Prolonged Engagement
March 25–May 7, 2011
Opening reception:
Friday, March 25, 6–8 pm
323 West 39th Street, 2nd floor
New York, NY 10018
between 8th and 9th Avenues
www.efanyc.org
Gallery Hours:
Wed through Sat, 12-6 pm
T. 212-563-5855,
projectspace [at] efanyc.org
Artists:
N. Dash, Jesal Kapadia, Deana Lawson, Esperanza Mayobre, JJ PEET, Harriet Salmon, and Jaret Vadera.
Curated by: Erin Sickler
Prolonged Engagement is an exhibition that brings together artists who create aesthetic conditions rather than discrete art objects. Finding beauty and ingenuity amidst human imperfection, the artists in Prolonged Engagement allow the world to act upon them as they act upon it. As with tinkerers, inventors, and other radical thinkers, they know that the aha moment is not a singular event, but rather one that absorbs information from the outside world, mixes and remixes it, and allows new ideas and processes to gradually fade into view. Driven by productive antagonisms and juxtapositions, they create complex environments for inquisitiveness and transformation that go beyond simplistic notions of failure and success.
As outsourced labor continues to dominate art production and biennials, art fairs, and platforms like Google Art Project expand into as-yet unexploited geographical and virtual territories, the artworld becomes increasingly flat and fractured: design replaces art; the iPad replaces the studio; the medium trumps the message. Curator Erin Sickler asks: In such a fast and mediated reality, how do we establish any lasting criteria for art’s social or aesthetic value? Through an exhibition of diverse artworks not tied to any particular medium, Prolonged Engagement suggests that we could remain vulnerable, investigating complex punctums, multiple assemblies, engaged participation, and recursive systems as alternate ways to encounter new aesthetic and social formations.
April 15, 7–9 PM: Prolonged Engagement Artist Jesal Kapadia will present readings and screenings on the subject of radical women’s movements followed by an open dialogue.
April 29, 6–8:30 PM: Food scholar Elizabeth Thacker Jones will talk about the recent intersection between food and art and its relationship to ideas of sourcing and larger food systems. Followed by a discussion and a dinner provided by Jones and Curator Erin Sickler. 13 USD per person. BYOBeverage. Seating is limited. Please RSVP by April 22 to michelle@efanyc.org.
For press inquiries, please contact Michelle Levy at: michelle [at] efanyc.org
EFA Project Space is a Program of The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts.
EFA Project Space, a multi-disciplinary contemporary art venue focused on the investigation of the creative process, aims to provide dynamic exchanges between artists, cultural workers, and the public. Art is directly connected to its producers, to the communities they are a part of, and to every day life. By contextualizing and revealing these connections, we strive to bridge gaps in our cultural community, forging new partnerships and the expansion of ideas. Through these synergies, artists build on their creative power to further impact society.
The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (EFA) is a 501 (c) (3) public charity. Through its three core programs, EFA Studios, EFA Project Space, and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, EFA is dedicated to providing artists across all disciplines with space, tools and a cooperative forum for the development of individual practice. www.efanyc.org
EFA Project Space is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Private funding for the Gallery has been received from Lily Auchincloss Foundation and The Carnegie Corporation Inc.
