The New Absurdists (TBA On Sight 2008)
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TBA ON SIGHT Installations, exhibitions, projections and gatherings by visual artists. The New Absurdists Curated by Kristan Kennedy Exhibition Design by Jörg Jakoby Preparator Kent Richardson Gallery Manager Andrea Raijer Publication Design by Philip Iosca The New Absurdists is a gathering of over a dozen artist projects that flow from the ON SIGHT program and into OUT IN THE WORLD and ON THE SCREEN. Projects range from solo artist presentations, collaborative experiments, and several exhibitions. The artists included abandon realism in favor of parody. They employ comedy, magic, satire, spoof, wordplay and nonsense to explain our current chaotic, complex and critical state of affairs. Much of the work is the result of special commissions or was created while in residence at PICA. Visual Art Opening Sept 4, 2008, 9 pm at THE WORKS at Leftbank. Visual Art projects will be on view from Sept 4 — Oct 4, 2008. TBA:08 On Sight Hours and Locations: Tamy Ben-Tor, Harry Dodge & Stanya Kahn, Lizzie Fitch, Jacob Hartman, Corey Lunn, Jeffry Mitchell and Ryan Trecartin THE WORKS at Leftbank: 240 N Broadway Sept 4 - 14 . Mon - Sun . 12 - 6 pm; Sept 17 - Oct 4 . Wed - Sat . 12 - 6 pm Mike Kelley and Ryan Trecartin at Northwest Film Center Whitsell Auditorium: 1219 SW Park $6 PICA / $7 general. See listings for showtimes. TBA:08 ON SIGHT Off-Site Projects: Justin Gorman, Persuasive Device at PICA PICA (Lobby): 224 NW 13th Ave Mon - Fri . Sept 4 - 28 . 10 am - 6 pm Justin Gorman, Results Under Action Various Locations, visit www.pica.org for details Fritz Haeg at Various Locations Curated by Stephanie Snyder Visit www.pica.org for details PAINTALLICA at The Civic: 1938 W Burnside Street Mon - Sun . Sept 8 - 14 . 1 pm - 5 pm The Yes Men at PNCA: 1241 NW Johnson Curated by Astria Suparak Mon - Sun . Sept 4 - Oct 26 . 9 am - 9 pm Residencies funded in part by Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust and the Kristy Edmunds Fund for New Work. Supported in part by Alora Development Daniel Deutsch, the Prints for PICA artists, and with special thanks to TODAYART Studios. Sponsors: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, OTAK Inc., & Andersen Construction Tamy Ben-Tor Baby Eichmann, 2008 DVD, 3:42 minutes Courtesy of Zach Feuer Gallery Gewald, 2007 Video, 8:53 minutes Courtesy of Zach Feuer Gallery “Her dark mockumentaries twirl and spew tirades about bigotry, self-absorption and injustices that are twisted, inventive and captivating.” —Modern Painters Tamy Ben-Tor morphs into multiple and ever changing cartoonish and complex characters that speak truths and spout missives, both laughable and terrifying. In two new video works, Ben-Tor continues her insightful and biting exploration into Jewish identity, caricature and history. Combining many dialects to form a hybrid language, Ben-Tor’s speech is intentionally garbled, yet still evokes a sense of understanding through cliché. In Gewald, pastoral scenes and folk customs are paired with subversive images of children’s storybooks, while shapeshifting women sing passages from Primo Levi’s important Holocaust memoir and ramble about the “comfortable” life of Jews in Egypt. In Baby Eichmann, a fair-haired flutist floats about while tales of an “idiot” leader who turned out to be a madman are recounted. Tamy Ben-Tor was born in Israel and currently lives and works in New York City. She has had solo shows at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Cubitt, London; Zach Feuer Gallery, New York; and has participated in group exhibitions at the Mori Museum, Tokyo; MOCA, Los Angeles; Reina Sofia, Madrid; as well as the PERFORMA 05 and PERFORMA 07 Biennials, New York. She will have upcoming exhibitions at Brown Gallery, London, and the Kunsthalle Winterthur, Switzerland, and will participate in the Bienniale of Sydney and Manifesta 4 this summer. Ben-Tor received her MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts in 2006. The artist is currently represented by Zach Feuer Gallery (NY). PICA acknowledges Zach Feuer Gallery (www. zachfeuer.com) and Sarah and Andrew Meigs for their support of this exhibition. Harry Dodge & Stanya Kahn Masters of None, 2006 Video, 11:37 minutes Courtesy of Elizabeth Dee Gallery “If comedy in contemporary art seldom appears without qualifiers like deadpan, concrete, or conceptual, Dodge and Kahn’s shared comic sensibility belongs to its own idiosyncratic genre, closer in tone and caliber to the artists’ cited influences (Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin, and Lenny Bruce) than to the art world’s sight gag or idea- based sorts of humor.” —Rachel Kushner, Artforum Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn’s video, Masters of None, evokes both laughter and unease as a sometimes choreographed, sometimes improvised post-apocalyptic family lives out life before us. Nameless, masked and unified by pink hoods, they speak to each other in a scrambled digital tongue. The clan mimic the everyday actions of the human animal: eating, grooming, wandering and working. Their personalities and plot are only revealed through tender, absurd and abstract comedy. Dodge and Kahn employ video and performance to illuminate the unquantifiable nature of humans and their environment. Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn were both born in California and currently live and work in Los Angeles. They were recently included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art (NY); while California Video appeared at the Getty Center, and Eden’s Edge at The Hammer Museum (CA). Their video, film and performance work have been exhibited extensively, both nationally and internationally, including ZKM Karlsruhe (Germany), Art in General (NY), P.S. 1 Contemporary Art (NY), MOCA (CA), Stromereien Festival (Zurich), Sundance Film Festival (UT) and Diverseworks (TX). The artists are currently represented by the Elizabeth Dee Gallery (NY). PICA acknowledges the Elizabeth Dee Gallery and Jennifer Moore for their support of this project. www. elizabethdeegallery.com. Lizzie Fitch Big Skin (Site Specific Installation), 2008 Various Materials Courtesy of Bobo’s on 9th Lizzie Fitch presents a multipart sculpture/space complete with abstract furniture made of wood, pillow, plastic and cloth and what the artist calls “human skin clone blankets.” These figures will drape over, reside in, and converse with the constructed environs. Throughout the course of the installation, Fitch and an undulating cast of performers called The Experimental People Band will interact with the work, collapsing the boundaries between viewer and object, gallery and stage. Fitch’s work speaks to the changing relationship of the body to reality. Synthetic materials, virtual life, alternative worlds, avatars, faux identity and accelerated evolution are shifting our purpose and culture. Working on site and in residency at PICA, Fitch has constructed a propped scene that reflects our epic struggle with technology, which is advancing faster than we are. Lizzie Fitch lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. She studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. Fitch’s work was recently featured as part of Lustwarande 08 at the Museum De Pont (NL); in a two person exhibition at Bobo’s on 9th (www.boboson9th.com, PA); and We’ve got tissues at OK Mountain (TX). Fitch is a frequent collaborator of artist Ryan Trecartin; together they have presented work at Crane Arts (PA) and the Royal Academy of Arts (UK). Her performance group, The Experimental People Band, has performed at the New York Underground Film Festival and many other venues, house parties, and festivals throughout the US. The artist would like to thank Tyler Wallace, Ryan Trecartin, Nico Wright, Taya Koschinick, Anne Hawk, Elise Bartow, Christina Linclau, Jennifer Moore, Ramsey McPhillips, Brian McKelligott, Jörg Jakoby and Kristan Kennedy. PICA acknowledges Tyler Wallace for her support of this project. The commission and exhibition of this piece is supported in part by the Kristy Edmunds Fund for New Work. Justin Gorman Results Under Action Various Sites and Locations www.pica.org for details Billboard #1 “Persuasive Device,” 2008 PICA (Lobby): 224 NW 13th Ave Mon - Fri . Sept 4 - 28 . 10 am - 6 pm Justin Gorman will place a series of site-specific and portable walls at various TBA:08 Festival venues over the course of ten days. These structures are erected in public places, which the artist researches extensively for historical content and relevancy. Each wall displays concise messages that remind viewers of the hidden histories of our built environment. Gorman hopes to promote a connection between us and the spaces we build, evoking a personal response to urban spaces and city environments. These text- based “narrative reductions” or “historical slogans” distill his research to its simplest point or action. A recent installation at the Leftbank Project in Northeast Portland referenced the building’s lively past. Long ago, residents of Portland enjoyed the very latest in jazz at a club called The Dude Ranch— closed after a shooting. The billboard is installed in the room where Louis Armstrong once played, with the words “bang, bang” painted in red across a blank wall. Gorman is a Portland-based artist who recently successfully defended his thesis at Pacific Northwest College of Art. Gorman has had installations at Audio Cinema, Upper Playground, Mark Woolley Gallery and Pause Gallery, all in Portland, OR. He has exhibited work nationally at Ayden Gallery, Vancouver, BC and at Capers Gallery in Salina, KS. His work was included in Portland Modern, Issue 4, curated by Kristan Kennedy and Matthew Stadler. The commission and exhibition of this project is supported in part by the Kristy Edmunds Fund for New Work. See also www.resultsunderaction.com. Fritz Haeg Animal Estate Tours Curated and Lead by Stephanie Snyder Various Locations www.pica.org for details 2008 Whitney Biennial artist Fritz Haeg comes to Portland for a residency at Reed College, implementing his Animal Estates project throughout the region. Animal Estates proposes the reintroduction of animals back into our cities, strip malls, garages, office parks, freeways, front yards, parking lots and neighborhoods—a 21st century model for the human-animal relationship that is more intimate, visible and thoughtful. In a special collaboration with PICA, Cooley Gallery director Stephanie Snyder is conducting tours of Haeg’s local projects. Haeg brings Animal Estates to Portland as part of the exhibition suddenly, on view August 26 through October 5, 2008 at the Cooley Gallery and other regional spaces. www.reed.edu/ gallery. Fritz Haeg is an architect, activist and artist whose interdisciplinary projects have been implemented across the globe. Haeg’s stated goal is nothing less than “subverting the role of the human as the dominant occupant of the planet.” www. animalestates.org. Jacob Hartman _______Head, 2008 Various Materials Site Specific Installation Piece be with you, 2008 Suite of Digital C-Prints In his latest work, _______Head, Hartman creates an on-site sculpture/video installation. _______ Head takes the form of a large hanging sphere that has collected on its surface pieces of debris, technological detritus, and cultural compost. Developed in residency at PICA, the work is a composite of objects made from rudimentary sculpture materials (plaster, wood, metal, and casting compound), mixed with video production and presentation equipment (video projectors, lights, scrim, gaffer tape, video mixers, computers, cables, video screens, and live feed cameras). The video projections and monitors feature video shot on location and taken from multiple other sources as well as hybrid compositions created when the viewer comes into camera range. As in previous works, the mechanisms of production are an integral part of the final presentation. Hartman’s interest lies in cataloging a trajectory of a work coming into existence, where the moment of completion is never quite clear. Hartman lives and works in New York. He studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and received his MFA from Bard College in New York. His installations, video work, sculpture and paintings have been shown nationally, with recent exhibitions at CRG Gallery (NY), Drew College (NJ), The Living Room (Art Basel, Miami Beach), and New Langton Arts (CA). His work was included in Rapper’s Delight at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (CA) and SUPERNATURAL at PICA (OR). Hartman’s work has been written about on Artforum.com, and in the New Art Examiner. His performance work was featured in the 1999 catalogue for Bay Area Now at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (CA) in 1999. He has been a resident at Skowehegan School of Art and was the winner of the Bay Area Awards in 2000 for a performance at New Langton Arts. The artist would like to thank all of the people that participated in “Piece be with you,” including Bob and Carolyn Doughton, Mellissa Dyne and Khaela Maracich, Dorie Vollum and Family, Chris Larson and the people of the Boat House, Jason Saunders and Stephanie Kelly, Tabor, Emiko, Jason, and Diane. With special thanks to Marisa White-Hartman, Erin Thurlow, Arnold J. Kemp, Kristan Kennedy, Jörg Jakoby, Kent “Kiggs” Richardson, Kate Nosen, Andrea Raijer, Nathan Henry-Silva, TC Smith, The Mac Store and all of the PICA volunteers. PICA acknowledges TC Smith, The Mac Store, Lincoln Miller and Pushdot Studio for their support of this project. The commission and exhibition of this piece is supported in part by the Kristy Edmunds Fund for New Work. Mike Kelley Day is Done, 2005-2006 (Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstructions #2–32) DigiBeta, 150 minutes Courtesy of Mike Kelley Studios Northwest Film Center Whitsell Auditorium at Portland Art Museum: 1219 SW Park Sat . Sept 6 . 2:30 pm Sun . Sept 7 . 4:00 pm Sat . Sept 13 . 2:30 pm Sun . Sept 14 . 3:30 pm “Satanic rituals and advertising jingles mingled with allusions to Godard, German Expressionist cinema and Stockhausen...toxic-comic carnival...an amazing feat of industry and poetics.” —Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times This epic new work by the seminal artist is a feature- length musical examining American subcultures through the restaging of carnivalesque productions intermixed into a meandering narrative. Each reconstruction is a live-action scene extrapolated from photographs found in high school yearbooks and investigates the pageantry around dress-up days, religious spectacles, fashion shows, singles’ mixers and musical follies. Described by The LA Weekly as “The Lawrence Welk show crossed with a Busby Berkeley musical,” Kelley disrupts traditional structures of such events to construct a dizzying daisy chain of performances. The result is a landscape populated by dancing Goths, singing vampires, hick storytellers, horse dancers and the Virgin Mary. Written and directed by Mike Kelley, with original music by Kelley and Scott Benzel, and choreography by Kate Foley. Based in Los Angeles, Kelley works in video, sound, performance, installation, drawing, painting, and sculpture. Awarded the Wolfgang Hahn Prize in 2006 for his achievements, he has had solo exhibitions at The Tate Liverpool, The Whitney Museum, and The Louvre, and has taken part in group exhibitions including Life on Mars: 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 2008; and Petting Zoo, at Skulptur Projekte Münster, 2007. Kelley’s work is in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Centre Pompidou, and the Guggenheim Museum, as well as many other museums and collections both in the US and internationally. www.mikekelley.com. Corey Lunn Henchman, 2008 High Density Foam, Enamel Paint Provider, 2008 High Density Foam, Peas, Lentils, Beans, Enamel Paint Gun, 2008 High Density Foam, Peas, Lentils, Plexiglas, Enamel Paint Bean Dream, 2008 High Density Foam, Plexiglas, String, Pinto Beans, Enamel Paint Ruin, 2008 High Density Foam, Polyurethane Glue, Enamel Paint Cairn II, 2008 Wood, Paper, Polyurethane Glue Automatic Teller, 2008 Mixed Media, Glue, Paint, Video Empty Chamber, 2008 Acrylic on Paper Corey Lunn creates obsessively articulated drawings, sculptures, wooden and foam carvings, animations and sound works. His work constructs and reflects bizarre, tangential and absurd narratives. Depicting surreal landscapes, hybrid animals and the foibles of the common man, Lunn’s worlds are made up with equal parts dark comedy and social commentary. For this special commission by PICA, Lunn presents forces of “nature” that dispense provisions to the people. This magical totem is plagued by “little men” who upend the monument’s cultural significance. The artist describes the work as creating a state of confusion in which the only read is “befuddlement and an implication in one’s own misunderstanding.” Lunn was recently included in the survey show High Five: Emerging Art and America, presented by the CW Network (CA), and as a part of It’s Kind of Endless at Quality Pictures (OR). His drawings were recently published in the anthology Beast, published by Fantagraphics. This is Lunn’s first major solo exhibition. www.urbanhonking.com/pictureswamp. The artist would like to thank Kristan Kennedy, Jörg Jacoby, Keith Lunn, Carol Lunn, Adam Sorenson, Midori Hirose, Niki Rondini, Meg Peterson, Josh Kermiet, Rob Halverson, Nathaniel Price and Giles Neale. PICA acknowledges Peregrin Financial Technologies and Giles Neale for their support of this project. Jeffry Mitchell California, 2008 Wallpaper, Ceramic, Etching Courtesy of Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery “Oh will you take me as I am. Strung out on another man. California, I’m coming home.” —Joni Mitchell Wallpaper pattern and potted plants, shop windows and baroque foyers, Antique Road Show and Rembrandt prints, Joni Mitchell and Justice, Keith Haring and Grace Jones, R. Crumb and religious altars, John Wesley and Joey Veltcamp: all of these things were topics of conversations and inquiry between Mitchell and a curator. They have coalesced into something beautiful and strange. Joni Mitchell’s youthful perfection and vulnerability as seen in a forwarded YouTube video made him reconsider her, which in turn triggered a reconsideration of Haring—specifically a famous photo of the singer Grace Jones with scrawled cartoons and cloud like shapes all around. The artist says “I now see in that photo Isisi and Osisris, Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection fused...” he goes on to say “The episode of roadshow and the Rembrandt prints made me think that etching was a good old fashioned way to share a masterpiece (YouTube I guess is the good new fashioned way).” Together here, all at once, Mitchell has created a new altar for worship, one that is part you, part me, part everyone who came before and everyone yet to be. Mitchell is a darling/daring, sculptor, ceramist, printmaker, painter and conceptual artist who references a wide spectrum of art history, the decorative arts, kitsch and pop culture. His fascination with materials and their subtext leads to the creation of work that is both high and low. Moments of ecstasy, brutality, beauty and frivolity are hewn in lumps of clay, pristine paper cuttings, sweet drawings, wall hangings and paintings. Jeffry Mitchell has had solo shows at the Henry Gallery, University of Washington; Diverseworks, Houston (TX); White Columns (NY); the New Museum of Contemporary Art (NY); and the Seattle Art Museum. He was recently selected as one of five artists to present work as part of the 2008 Northwest Artist Awards at the Portland Art Museum. His works are in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, the Philadelphia Art Museum, the New York Public Library, and the Seattle Art Museum, among others. Mitchell is represented by Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery (OR) and James Harris Gallery (WA). The artist would like to thank Sheila Coppola at Sidereal Press, Mike Poetzel, Joey Veltkamp, Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery (www.pulliamdeffenbaugh. com), Jörg Jakoby and Kristan Kennedy. PICA acknowledges Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) and Christopher Huizar for their support of this project. Ryan Trecartin I-Be Area, 2007 Video, 108 minutes Courtesy of Elizabeth Dee Gallery Two Locations: THE WORKS at Leftbank & Northwest Film Center Whitsell Auditorium at Portland Art Museum: 1219 SW Park Sat . Sept 6 . 6:30 pm Sun . Sept 7 . 7:30 pm Wed . Sept 10 . 6:30 pm Sat . Sept 13 . 6:30 pm “I-Be Area has it all, as well as language: a fictional but real language of murderous non sequiturs buried in sitcom teenage prattle.” —Holland Cotter, The New York Times Trecartin’s first feature-length video, I-Be Area extends the artist’s singular process and style into new territory. Fast-paced and dense with drama, I-Be Area relates the intertwined stories of an exuberant ensemble, played by Trecartin and dozens of others, as they cope with themes such as cloning, adoption, self-mediation, lifestyle options and virtual identities. Dialogue and action often seem to be spinning out of control as the inhabitants of this emerging space communicate through helium- pitched, sing-song conversations and slapstick ritual. The film centers around Jaime’s Area, played by artist Lizzie Fitch, a space which functions, in the artist’s words, as a kind of “bedroom/classroom/ drama department/blog space/Internet-community site where the characters malfunction in the face of everything being everything and come to act on their own creative potential.” Trecartin works across mediums, investigating installation, video and live performance. He lives and works in Philadelphia. Trecartin studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and has had solo exhibitions at Elizabeth Dee Gallery (NY), Crane Arts (PA), QED (CA) and Galerie Nathalie Obadia (Paris). Trecartin’s work has been included in numerous group shows including La Trienniale di Milano (Milan, Italy); USA Today, Works from the Saatchi Collection at the Royal Academy of Arts (London, England); and the 2006 Whitney Biennial (NY). His work has been screened at the Walker Art Center (MN), The Getty Center (CA) and The New York Underground Film Festival (NY). PICA acknowledges the Elizabeth Dee Gallery (www. elizabethdeegallery.com), Jennifer Moore and makelike design studio for their support of this project. PAINTALLICA Process Performance and Installation Sept 5 - Sept 14, 2008 Public Viewing The Civic: 1938 W Burnside Street Mon - Sun . Sept 8 - 14 . 1 - 5 pm “We are not afraid to allow our process to deteriorate into chaotic rowdiness.” —PAINTALLICA PAINTALLICA is a collaborative of artists who come together across state lines and genres to make art together. Often an artist’s work is called their “practice”—which sometimes implies that the process of making art is one of experimentation and repetition until the artist gets something “right.” Even more mysterious is an artist’s solitary studio time. Members of PAINTALLICA intentionally reveal those often private, instinctual, raw and evolving moments of creation. The resulting installation is equal parts process, product and performance. For TBA:08, PAINTALLICA will take over a storefront to make objects, drawings, paintings and installations over the course of several days. The public is invited to observe this process during open hours. PAINTALLICA’ s members have exhibited extensively nationally and internationally; individually they have been written about in Sculpture Magazine, The New York Times and Artforum. Some are painters, some are sculptors, one is a published graphic novelist, two are veterans, one made headlines by offending a presidential candidate. PAINTALLICA includes but is not limited to Dan Attoe, Gordon Barnes, Craig Thompson, Shelby Davis, Josh Podoll, Jesse Albrecht, Jamie Boling, Cece Cole, Jeremy Tinder, Tim Bowman, JS Decker, Brandon Buckner, Richard Nelipovich, Josh Wilichowski, Bill Donavan, Greta Songe and Chris Miller. PICA acknowledges Robyn Johnson, Rebecca Burdick, Tim Miller, Gerding Edlen Development, Prem Group, The Portland Mercury and Bill Boese for their support of this project. The Yes Men KEEP IT SLICK: Infiltrating Capitalism with the Yes Men Curated by Astria Suparak Pacific Northwest College of Art PNCA: 1241 NW Johnson Mon - Sun . Sept 4 - Oct 26 . 9 am - 9 pm “...a band of guerilla media activisits...exposing the matrix of corporate power and government venality for all to see.” —Mark Dery, The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium KEEP IT SLICK is the first major exhibition of the artist-activist group The Yes Men. As culture- jamming activists, the group has exposed dehumanizing business practices and enacted ethical “identity correction” since 1999. Their antics have included impersonating representatives from megacorporations and government organizations such as ExxonMobil, the World Trade Organization, McDonald’s, Halliburton, Dow Chemical, and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Yes Men are a loose-knit association of some 300 impostors worldwide who agree their way into the fortified compounds of commerce. Evidence of their sociopolitical pranks, including elaborate costumes, slapstick videos, outrageous posters and props, will be exhibited alongside new works produced for this exhibition. In addition to this landmark exhibition, The Yes Men will conduct a workshop (page 142) imparting practical knowledge, with preview clips from their new feature length film to be released this fall, The Yes Men Fix the World. KEEP IT SLICK is co-produced by the Feldman Gallery at the Pacific Northwest College of Arts and the Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University. www. theyesmen.org. A Note of Thanks The series of artist projects included in this year’s Time-Based Art festival could not have been possible without the time and talent of many people. More than a decade ago PICA’s founder penned the phrase “PICA is about the activity generated by a community using its energy.” That sentiment is now a core tenet of our organizational mission and certainly embodies the forces that made these projects come to life. I am deeply grateful for and am constantly in awe of the tireless work and creative muscle Jörg Jakoby has contributed to this program. His passion and dedication to the artists is immeasurable, and these rooms would be empty, dark and scattered without him. Kent Richardson and Andrea Raijer have worked alongside Jörg and myself on installations, volunteer management, and gallery operations for the last two years—without them, time would stand still. Thank you to my interns Kate Nosen and Derek Franklin, who picked up the pieces as I flung them about. To Jörg Jakoby’s intern Ursula Berg for being so diligent and dedicated. To Jacob Hartman and Lizzie Fitch, thank you for making magic before my eyes, for adapting to every challenge and for embracing a wild but worthy process. To Corey Lunn, Jeffry Mitchell, Justin Gorman, Harry Dodge, Stanya Kahn, Ryan Trecartin, PAINTALLICA, Mike Kelley and Tamy Ben-Tor for your work, your vision and your generosity. I must thank Arnold J. Kemp for introducing me to the work of Jacob Hartman, and Jennifer Moore of Elizabeth Dee and Robert Halverson for introducing me to the work of Lizzie Fitch. Thank you to Connie Wohn for introducing me to the work of Justin Gorman. To Zach Feuer Gallery, Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery, Bobo’s on 9th, Elizabeth Dee Gallery and Mike Kelley Studios for lending work and for supporting the work of their artists. Heartfelt thanks to Stephanie Snyder for her continued collaboration and support and for her curation and tours of Fritz Haeg’s project. To the engaged and committed faculty and administration at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, especially Mack McFarland for his leadership at the Feldman Gallery, and Linda Kliewer for her orchestration of visiting artist stints and so much more. Thank you to Astria Suparak for her curation of The Yes Men exhibition. To the PICA TBA:08 staff: Luisa, Jessica, Noelle, Rob, Brian, Cynthia, Scott, Melanie, Sarah and Eric for lending themselves to a complicated and sometimes grueling process and for their support in and out of the office. To Victoria Frey for her leadership, triage support and sage advice. To Mark Russell for his artistic leadership, inspiring presence and constant collaboration: I am honored to have worked with you and look forward to future collaborations and conversations. To Erin Boberg Doughton, my compatriot in “blurring the lines” gracefully and steadily, many thanks. To Philip Iosca for his creative input on printed ephemera and so much more. To TC Smith for always saying “YES!” To Bill Boese for giving us light. To Elise Bartow for mediation and late night patrols. To Daniel Deutsch for letting us take up residence and to Andy Powell, Joanna Agee, and Hans Arenz for their guidance and patience. Thank you to those of you I have forgotten and to all the amazing volunteers who show up, stay late and make the impossible, possible. Yours, Kristan Kennedy, Visual Art Program Director, PICA TBA:08 ON SIGHT: The New Absurdists. Top row (left to right): Tamy Ben-Tor, Harry Dodge & Stanya Kahn, Lizzie Fitch, Jus- tin Gorman, Jacob Hartman. Bottom row (left to right): Mike Kelley, Corey Lunn, Jef- fry Mitchell, Ryan Trecartin, PAINTALLICA Cover: Justin Gorman, Tragicomedy, 2008. Overleaf: Jeffry Mitchell, California, 2008.
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Catalog for the exhibition presented at the 2008 Time-Based Art Festival in Portland, Oregon
Transcript of The New Absurdists (TBA On Sight 2008)
TBA ON SIGHT
Installations, exhibitions, projections and gatherings by visual artists.
The New Absurdists
Curated by Kristan KennedyExhibition Design by Jörg Jakoby
Preparator Kent RichardsonGallery Manager Andrea RaijerPublication Design by Philip Iosca
The New Absurdists is a gathering of over a dozen artist projects that flow from the ON SIGHT program and into OUT IN THE WORLD and ON THE SCREEN. Projects range from solo artist presentations, collaborative experiments, and several exhibitions. The artists included abandon realism in favor of parody. They employ comedy, magic, satire, spoof, wordplay and nonsense to explain our current chaotic, complex and critical state of affairs. Much of the work is the result of special commissions or was created while in residence at PICA.
Visual Art Opening Sept 4, 2008, 9 pm at THE WORKS at Leftbank. Visual Art projects will be on view from Sept 4 — Oct 4, 2008.
TBA:08 On Sight Hours and Locations:
Tamy Ben-Tor, Harry Dodge & Stanya Kahn, Lizzie Fitch, Jacob Hartman, Corey Lunn, Jeffry Mitchell and Ryan Trecartin
THE WORKS at Leftbank: 240 N BroadwaySept 4 - 14 . Mon - Sun . 12 - 6 pm; Sept 17 - Oct 4 . Wed - Sat . 12 - 6 pm
Mike Kelley and Ryan Trecartin at Northwest Film Center Whitsell Auditorium: 1219 SW Park$6 PICA / $7 general. See listings for showtimes.
TBA:08 ON SIGHT Off-Site Projects:
Justin Gorman, Persuasive Device at PICAPICA (Lobby): 224 NW 13th AveMon - Fri . Sept 4 - 28 . 10 am - 6 pm
Justin Gorman, Results Under Action Various Locations, visit www.pica.org for details
Fritz Haeg at Various LocationsCurated by Stephanie SnyderVisit www.pica.org for details
PAINTALLICA at The Civic: 1938 W Burnside StreetMon - Sun . Sept 8 - 14 . 1 pm - 5 pm
The Yes Men at PNCA: 1241 NW JohnsonCurated by Astria SuparakMon - Sun . Sept 4 - Oct 26 . 9 am - 9 pm
Residencies funded in part by Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust and the Kristy Edmunds Fund for New Work. Supported in part by Alora Development Daniel Deutsch, the Prints for PICA artists, and with special thanks to TODAYART Studios.
Sponsors: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, OTAK Inc., & Andersen Construction
Tamy Ben-Tor
Baby Eichmann, 2008DVD, 3:42 minutesCourtesy of Zach Feuer Gallery
Gewald, 2007Video, 8:53 minutesCourtesy of Zach Feuer Gallery
“Her dark mockumentaries twirl and spew tirades about bigotry, self-absorption and injustices that are twisted, inventive and captivating.”
—Modern Painters Tamy Ben-Tor morphs into multiple and ever changing cartoonish and complex characters that speak truths and spout missives, both laughable and terrifying. In two new video works, Ben-Tor continues her insightful and biting exploration into Jewish identity, caricature and history. Combining many dialects to form a hybrid language, Ben-Tor’s speech is intentionally garbled, yet still evokes a sense of understanding through cliché. In Gewald, pastoral scenes and folk customs are paired with subversive images of children’s storybooks, while shapeshifting women sing passages from Primo Levi’s important Holocaust memoir and ramble about the “comfortable” life of Jews in Egypt. In Baby Eichmann, a fair-haired flutist floats about while tales of an “idiot” leader who turned out to be a madman are recounted.
Tamy Ben-Tor was born in Israel and currently lives and works in New York City. She has had solo shows at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Cubitt, London; Zach Feuer Gallery, New York; and has participated in group exhibitions at the Mori Museum, Tokyo; MOCA, Los Angeles; Reina Sofia, Madrid; as well as the PERFORMA 05 and PERFORMA 07 Biennials, New York. She will have upcoming exhibitions at Brown Gallery, London, and the Kunsthalle Winterthur, Switzerland, and will participate in the Bienniale of Sydney and Manifesta 4 this summer. Ben-Tor received her MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts in 2006. The artist is currently represented by Zach Feuer Gallery (NY).
PICA acknowledges Zach Feuer Gallery (www.zachfeuer.com) and Sarah and Andrew Meigs for their support of this exhibition.
Harry Dodge & Stanya Kahn
Masters of None, 2006Video, 11:37 minutesCourtesy of Elizabeth Dee Gallery
“If comedy in contemporary art seldom appears without qualifiers like deadpan, concrete, or conceptual, Dodge and Kahn’s shared comic sensibility belongs to its own idiosyncratic genre, closer in tone and caliber to the artists’ cited influences (Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin, and Lenny Bruce) than to the art world’s sight gag or idea-based sorts of humor.”
—Rachel Kushner, Artforum Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn’s video, Masters of None, evokes both laughter and unease as a sometimes choreographed, sometimes improvised post-apocalyptic family lives out life before us. Nameless, masked and unified by pink hoods, they speak to each other in a scrambled digital tongue. The clan mimic the everyday actions of the human animal: eating, grooming, wandering and working. Their personalities and plot are only revealed through tender, absurd and abstract comedy. Dodge and Kahn employ video and performance to illuminate the unquantifiable nature of humans and their environment.
Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn were both born in California and currently live and work in Los Angeles. They were recently included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art (NY); while California Video appeared at the Getty Center, and Eden’s Edge at The Hammer Museum (CA). Their video, film and performance work have been exhibited extensively, both nationally and internationally, including ZKM Karlsruhe (Germany), Art in General (NY), P.S. 1 Contemporary Art (NY), MOCA (CA), Stromereien Festival (Zurich), Sundance Film Festival (UT) and Diverseworks (TX). The artists are currently represented by the Elizabeth Dee Gallery (NY).
PICA acknowledges the Elizabeth Dee Gallery and Jennifer Moore for their support of this project. www.elizabethdeegallery.com.
Lizzie Fitch
Big Skin (Site Specifi c Installation), 2008 Various MaterialsCourtesy of Bobo’s on 9th
Lizzie Fitch presents a multipart sculpture/space complete with abstract furniture made of wood, pillow, plastic and cloth and what the artist calls “human skin clone blankets.” These figures will drape over, reside in, and converse with the constructed environs. Throughout the course of the installation, Fitch and an undulating cast of performers called The Experimental People Band will interact with the work, collapsing the boundaries between viewer and object, gallery and stage. Fitch’s work speaks to the changing relationship of the body to reality. Synthetic materials, virtual life, alternative worlds, avatars, faux identity and accelerated evolution are shifting our purpose and culture. Working on site and in residency at PICA, Fitch has constructed a propped scene that reflects our epic struggle with technology, which is advancing faster than we are.
Lizzie Fitch lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. She studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. Fitch’s work was recently featured as part of Lustwarande 08 at the Museum De Pont (NL); in a two person exhibition at Bobo’s on 9th (www.boboson9th.com, PA); and We’ve got tissues at OK Mountain (TX). Fitch is a frequent collaborator of artist Ryan Trecartin; together they have presented work at Crane Arts (PA) and the Royal Academy of Arts (UK). Her performance group, The Experimental People Band, has performed at the New York Underground Film Festival and many other venues, house parties, and festivals throughout the US.
The artist would like to thank Tyler Wallace, Ryan Trecartin, Nico Wright, Taya Koschinick, Anne Hawk, Elise Bartow, Christina Linclau, Jennifer Moore, Ramsey McPhillips, Brian McKelligott, Jörg Jakoby and Kristan Kennedy.
PICA acknowledges Tyler Wallace for her support of this project. The commission and exhibition of this piece is supported in part by the Kristy Edmunds Fund for New Work.
Justin Gorman
Results Under ActionVarious Sites and Locationswww.pica.org for details
Billboard #1 “Persuasive Device,” 2008PICA (Lobby): 224 NW 13th AveMon - Fri . Sept 4 - 28 . 10 am - 6 pm
Justin Gorman will place a series of site-specific and portable walls at various TBA:08 Festival venues over the course of ten days. These structures are erected in public places, which the artist researches extensively for historical content and relevancy. Each wall displays concise messages that remind viewers of the hidden histories of our built environment. Gorman hopes to promote a connection between us and the spaces we build, evoking a personal response to urban spaces and city environments. These text-based “narrative reductions” or “historical slogans” distill his research to its simplest point or action.
A recent installation at the Leftbank Project in Northeast Portland referenced the building’s lively past. Long ago, residents of Portland enjoyed the very latest in jazz at a club called The Dude Ranch—closed after a shooting. The billboard is installed in the room where Louis Armstrong once played, with the words “bang, bang” painted in red across a blank wall.
Gorman is a Portland-based artist who recently successfully defended his thesis at Pacific Northwest College of Art. Gorman has had installations at Audio Cinema, Upper Playground, Mark Woolley Gallery and Pause Gallery, all in Portland, OR. He has exhibited work nationally at Ayden Gallery, Vancouver, BC and at Capers Gallery in Salina, KS. His work was included in Portland Modern, Issue 4, curated by Kristan Kennedy and Matthew Stadler.
The commission and exhibition of this project is supported in part by the Kristy Edmunds Fund for New Work. See also www.resultsunderaction.com.
Fritz Haeg
Animal Estate ToursCurated and Lead by Stephanie Snyder
Various Locations www.pica.org for details
2008 Whitney Biennial artist Fritz Haeg comes to Portland for a residency at Reed College, implementing his Animal Estates project throughout the region. Animal Estates proposes the reintroduction of animals back into our cities, strip malls, garages, office parks, freeways, front yards, parking lots and neighborhoods—a 21st century model for the human-animal relationship that is more intimate, visible and thoughtful.
In a special collaboration with PICA, Cooley Gallery director Stephanie Snyder is conducting tours of Haeg’s local projects. Haeg brings Animal Estates to Portland as part of the exhibition suddenly, on view August 26 through October 5, 2008 at the Cooley Gallery and other regional spaces. www.reed.edu/gallery.
Fritz Haeg is an architect, activist and artist whose interdisciplinary projects have been implemented across the globe. Haeg’s stated goal is nothing less than “subverting the role of the human as the dominant occupant of the planet.” www.
animalestates.org.
Jacob Hartman
_______Head, 2008Various MaterialsSite Specific Installation
Piece be with you, 2008Suite of Digital C-Prints
In his latest work, _______Head, Hartman creates an on-site sculpture/video installation. _______Head takes the form of a large hanging sphere that has collected on its surface pieces of debris, technological detritus, and cultural compost. Developed in residency at PICA, the work is a composite of objects made from rudimentary sculpture materials (plaster, wood, metal, and casting compound), mixed with video production and presentation equipment (video projectors, lights, scrim, gaffer tape, video mixers, computers, cables, video screens, and live feed cameras). The video projections and monitors feature video shot on location and taken from multiple other sources as well as hybrid compositions created when the viewer comes into camera range. As in previous works, the mechanisms of production are an integral part of the final presentation. Hartman’s interest lies in cataloging a trajectory of a work coming into existence, where the moment of completion is never quite clear.
Hartman lives and works in New York. He studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and received his MFA from Bard College in New York. His installations, video work, sculpture and paintings have been shown nationally, with recent exhibitions at CRG Gallery (NY), Drew College (NJ), The Living Room (Art Basel, Miami Beach), and New Langton Arts (CA). His work was included in Rapper’s Delight at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (CA) and SUPERNATURAL at PICA (OR). Hartman’s work has been written about on Artforum.com, and in the New Art Examiner. His performance work was featured in the 1999 catalogue for Bay Area Now at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (CA) in 1999. He has been a resident at Skowehegan School of Art and was the winner of the Bay Area Awards in 2000 for a performance at New Langton Arts.
The artist would like to thank all of the people that participated in “Piece be with you,” including Bob and Carolyn Doughton, Mellissa Dyne and Khaela Maracich, Dorie Vollum and Family, Chris Larson and the people of the Boat House, Jason Saunders and Stephanie Kelly, Tabor, Emiko, Jason, and Diane. With special thanks to Marisa White-Hartman, Erin Thurlow, Arnold J. Kemp, Kristan Kennedy, Jörg Jakoby, Kent “Kiggs” Richardson, Kate Nosen, Andrea Raijer, Nathan Henry-Silva, TC Smith, The Mac Store and all of the PICA volunteers.
PICA acknowledges TC Smith, The Mac Store, Lincoln Miller and Pushdot Studio for their support of this project. The commission and exhibition of this piece is supported in part by the Kristy Edmunds Fund for New Work.
Mike Kelley
Day is Done, 2005-2006(Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstructions #2–32)DigiBeta, 150 minutesCourtesy of Mike Kelley Studios
Northwest Film Center Whitsell Auditorium at Portland Art Museum: 1219 SW Park
Sat . Sept 6 . 2:30 pmSun . Sept 7 . 4:00 pmSat . Sept 13 . 2:30 pmSun . Sept 14 . 3:30 pm
“Satanic rituals and advertising jingles mingled with allusions to Godard, German Expressionist cinema and Stockhausen...toxic-comic carnival...an amazing feat of industry and poetics.”
—Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times This epic new work by the seminal artist is a feature-length musical examining American subcultures through the restaging of carnivalesque productions
intermixed into a meandering narrative. Each reconstruction is a live-action scene extrapolated from photographs found in high school yearbooks and investigates the pageantry around dress-up days, religious spectacles, fashion shows, singles’ mixers and musical follies. Described by The LA Weekly as “The Lawrence Welk show crossed with a Busby Berkeley musical,” Kelley disrupts traditional structures of such events to construct a dizzying daisy chain of performances. The result is a landscape populated by dancing Goths, singing vampires, hick storytellers, horse dancers and the Virgin Mary. Written and directed by Mike Kelley, with original music by Kelley and Scott Benzel, and choreography by Kate Foley.
Based in Los Angeles, Kelley works in video, sound, performance, installation, drawing, painting, and sculpture. Awarded the Wolfgang Hahn Prize in 2006 for his achievements, he has had solo exhibitions at The Tate Liverpool, The Whitney Museum, and The Louvre, and has taken part in group exhibitions including Life on Mars: 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 2008; and Petting Zoo, at Skulptur Projekte Münster, 2007. Kelley’s work is in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Centre Pompidou, and the Guggenheim Museum, as well as many other museums and collections both in the US and internationally. www.mikekelley.com.
Corey Lunn
Henchman, 2008High Density Foam, Enamel Paint
Provider, 2008High Density Foam, Peas, Lentils, Beans, Enamel Paint
Gun, 2008High Density Foam, Peas, Lentils, Plexiglas, Enamel Paint
Bean Dream, 2008 High Density Foam, Plexiglas, String, Pinto Beans, Enamel Paint
Ruin, 2008High Density Foam, Polyurethane Glue, Enamel Paint
Cairn II, 2008 Wood, Paper, Polyurethane Glue
Automatic Teller, 2008Mixed Media, Glue, Paint, Video
Empty Chamber, 2008 Acrylic on Paper
Corey Lunn creates obsessively articulated drawings, sculptures, wooden and foam carvings, animations and sound works. His work constructs and reflects bizarre, tangential and absurd narratives. Depicting surreal landscapes, hybrid animals and the foibles of the common man, Lunn’s worlds are made up with equal parts dark comedy and social commentary. For this special commission by PICA, Lunn presents forces of “nature” that dispense provisions to the people. This magical totem is plagued by “little men” who upend the monument’s cultural significance. The artist describes the work as creating a state of confusion in which the only read is “befuddlement and an implication in one’s own misunderstanding.”
Lunn was recently included in the survey show High Five: Emerging Art and America, presented by the CW Network (CA), and as a part of It’s Kind of Endless at Quality Pictures (OR). His drawings were recently published in the anthology Beast, published by Fantagraphics. This is Lunn’s first major solo exhibition. www.urbanhonking.com/pictureswamp.
The artist would like to thank Kristan Kennedy, Jörg Jacoby, Keith Lunn, Carol Lunn, Adam Sorenson, Midori Hirose, Niki Rondini, Meg Peterson, Josh Kermiet, Rob Halverson, Nathaniel Price and Giles Neale.
PICA acknowledges Peregrin Financial Technologies and Giles Neale for their support of this project.
Jeffry Mitchell
California, 2008Wallpaper, Ceramic, EtchingCourtesy of Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery
“Oh will you take me as I am. Strung out on another man. California, I’m coming home.”
—Joni Mitchell Wallpaper pattern and potted plants, shop windows and baroque foyers, Antique Road Show and Rembrandt prints, Joni Mitchell and Justice, Keith Haring and Grace Jones, R. Crumb and religious altars, John Wesley and Joey Veltcamp: all of these things were topics of conversations and inquiry between Mitchell and a curator. They have coalesced into something beautiful and strange. Joni Mitchell’s youthful perfection and vulnerability as seen in a forwarded YouTube video made him reconsider her, which in turn triggered a reconsideration of Haring—specifically a famous photo of the singer Grace Jones with scrawled cartoons and cloud like shapes all around. The artist says “I now see in that photo Isisi and Osisris, Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection fused...” he goes on to say “The episode of roadshow and the Rembrandt prints made me think that etching was a good old fashioned way to share a masterpiece (YouTube I guess is the good new fashioned way).” Together here, all at once, Mitchell has created a new altar for worship, one that is part you, part me, part everyone who came before and everyone yet to be.
Mitchell is a darling/daring, sculptor, ceramist, printmaker, painter and conceptual artist who references a wide spectrum of art history, the
decorative arts, kitsch and pop culture. His fascination with materials and their subtext leads to the creation of work that is both high and low. Moments of ecstasy, brutality, beauty and frivolity are hewn in lumps of clay, pristine paper cuttings, sweet drawings, wall hangings and paintings.
Jeffry Mitchell has had solo shows at the Henry Gallery, University of Washington; Diverseworks, Houston (TX); White Columns (NY); the New Museum of Contemporary Art (NY); and the Seattle Art Museum. He was recently selected as one of five artists to present work as part of the 2008 Northwest Artist Awards at the Portland Art Museum. His works are in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, the Philadelphia Art Museum, the New York Public Library, and the Seattle Art Museum, among others. Mitchell is represented by Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery (OR) and James Harris Gallery (WA).
The artist would like to thank Sheila Coppola at Sidereal Press, Mike Poetzel, Joey Veltkamp, Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery (www.pulliamdeffenbaugh.com), Jörg Jakoby and Kristan Kennedy.
PICA acknowledges Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) and Christopher Huizar for their support of this project.
Ryan TrecartinI-Be Area, 2007Video, 108 minutesCourtesy of Elizabeth Dee Gallery
Two Locations: THE WORKS at Leftbank & Northwest Film Center Whitsell Auditorium at Portland Art Museum: 1219 SW Park
Sat . Sept 6 . 6:30 pmSun . Sept 7 . 7:30 pmWed . Sept 10 . 6:30 pmSat . Sept 13 . 6:30 pm
“I-Be Area has it all, as well as language: a fictional but real language of murderous non sequiturs buried in sitcom teenage prattle.”
—Holland Cotter, The New York Times Trecartin’s first feature-length video, I-Be Area extends the artist’s singular process and style into new territory. Fast-paced and dense with drama, I-Be Area relates the intertwined stories of an exuberant ensemble, played by Trecartin and dozens of others, as they cope with themes such as cloning, adoption, self-mediation, lifestyle options and virtual identities. Dialogue and action often seem to be spinning out of control as the inhabitants of this emerging space communicate through helium-pitched, sing-song conversations and slapstick ritual. The film centers around Jaime’s Area, played by artist Lizzie Fitch, a space which functions, in the artist’s words, as a kind of “bedroom/classroom/drama department/blog space/Internet-community site where the characters malfunction in the face of everything being everything and come to act on their own creative potential.”
Trecartin works across mediums, investigating installation, video and live performance. He lives and works in Philadelphia. Trecartin studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and has had solo exhibitions at Elizabeth Dee Gallery (NY), Crane Arts (PA), QED (CA) and Galerie Nathalie Obadia (Paris). Trecartin’s work has been included in numerous group shows including La Trienniale di Milano (Milan, Italy); USA Today, Works from the Saatchi Collection at the Royal Academy of Arts (London, England); and the 2006 Whitney Biennial (NY). His work has been screened at the Walker Art Center (MN), The Getty Center (CA) and The New York Underground Film Festival (NY).
PICA acknowledges the Elizabeth Dee Gallery (www.elizabethdeegallery.com), Jennifer Moore and makelike design studio for their support of this project.
PAINTALLICA
Process Performance and InstallationSept 5 - Sept 14, 2008
Public ViewingThe Civic: 1938 W Burnside StreetMon - Sun . Sept 8 - 14 . 1 - 5 pm
“We are not afraid to allow our process to deteriorate into chaotic rowdiness.”
—PAINTALLICA PAINTALLICA is a collaborative of artists who come together across state lines and genres to make art together. Often an artist’s work is called their “practice”—which sometimes implies that the process of making art is one of experimentation and repetition until the artist gets something “right.” Even more mysterious is an artist’s solitary studio time. Members of PAINTALLICA intentionally reveal those often private, instinctual, raw and evolving moments of creation. The resulting installation is equal parts process, product and performance. For TBA:08, PAINTALLICA will take over a storefront to make objects, drawings, paintings and installations over the course of several days. The public is invited to observe this process during open hours.
PAINTALLICA’ s members have exhibited extensively nationally and internationally; individually they have been written about in Sculpture Magazine, The New York Times and Artforum. Some are painters, some are sculptors, one is a published graphic novelist, two are veterans, one made headlines by offending a presidential candidate. PAINTALLICA includes but is not limited to Dan Attoe, Gordon Barnes, Craig Thompson, Shelby Davis, Josh Podoll, Jesse Albrecht, Jamie Boling, Cece Cole, Jeremy Tinder, Tim Bowman, JS Decker, Brandon Buckner, Richard Nelipovich, Josh Wilichowski, Bill Donavan, Greta Songe and Chris Miller.
PICA acknowledges Robyn Johnson, Rebecca
Burdick, Tim Miller, Gerding Edlen Development, Prem Group, The Portland Mercury and Bill Boese for their support of this project.
The Yes Men
KEEP IT SLICK: Infiltrating Capitalism with the Yes Men Curated by Astria Suparak
Pacific Northwest College of Art PNCA: 1241 NW JohnsonMon - Sun . Sept 4 - Oct 26 . 9 am - 9 pm
“...a band of guerilla media activisits...exposing the matrix of corporate power and government venality for all to see.”
—Mark Dery, The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium
KEEP IT SLICK is the first major exhibition of the artist-activist group The Yes Men. As culture-jamming activists, the group has exposed dehumanizing business practices and enacted ethical “identity correction” since 1999. Their antics have included impersonating representatives from megacorporations and government organizations such as ExxonMobil, the World Trade Organization, McDonald’s, Halliburton, Dow Chemical, and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The Yes Men are a loose-knit association of some 300 impostors worldwide who agree their way into the fortified compounds of commerce. Evidence of their sociopolitical pranks, including elaborate costumes, slapstick videos, outrageous posters and props, will be exhibited alongside new works produced for this exhibition. In addition to this landmark exhibition, The Yes Men will conduct a workshop (page 142) imparting practical knowledge, with preview clips from their new feature length film to be released this fall, The Yes Men Fix the World.
KEEP IT SLICK is co-produced by the Feldman Gallery at the Pacific Northwest College of Arts and the Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University. www.theyesmen.org.
A Note of Thanks
The series of artist projects included in this year’s Time-Based Art festival could not have been possible without the time and talent of many people. More than a decade ago PICA’s founder penned the phrase “PICA is about the activity generated by a community using its energy.” That sentiment is now a core tenet of our organizational mission and certainly embodies the forces that made these projects come to life. I am deeply grateful for and am constantly in awe of the tireless work and creative muscle Jörg Jakoby has contributed to this program. His passion and dedication to the artists is immeasurable, and these rooms would be empty, dark and scattered without him. Kent Richardson and Andrea Raijer have worked alongside Jörg and myself on installations, volunteer management, and gallery operations for the last two years—without them, time would stand still. Thank you to my interns Kate Nosen and Derek Franklin, who picked up the pieces as I flung them about. To Jörg Jakoby’s intern Ursula Berg for being so diligent and dedicated. To Jacob Hartman and Lizzie Fitch, thank you for making magic before my eyes, for adapting to every challenge and for embracing a wild but worthy process. To Corey Lunn, Jeffry Mitchell, Justin Gorman, Harry Dodge, Stanya Kahn, Ryan Trecartin, PAINTALLICA, Mike Kelley and Tamy Ben-Tor for your work, your vision and your generosity. I must thank Arnold J. Kemp for introducing me to the work of Jacob Hartman, and Jennifer Moore of Elizabeth Dee and Robert Halverson for introducing me to the work of Lizzie Fitch. Thank you to Connie Wohn for introducing me to the work of Justin Gorman. To Zach Feuer Gallery, Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery, Bobo’s on 9th, Elizabeth Dee Gallery and Mike Kelley Studios for lending work and for supporting the work of their artists. Heartfelt thanks to Stephanie Snyder for her continued collaboration and support and for her curation and tours of Fritz Haeg’s project. To the engaged and committed faculty and administration at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, especially Mack McFarland for his leadership at the Feldman Gallery, and Linda Kliewer for her orchestration of visiting artist stints and so much more. Thank you to Astria Suparak for her curation of The Yes Men exhibition.
To the PICA TBA:08 staff: Luisa, Jessica, Noelle, Rob, Brian, Cynthia, Scott, Melanie, Sarah and Eric for lending themselves to a complicated and sometimes grueling process and for their support in and out of the office. To Victoria Frey for her leadership, triage support and sage advice. To Mark Russell for his artistic leadership, inspiring presence and constant collaboration: I am honored to have worked with you and look forward to future collaborations and conversations. To Erin Boberg Doughton, my compatriot in “blurring the lines” gracefully and steadily, many thanks. To Philip Iosca for his creative input on printed ephemera and so much more. To TC Smith for always saying “YES!” To Bill Boese for giving us light. To Elise Bartow for mediation and late night patrols. To Daniel Deutsch for letting us take up residence and to Andy Powell, Joanna Agee, and Hans Arenz for their guidance and patience. Thank you to those of you I have forgotten and to all the amazing volunteers who show up, stay late and make the impossible, possible.
Yours,
Kristan Kennedy,Visual Art Program Director, PICA
TBA:08 ON SIGHT: The New Absurdists.
Top row (left to right): Tamy Ben-Tor, Harry Dodge & Stanya Kahn, Lizzie Fitch, Jus-tin Gorman, Jacob Hartman. Bottom row (left to right): Mike Kelley, Corey Lunn, Jef-fry Mitchell, Ryan Trecartin, PAINTALLICA Cover: Justin Gorman, Tragicomedy, 2008. Overleaf: Jeffry Mitchell, California, 2008.
