Recuperative Tactics
April 19–May 31, 2014
Art in General
Art in General is pleased to present Recuperative Tactics, a New Commission by Lisi Raskin, on view from April 19–May 31, 2014 in Art in General’s sixth floor gallery. Constructed from donated and scavenged materials, including physical remnants from Raskin’s previous works, Recuperative Tactics is a large-scale, immersive environment, emphasizing the multiple histories and narratives embodied in the architecture it occupies.
Stemming from Raskin’s 2013 experience of traveling in Afghanistan, made possible through a Creative Time Global Residency Grant and the generous support of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, this exhibition marks a shift in practice, instigated by a profound desire to escape the rule-bound models of capitalist social construction. Eschewing the general maxim of the artist as the sole authorial voice, Recuperative Tactics endeavors to foster discourse and inclusiveness, showcasing how dialogue and interaction can uproot a top-down definition of community.
Raskin, along with a team of other makers, uses a constellation of materials and voices to create a conversation about the duality of recuperation – that of making amends as a means of moving forward, and in its definition as a calculated political maneuver “by which those who control the spectacular culture co-opt all revolutionary ideas by publicizing a neutralized version of them, literally turning oppositional tactics into ideology.1”
Moveable walls, seating areas, potted plants, tables, and chandeliers all function as a malleable assemblage, regularly shifting in appearance, configuration, and function. Both an installation and a platform, Recuperative Tacticsutilizes the gallery space (and so too the opportunity of the exhibition) as an apparatus for living and making, creating a framework to subvert the hierarchy of “the solo exhibition.”
1Kurczynski, Karen. Expression as Vandalism: Asger Jorn’s “Modifications” in RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, No. 53/54 (Spring – Autumn, 2008), pp. 295-6.
you know it when you feel it
Curated by Kim Charles Kay
April 19–May 31, 2014
Professor,*
I love this pink wall you built, the way the light shines through the cracks and the space where the colors bleed into each other. It’ll be nice to spend more time with it.
Being in this space feels like being in the presence of ghosts. All the ghosts; the ones of all the workers before, the artist making shows, and the iconic image of artists living and working in New York lofts over the last 4+ decades. This space feels like a poster child for the global export of what a creative life/style should look like: NYC loft living, get it now! But in this space, there is no living; it’s post-industrial and pre-condo. It’s the formalized space of the “alternative.” Which brings me to you and to your request. You asked me for help, so here is my help. It comes in the form of an offering. An offering not just to the ghosts or to the life/style gods, but to the living…to the place where the colors bleed into each other.
We know this place, it’s the place where we affect one another. A place before the heavy, singular definition of what “it is.” Makers can feel great freedom even while constraints act against our agency, even as we attempt to stay engaged with our own creativity. Our ideas/artworks can be taken and used or just subsumed by a giant matrix of global capital that is the field of the creative professional. Pressures build and straight jackets emerge – materially, conceptually, and interpersonally. Yet we are not made to wear them. They may be laid out nicely and OF COURSEthere is always someone willing to fit us with one, but the choice is still ours.
So I’ll warm the space, but not for the ones who need a white room or the object hung at 60” high to see it. I’ll do it for you and those who choose life/style; for the bodies that may wish to linger and stay. This is for the ones who have always known that being a maker is way more interesting than the stories we’ve been told about it. This is for the ones who are curious and don’t need the meaning, the content, or the experience predigested for them. May we always remember that even this exported loft living life/style with all of its illusions of freedom still comes with a utility bill.
Love,
kk
*For Lisi Raskin, as used by/for Samuel Delany in Times Square Red, Times Square Blue. New York: New York University Press. 2001 [1999].
Roxanne D. Crocker was born at Cooley Dickinson hospital in June of 1989. She graduated from RISD in 2010. She is interested in Reece’s, pieces, feces, peanut butter cups, cakes, and pie. Treats: The situations that make you want them and the circumstances that allow you to have them.
Lydia Enriquez is an artist based in Long Island City. She holds a BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design. Since graduating in 2011 Lydia has been working as a decorative painter, designing and producing innovative finishes in plaster, gold leaf and paint for high end commercial and residential clients across the world. This exploration of craft has lead her to create materially mysterious works that have been exhibited at the Brian Morris Gallery on the lower east side. (More Info)
Kate Fox lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She studied printmaking at Rhode Island School of Design and received her BFA in 2012. She works in digital print and embroidery, and creates Utopian environments on lush fabrics. Her subject matter often includes Google images of clouds. (More Info)
Sean Gerstley makes clay objects with his hands. His sculptures and lamps have been exhibited internationally and he has curated exhibitions in Providence, Philadelphia, and New York. In June of 2014, a catalogue will be published in conjunction with an exhibition of new work featured at Force Field Project in North Philadelphia. Originally from Delaware, Gerstley studied ceramics at Rhode Island School of Design and received his BFA in 2011. He lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. (More Info)
Misha Kahn studied furniture design at RISD, received a Fulbright to pursue design and cobblery in Tel Aviv, and was named John Maeda’s artist to watch in 2014. Described by Maeda as “Dr Frankenstein in a Hello Kitty lab coat,” Misha Kahn embraces a free and easy going approach to craft, often creating new material processes and building techniques that let these objects be realized. He is represented by Johnson Trading Gallery in NYC. (More Info)
After years of working informally with textiles Kim Charles Kay studied in Rome as part of the European Honors Program and graduated from RISD in 2011 with a BFA in Painting. She was the recipient of a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship and a Quimby Foundation Grant. Kay’s objects and events straddle the worlds of performance, painting, and interior de/sign. Her most recent project includes producing a publication on her collaborative project with artist Lisi Raskin; MOTORPARK; a reader. It addresses ideas and concerns of their 37’ long 12’7” high modified 1996 Blue Bird school bus. Kay is a teaching artist at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, NY and the Drawing Center, New York, NY. (More Info)
Brittany Mroczek is an artist based out of Brooklyn, NY exploring textiles and hair as sculptural form. She works with hair as a medium and pays close attention to its composition and form when creating a style or a haircut, while remaining mindful of her clients lifestyle and desires. She has worked on various projects ranging from film to editorials. She works with raw wool to create felted objects that are an examination of the ephemeral moment that occurs when cheesecloth and raw wool become one. She finds her love of creating apparent in all her attraction to material and process. She is a Pisces. (More Info)
Since 1998, Brooklyn-based artist Lisi Raskin has traveled to the Arctic Circle, former East German and Yugoslav Atomic bunkers, and through the American west exploring the intersections of nuclear-age fears and utopian mythologies as they manifest in the oral histories and architectures of the Cold War. Raskin’s on-site research has informed the making of paintings, drawings, objects, videos, and large, constructed environments that have been exhibited internationally. Raskin was born in Miami, Florida. She received her BA in Fine Arts from Brandeis University in 1996 and her MFA from Columbia University in 2003. Raskin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture at Tyler School of Art, Temple University, in Philadelphia, PA. (More Info)
Jon Rider is an artist and curator living and working in New York, NY. He received his BA in English Literature from Penn State University, University Park, PA in 2005 and his MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, NY in 2011. Working at Art in General since 2009, he has assisted on commissions and exhibitions with artists including Zefrey Throwell, Katrín Sigurdardóttir, robbinschilds, and Letha Wilson, and curated exhibitions with Theresa Himmer, Jong Oh, and The Still House Group. As an artist, Rider has shown internationally and in New York, most recently in Wide Shot, Venice, Italy (2013); Drawing Up!, New York, NY (2013); Fragmentation, New York, NY (2011); and Implied Virtue, New York, NY (2011). (More Info)
Katie Stout is a furniture designer based in New York. She graduated from RISD in 2012 and is inspired by the things that she wants to make better and the dreams that she wants to come true. In Katie’s perfect world you can’t use the chairs because they are stuffed animals and nothing can break except for hearts. Katie’s practice usually involves collaboration and outsourcing mostly because she can’t do a lot of things even though she tries. She is represented by Johnson Trading Gallery in NYC. (More Info)