3 new works in conjunction with Performa 11

Alison O’Daniel’s film Night Sky
robbinschilds’site-reactive piece Instruction Construction
Zefrey Throwell’s seven day strip poker game I’ll Raise You One…

Art in General
79 Walker Street
New York, NY 10013
T 212-219-0473
www.artingeneral.org

 

Art in General
79 Walker Street
New York, NY 10013
T 212-219-0473
www.artingeneral.org

Art in General opens its 30th anniversary season with the exhibition Walking Forward – Running Past, a constellation of works that investigate our complicated and intricate relationship to chronology. The exhibition begins a yearlong program that uses its own framework as a way to reevaluate ideas of time and transformation. In conjunction with Performa 11, Walking Forward – Running Past presents two time-based works that exist within and outside the gallery, appearing and disappearing in different forms. Alison O’Daniel’s film, Night Sky, transitions from a trailer in the gallery into its feature-length debut at Anthology Film Archives, while robbinschilds’ ten-day site-reactive piece, Instruction Construction, is a series of detailed, movement-based scores that guide participants through the exhibition, creating spontaneous choreographies. Both of these works explore time’s malleable form, and question the linear narrative conventionally measured as past, present, and future.

Alison O’Daniel: Night Sky
November 21 & 22, 2011, 8 pm
Anthology Film Archives
Free admission with RSVP, to reserve tickets click here.

Alison O’Daniel’s feature film Night Sky has parallel, overlapping stories: two girls—Cleo and Jay—travel through the desert while a group of contestants compete in a current-day dance marathon. A small hula-hoop serves as a window between worlds, hovering unnoticed in the midst of the marathon contestants and simultaneously hanging in the desert air. Listening and deafness play prominent roles within the film, highlighted by live accompaniment by the original composer and expanded upon by a sign language interpreter.

robbinschilds: Instruction Construction
November 11–21, 2011, 12–6pm daily
Art in General
Opening reception: Saturday November 12, 6–8 pm

robbinschilds will create a series of sound recordings leading viewers through movement-based scores responding to Art in General’s 6th Floor gallery. Suggesting that our bodies are informed by our surroundings, robbinschilds explores the range of possibilities of movements drawn from spatial and contextual relationships. Interested viewers can acquire headphones and mp3 players loaded with the artists’ directives, creating a series of impromptu exchanges in which roles and definitions of participant and viewer are in flux. An activation of the piece will take place on Saturday November 12, from 6 to 8 pm.

Zefrey Throwell: I’ll Raise You One…
November 12–21, 2011, 10:30–6:00 pm daily
Art in General
Opening reception: Saturday November 12, 6–8 pm

Art in General also presents its first New Commission of the season for Performa 11, I’ll Raise You One… a seven-day public strip poker performance by artist Zefrey Throwell. Following the trajectory of Walking Forward – Running Past, Throwell’s performance transforms a regular workday into a meditative repetitious game where time itself is currency.

Transforming Art in General’s storefront Project Space into a stage, I’ll Raise You One… establishes a world of absurdity and purposelessness, allowing the casual onlooker to participate in a guilt-free voyeurism, while teasing out a different outlook on our personal interactions and day-to-day routines. In a world where money has taken supreme importance and all functions of life are commoditized, I’ll Raise You One… is a project where clothing, charisma, and a good bluff are the only currency. Using the language of small stakes capitalism mixed with America’s favorite gambling pass-time, and the flirtatious teenage party game of strip poker, Throwell draws a fluxus parallel between what we consider winning and losing in the world today.

Support
The New Commissions Program is made possible by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services; Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the Jerome Foundation; and Etant donnés: The French American Fund for Contemporary Art. Support has also been provided by Commissioners’ Circle leaders Jeffery Larsen and Joseph Bolduc, and Toby Devan Lewis; Commissioners’ Circle Supporters Joseph and Sue Berland, Roya Khadjavi and Massoud Heidari, and Cher Lewis; and Commissioners’ Circle members Pamela Averick, Louise Phillips Forbes, Sean Johnson, Andrew Laing, Mary Lapides, Diane Max, Joyce Siegel, and Jeremy E. Steinke.

General support of Art in General is provided by General Tools & Instruments LLC; the Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation; Abraham and Lillian Rosenberg Foundation; Bloomberg Philanthropies; public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York State’s 62 counties; National Endowment for the Arts; Ralph E. Ogden Foundation; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Enoch Foundation; ConEdison; The Greenwich Collection; Cowles Charitable Trust; Foundation for Contemporary Arts; and by individuals.

Founded in 1981 in Lower Manhattan, Art in General is a nonprofit organization that assists artists with the production and presentation of new work. It changes in response to the needs of artists and engages the public with their work. Since it was established, the organization has emerged as one of New York City’s leading nonprofits devoted to supporting and stimulating the creation of contemporary art, providing an environment in which artists may exhibit unconventional work and exchange ideas with their peers.

Media Contact
Maureen Sullivan
Red Art Projects
maureen@redartprojects.com