June 6th - August 22nd, 2015
PUBLIC FICTION at CHINA ART OBJECTSPRESS
This Sentence, is an exhibition of nine artists that will accumulate, weekly, over the course
of the summer, paired with a program of performances and screenings, contemporary and historical
“citations,” giving context to the ideas in the show.
The exhibition is about the space between choreography and language, as they exist on the screen
and is inspired by two video works. The first, Points in Space (1986), is a dance made for
television by choreographer Merce Cunningham, in which dancers play sculptures, alternating movement
with stillness in front of a camera whose frame, motion (and rest) is a part of the “score”; the second,
Associations (1975), is a short work by experimental filmmaker John Smith, which puns on semiotics
by voicing an essay on linguistics, while setting images and text against one another, on screen.
This Sentence, quotes contemporary choreography as it draws from vernacular gestures, staging bodies
like objects and replacing bodies with objects, to present an exhibition like a performance, framed
in the proscenium of the gallery. Here, we might say that both language and choreography are alike in
their economy, in how they build their fluidity on segue, on “association”: the articulation of ideas,
through phrases structured to carry unexpected, and yet connected, turns. Connections that become stronger
or clearer with repetition.
The space we are charting in this exhibition, proposes that movement and syntax have the ability to
depict a certain kind of urgency, culling from the pedestrian and illustrating the political through
allegory: the ineffable, made effable, ineffably.* In this essay-like exhibition, introduced one paragraph
at a time through weekly dispatches, we will look at the expression of language and movement both on
screen and in space, from “pure presence”* to redacted time.
In order of appearance, this exhibition will present the work of: Becket Flannery, Gregory Kalliche,
Sascha Braunig, Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Emily Mast, Ryan Gander, Tamara Henderson,
Pascual Sisto, and Helen Marten.
As well as a program of screenings including: John Smith, Merce Cunningham, Sophia Al-Maria,
Charles Atlas, Ericka Beckman, Derek Boshier, Ohad Fishof, Joan Jonas, Tzion Abraham Hazan,
Babette Mangolte, Sara Magenheimer, Rashaad Newsome, Shahryar Nashat, A. Michael Noll, Martine Syms,
and a few more to be announced soon…
There will be performances staged by Ryan Gander, and Adam Linder. As well as a conversation with writer
Alexander Keefe on dancer/choreographer Viola Farber.
In short, this is an exhibition whose ambition is the illustration of language, the animation of objects,
and the choreography of colloquialisms….All the while acknowledging, this could get complicated,
like trying to stand in a moving spotlight, on stage after the curtain has lifted.
Yours, in comedy and error,
— PF / Lauren Mackler
Image caption: 4 film stills from Associations (1975) by John Smith
* We are pulling from a few friends here… This thought on language originated with linguist Wittgenstein,
and was most recently synthesized by Maggie Nelson in her brilliant new book “The Argonauts.”
* And this... from the writing in progress of Alexander Keefe, on the topic at hand.
Schedule:
*Week 1, now on view:
Becket Flannery, Unfreedom
Saturday June 6, 2015 6-8pm
Screening:
Merce Cunningham, Points In Space 1986
John Smith, Associations 1975
John Smith, The Girl Chewing Gum 1976
John Smith, Gargantuan 1992
*Week 2, now on view:
Gregory Kalliche, Find Something...
Saturday June 20, 2015 4-6pm
Screening:
A. Michael Noll, The Computer Generated Ballet 1965
Erika Beckman, Hit and Run, 1974
Merce Cunningham SquareGame Video 1976
Rashaad Newsome ICON 2014
*Week 3, now on view:
Sascha Braunig, Striders
Thursday June 25, 2015 6-8pm
Screening:
Ohad Fishof, One More Song 2014
Merce Cunningham with John Cage, David Tudor, Nam June Paik and Stan VanDerBeek, Variations V 1966
Joan Jonas, Left Side Right Side 1972
Shahryar Nashat, Regulating Line 2005
Merce Cunningham and Charles Atlas, Locale 1977
*Week 4, now on view:
Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Untitled (Everytime)
Thursday July 2, 2015 6-8pm
Screening:
Gregory Kalliche, Trailer 2014
John Smith, The Black Tower 1985
The Kiss 1999
Sara Magenheimer, Seven Signs That Mean Silence 2013
Sophia Al Maria, A Whale Is A Whale: Swan Song For The Arabian Humpback 2014
Derek Boshier, Best Foot Forward 2014
Did You See........That 2014
Sometimes I Feel Like That 2014
Week 5,now on view:
Emily Mast, INDEX
Saturday July 11, 2015 1-6pm day-long “Performance” of INDEX
Week 6,
Ryan Gander, This Consequence
Saturday July 18, 2015 5-8pm As Loose As it Were performance staged by Ryan Gander
+ Screening:
Babette Mangolte, Watermotor (Trisha Brown) 1978
and Four Pieces by Morris 1993
Sophia Al Maria, Your Sister 2014
Sophia Al Maria, How Can I Resist (with Fatima Al Qadiri) 2014
Tzion Abraham Hazan Study of a Man Dancing 2013
Merce Cunningham and Elliot Caplan Beach Birds 1993
Week 7,
Tamara Henderson, The Scarecrow's Holiday
Saturday July 25, 2015 7pm a conversation with Alexander Keefe
On Merce Cunningham Dance and Black Mountain College student Viola Farber.
With a partial screening of Merce Cunningham's Crises
Week 8,
Helen Marten Collage vs Inlays
Sunday August 2nd, 2015 6-8pm
Screening Martine Syms, Pilot for a show about Nowhere
Week 9,
Pascual Sisto, Bells and Whistles
Programming by Landon Thomas
Special thanks to Joey Jensen
Saturday August 8, 2015: “Some Riding” Choreographic services by Adam Linder (5pm)
“OPENING” OF THE EXHIBITION 6-8pm
