The Gowanus Studio Space Presents:
TEMPORALITY AWARENESS
at SPRING/BREAK Art Show
in conjunction with THE ARMORY SHOW 2012
at OLD SCHOOL
233 MOTT Street at PRINCE Street NEW YORK
3RD FLOOR (french fries available in the courtyard)
MARCH 8 - 11, 2012
rsvp essential: rsvp@springbreakartshow.com
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ATOM CIANFARANI
BEN COHEN
KRISTA PETERS
SIRRA SIGURDARDOTTIR
Curated by ANGELA CONANT
Working from Iceland, Canada, Haiti and New York City, artists address hypothetical and real moments along the timeline of ecological and cultural collapse. Works in this exhibition record the history of civilization. They collect material that can withstand disaster, and attempt to preserve and prolong existence as we know it. These works reflect our current moment of temporality awareness.
Atom Cianfarani, a garbage lover and survival connoisseur, offers a “72 hour survival pack” to help you escape urban apocalypse. Made from garbage off the streets of Toronto, Canada and New York City, Exit New York includes a protective suit and shelter quilt made from reflective, insulating mylar coffee bags, and inscribed with a map of walkable exit strategies from New York City. The work instructs viewers to compile their own packs from discarded material.
Ben Cohen has converted a diesel-powered generator to run on used vegetable oil, the fruits (french fries) of which are available for consumption. The generator powers lights and other equipment throughout the exhibition. Cohen produces immediate sustenance and alternative power, with a sardonic eye on the role of art in the global struggle to preserve ecological integrity.
Krista Peters’ sculpture installations amass found materials which might as well be remnants of our contemporary world after the event of the End of Days. Culled from an expedition to Haiti where she helped local artisans produce wares and grow small businesses, Peters selected objects for their repurposed aesthetic. Displaced and re-assembled, the works shadow their original context of a culture in mourning.
Sirra Sigurdardottir hails from Iceland where she shot video in Hveragerdi, a small town which suffered a 6.7 magnitude earthquake in 2008. Her work for this exhibition shows residents of Hveragerdi, who have experienced economic as well as ecological upheaval, as they re-live the tremor in an earthquake simulator. Sigurdardottir’s side-by-side display of the subjects’ naked reactions is a striking visualization of community, societal and world shared experience.
Assumptions are made that physical uncertainty compares to economic disturbance. Objects are collected and reorganized in the light of a second existence. Temporality Awareness compares response from places which have undergone real existential threats; to those still safe enough to focus on preservation.
