public appreciation and understanding of the most innovative art of our time. Established by the Board of Trustees and former staff from the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, ICA Miami is currently located in the landmark Moore Building, which has been provided rent-free by Miami Design District Associates as the Board continues to plan for the establishment of a new, permanent location. The museum will open to the public with free admission in December. Media contacts: Regional media: Tommy Ralph Pace, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami tpace@icamiami.org / T +1 305 901 5272 ext.102  National media: Juliet Sorce/Chelsea Bruck, Resnicow Schroeder Associates jsorce@resnicowschroeder.com / cbruck@resnicowschroeder.com / T +1 212 671 5158/5164

MAX SCHAFFER | THE TOURISTS

• Saturday 22 November 2014 At 00:00h-
• Saturday 7 March 2015 At 00:00h

Bülowstraße 90 Berlin 10783

“Hi, do you know what day it is today?“ “Friday.“ “Yes, Friday, that’s my name. Today is my name.“ A broad grin spread across his face. “Can I take your picture?“ I laughed and was amused that he would want to take my picture. When he showed me the picture I couldn’t really see anything, the mobile phone was small and old and the sun stood low on the horizon. “You like it?” “Yes, I like it.” I wanted to be polite and was rela- tively certain that it would be a good photo. Friday laughed at this loudly . “Look, look. There’s no picture. My phone has no camera!” In the place where only seconds ago I thought I had seen the contours of my face there was nothing but the crude drawing of a stick figure. After that, both of us were laughing.

The point of origin for Max Schaffer’s solo exhibition The Tourists consists of cursory sketches in- tended as drafts for potential paintings. The scanned digital versions of these drafts were sent to vari- ous online photo printing providers and subjected to the algorithmic contingencies of their software. The manual drawings were then destroyed and the resulting canvases sent to the exhibition space via parcel service. They are confronted with sample mattress pieces functioning as displays for Polaroid test images. The photographs originate from a defunct photo studio, whose inventory the artist has bought out. They demonstrate, not unlike the formulaically cropped printed canvasses, cutouts and views of several art works in varying sharpness and tonal values and document the technical approach of the photographer toward the particular reproduced object.

Max Schaffer’s artistic practice is concentrated primarily on questions revolving around appropriation and translation. His exhibition-situations, often incorporating site-specific interventions, objects, drawings and text pieces, generate complex systems of reference between the exhibited work, the method of their production and the specific characteristics of the exhibition space. The reflection of cultural conventions as well as art historical associations is an integral component to the artistic articulation of a vocabulary that is committed to a questioning of image-theory and social and economic frames of reference.

Aanant & Zoo is delighted to welcome Max Schaffer (*1985 in Santiago de Chile) as a new artist in the gallery’s program.

www.aanantzoo.com

# art exhibition, max schaffer, sculpture, painting, digital, #digitalart

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• http://www.artconnect.com/events/max-schaffer-the-tourists

ED ATKINS | RIBBONS

Ed Atkins,  RIBBONS

Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin

22.11.14 -- 24.01.15



























http://bortolozzi.com/exhibitions/ed-atkins-ribbons-galerie-isabella-bortolozzi/

GREENE NAFTALI NY | GEDI SIBONY

Gedi Sibony at Greene Naftali Gallery

Though it’s tempting to dismiss New-York based artist Gedi Sibony’s new works – rectangles cut from aluminum semi-trailers – as gimmicky abstraction, scrapes, dents and gashes lend each a certain authenticity. Redacted text, as in the covered up letters ‘ALL,’ suggest a hasty attempt at erasing the past. (At Greene Naftali Gallery through Nov 8th).

Gedi Sibony, All, aluminum semi-trailer, 101 ¾ x 104 ¾ inches, 2014.

http://newyorkarttours.com/blog/?p=3523

DAN GRAHAM | GREENE NAFTALI

Artist: Dan Graham

Venue: Greene Naftali, New York

Exhibition Title: Design For Showing Rock Videos

Date: September 9 – October 4, 2014

Full gallery of videos, images, press release and link available after the jump.

Press Release:

Greene Naftali is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new and historical work by Dan Graham. This is the gallery’s first show with the artist and the inaugural exhibition in its ground floor space, which was designed by Rexrode Chirigos Architects.

Design for Showing Rock Videos (2014) is an architecturally scaled optical device made of reflective glass and stainless steel. It contains a selection of rock videos from acts associated with the 1970s and ‘80s counterculture in New York and Europe. Hardcore, post-punk, and No Wave bands like The Fall, Minor Threat, UT, and Theoretical Girls were part of underground music’s turn toward radical experimentation and are crucial for Graham who has written extensively about rock music throughout his career. Videos on view here are Ericka Beckman’s135 Grand Street New York, 1979; Rodney Graham’s Angel in the Morning; The Fall: Perverted by Language; Punk Cocktail; and Minor Threat.

The structure, itself a meeting place for visual and auditory saturation, also creates a series of unexpected optical and physical experiences. The porousness of the piece’s zig-zagging metal form and the semi-reflective surface of the opposing glass curve create a constantly shifting landscape that refracts its changing environment as passersby come and go. This emphasis on the situation of the spectator is central to the artist’s practice. Since the 1980s Graham has created many pavilion designs, some which have never been realized. Among these are two featured here: Graham’s Children’s Pavilion, a playful schematic that takes the dynamic between children and adults as its primary subject; and the Liza Bruce Boutique Design, an unrealized project whose aim was to heighten the bodily experience of shop goers through shape shifting mirrors and foam flooring.

Proceeding from the legacies of Minimalism and Pop Graham’s investigations have drawn on the fields of architecture, rock music, film, photography, and performance—engaged always with the psychological life of objects, and the reciprocal relationship between subject and viewer, interiority and exteriority. Also on view is a group of key Dan Graham publications, architectural models, and a selection of photographs, drawings, and other works from 1966 onwards.

Images:

Images courtesy of Greene Naftali, New York.

Link: Dan Graham at Greene Naftali