EUTOPIA

Urs Fischer

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urs fischer play at the gagosian, ny

© Urs Fischer. Courtesy Gagosian.

Urs Fischer
PLAY
with choreography by Madeline Hollander
Gagosian, Chelsea, NY [link]
September 6 – October 13, 2018

While gawking in silent awe at the peacefully rotating chairs in the center of the gallery a swarm of thirty-odd morons crashed through the doors and attacked the beautiful ballet. The chairs darted to the corners of the space fleeing these gleeful, slavering pursuers. Frustrated, the chairs turned to face their attackers, confrontation causing pause. As the attacker circled the chair rotated and flanked until the action of one directed the movement of the other. Dancing in a whimsical facedown the awed and programmed align, the employment surrogate cautious and wily, a shy modern beast.

~ Ryder Richards
images courtesy of the Gagosian and the author

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Erin M. Riley

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Erin M. Riley

“Show Me More” 2018, Wool and cotton tapestry, 60 x 48 inches_Courtesy the artist and PPOW, New York

Erin M. Riley
Used Tape
P•P•O•W, New York [link]

Used Tape, a metaphor describing women with a sexual history in abstinence-only teachings, uses textiles (a.k.a. women’s work) to address shame surrounding female sexuality. Scale is manipulated to emphasize bodies and shrink pleas, emulating how support for women is literally downplayed while the display of the body is aggrandized. Dissonance occurs between distinctly female actions from masturbation illustrated in the work to the creation of these traditional weavings. Aligning intimate portrayals of the female body with sterile manufactured products, both become items of utility, confounding the difficulties that arise when navigating sex, sexual relationships, assault, and rape.

~ Francesca Aton
images courtesy of the Artist and P•P•O•W, New York

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Buster Graybill

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buster graybill "informalism"

Buster Graybill
Informalism
Street Gallery, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art [link]
May 25 – September 8, 2018

Informalism presents an informed aesthetic of a rural American vernacular embracing high-brow aesthetics through populist materials and actions. Grounded by the Lawn Chair Strapping paintings, a further look reveals requisite playfulness of a sculpture created from brightly colored arrows buried deep into a dense foam mass. Calmly posed clay trap thrower becomes a mischievous drawing implement leaving random marks on a canvas and broken pigeons across the floor. An exhaust system becomes an abstracted form referencing truck culture. With this contextualization, Graybill transcends sentimentality, proffering honest visual references to working-class objects mediated through theories of Minimalism and Pop Art.

~ Jake Weigel
images courtesy of Teri Mumm at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art

 

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Chim↑Pom

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photo courtesy of Dallas Contemporary, by Kevin Todora

Chim↑Pom
Non-Burnable
as part of INVISIBLE CITIES: Moving Images from Asia
Dallas Contemporary, Dallas [link]
Sept. 29 – Dec. 17, 2017

The prayers of well-wishing citizens are sent to Hiroshima in the form of thousands of pounds of colorful origami cranes. In a transmutation from cultural meme to sacred rubbish the totems are classified as “non-burnable” trash. This semantic redefinition of folded paper formalizes a social contract wherein sympathetic gestures eclipse the value of environmental or infrastructure concerns, converting social consideration into a societal burden: an ever-expanding archive of care. Maintained by the state, the trash-chive converts morally beneficent acts into sanctioned eco-terrorism, conflating objecthood with fulfillment of a sympathetic ritual.

~ Ryder Richards
images courtesy of the Dallas Contemporary, by Kevin Todorra and the author  

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Iva Kinnaird

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Iva Kinnaird

Iva Kinnaird “Broke, Please Advise” 2018 _ Walmart shopping cart, bricks

 

Iva Kinnaird
A Two Page Paper on Impasse
The Reading Room, Dallas [link]
February 17 – March 24, 2018

Employing absurdist humor, Kinnaird’s exhibition riffs on Camus’ Sisyphus myth. Although many artists experience existential crises in the search for validation and meaning in their work, the timeliness of Kinnaird’s exhibit in context with the past 1year46days0hours44minutes36seconds resonates with a strong Barthesian punctum. The collapsed shopping cart of bricks and the grad-school dartboard reference the despair facing artists mired in mountains of art-school debt combined with the current bleak political culture. Using the metaphor of play, Kinnaird’s “games” provide diversion, while simultaneously pinpointing the futility of said gestures. Yet Camus’ ultimate message is about revolt. And we only have 1049days8hours26minutes24seconds left.

~ Colette Copeland
photos courtesy of the Reading Room, by Kevin Todora

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Numen/For Use

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Numen/For Use "Tape Tokyo 02" @ 2121 Design Sight, 2017_ photo by Ryder Richards

Numen/For Use “Tape Tokyo 02” @ 21_21 Design Sight, 2017_ photo by Ryder Richards

Numen/For Use
Tape Tokyo 02
Grand Projects—How Far Will You Go?
21_21 Design Sight,
→
GRAND PROJECTS: HOW FAR WILL YOU GO?
21_21 DESIGN SIGHT
by Exhibition Director, Naoko Aono
Tokyo, Japan [link]

Tethered and taught, 21,120 meters of tape stretch into a translucent organ, squeaking and groaning as squirming, curious museum goers crawl through its aortal expanses. Choosing populist excess –cheap tape and labor instead of high-end fabrication— allows patrons near familiarity, prompting magical wonder at the common’s transformative ability. Inside the womb, externalities of sight and sound muted, the individual is left to entertain the alien familiarity of an organic space, or retreat from such existentialism to our digital umbilicus as experiential intermediary. Externally, the blurred shadow’s peristaltic migration is regarded, jealously, as the latest morsel consuming a novelty.

~ Ryder Richards
all images by the author

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