by Merrily Kerr
This sprawling exhibition of artwork, documentation,
and ephemera provided ample evidence that interesting artists—working
both individually and in collectives—are finding ways to operate on
their own terms outside of the conventional art world (by starting their
own galleries, for example) while at the same time functioning successfully
within it. And although its title was misleading (the battle is against the
art world, not governments), this was a timely, if esoteric, show.
Overall, most of the participating artists seem to be
more interested in sidestepping “the institution” than
critiquing it, but a few gamely bite the hand that feeds them. The most
pointed pieces here were the hilarious corrections to poorly written
gallery press releases by the London-based collective Bank (proprietors of
“Gallery Poo Poo”). One of Bank’s members, Simon Bedwell,
amusingly targets the art world’s new power mongers in his movie
poster of a couple embracing, with shadowy figures giving Nazi salutes in
the background. The text reads, Curators:
They’re Everywhere. Another
tongue-in-cheek poster by Karin Schneider flirts with artistic radicalism
in the age of terror by showing the artist wearing a balaclava and
kidnapping Dan Graham for a cheap $50 ransom.
For some, proposing alternatives means setting up shop
in the desert. Michael Phelan, who was represented with a wooden sculpture
of a bear designed to hold a beer bottle on its head, set up an art-making
outpost in Marfa, Texas, called United Artists, Ltd., for which he invited
Matthew Brannon to design a series of pastel-colored posters. Jutta Koether
and Kim Gordon stayed in Manhattan, but propose, by means of a film poster,
a social and art-making club lurking in the shadow of West Side luxury
apartment buildings. It consists of an appropriated
Independence Day poster (piggybacking on
its apocalyptic furor) to which they have added the stenciled text The Club in the Shadow.
Several other groups jettison the high production
values made possible by a strong art market to produce photocopied
leaflets, some of which include childlike drawings (by the Trudi group),
and serially published translations (by the Reena Spaulings collective) of
literary critic Michèle Bernstein’s novel
Tous les chevaux du roi (1960).
Continuous Project, formed by Bettina Funcke, Wade Guyton, Joseph Logan,
and Seth Price, also takes the writing of various philosophers, artists,
and critics as the starting point for new discussions. Their huge,
self-published posters featuring book covers are notably more ambitious and
marketable than the less professionally produced work in the show, though
also drier and lacking in underground appeal.
Documentation of actions or events, invitations, and
posters relating to past gallery openings, as well as eccentric collections
like North Drive Press’s boxed editions contributed to the impression
that the show consisted more of gathered evidence than art. The sheer
volume of material on display did inspire curiosity but did not adequately
describe the contributors’ unique identities. Still, this ambitious
show is certainly a contender for the distinction of assembling work by the
most artists in any small-gallery exhibition; more importantly, it proved
that artistic collaboration is alive and well and operating tantalizingly
out of sight.
Read more in the print edition>
