NEW WORKS: 08.3
On View Through January 11, 2009
445 North Main Avenue
San Antonio, Texas 78205
Artpace San Antonio announces new projects by 08.3 resident artists Richie Budd (San Antonio, TX), Lu Chunsheng (Shanghai, China), and Taryn Simon (New York, New York), selected by guest curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects at London’s Serpentine Gallery.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
San Antonio-based artist Richie Budd makes sensory, interactive sculptures out of a broad array of household and industrial gadgets and materials. At Artpace, Budd’s Absorbing Liminal Homeostasis, comprises an interactive sculpture constructed with medial equipment, speakers, convex mirrors, aromatherapy devices, lights, a margarita machine, and smoke, snow, and bubble machines. The sensory elements of the machine, operated by the artist from a wheelchair set within the sculpture, include the polyphonic layering of club music and audio tracks developed for business coaching. Acting as a neurological disc jockey of sorts, Budd conducts an investigation of psychological and cultural programming, and generates a powerful sensory experience for viewers.
Chinese artist Lu Chunsheng‘s video and photographic works integrate documentary-style imagery with fictional epic narratives. At Artpace, Chunsheng created his first full-length, high-definition film. Shot in locations throughout San Antonio and surrounding areas, The first man who bought a juicer bought it not for drinking juice documents the life of a combine (a farm machine used for harvesting grain) from its birth in a factory to its work in the fields. Inspired by Orson Welles’ radio play, The War of the Worlds, Chunsheng’s film has all the trappings of a classic science fiction scenario, showing technology as a creation that threatens to undermine and enslave its creator. In this not so subtle critique of science and industry, the film joins sweeping panoramic shots of Texas farmland with long-take footage of the combine to create a diametrical opposition between the natural world and the manufactured environment.
Taryn Simon‘s Artpace exhibition, a photo-sculptural installation titled Sepia Officinalis, represents a departure from the artist’s previous bodies of work, introducing a more intuitive atmosphere of trial and error based on the possibilities of natural phenomena. It features four aquariums, which house a unique species of marine life called Cuttlefish. The skin of the cephalopod almost instantly adapts to its surroundings, taking on distinct tonalities of the surface over which it swims. Through maintenance of four separate environments—a control group of three tanks lined with natural images of sand and one tank featuring a background of a checkerboard—the artist tests the Cuttlefish’s survival strategy of invisibility. Through careful construction of the Cuttlefish’s environment, Simon presents a series of sculptures that blur the lines between natural and man-made, emphasizing the power—and fragility—of illusion.
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Hans Ulrich Obrist was born in Zürich, Switzerland in1968. In 2006, he joined the Serpentine Gallery, London, England as Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects. Prior to this he was Curator of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France (2000-06), as well as Curator of Museum in Progress, Vienna, Austria (1993-00). He has curated over 150 exhibitions internationally since 1991, including DO IT (47 exhibitions since 1994); 1st Berlin Biennale, Germany, co-curated with Klaus Biesenbach and Nancy Spector (1998); 2nd Guangzhou Triennale, China, co-curated with Hou Hanru and Guo Xiaoyan (2005); Lyon Biennale, France, co-curated with Stéphanie Moisdon (2007); Il Tempo del Postino, Manchester International Festival, England, co-curated with Philippe Parreno (2007); and 1st Moscow Triennale, Russia (2008).
EXHIBITION INFORMATION
New Works: 08.3 is made possible by the Linda Pace Foundation; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Harpo Foundation; Nimoy Foundation; The Brown Foundation, Inc.; Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy; and The Cultural Collaborative, a division of the City of San Antonio’s Office of Cultural Affairs.
ABOUT ARTPACE
Artpace San Antonio serves as a laboratory for the creation and advancement of international contemporary art. Artpace believes that art is a dynamic social force that inspires individuals and defines cultures. Our residencies, exhibitions, and education programs nurture the creative expression of emerging and established artists, while actively engaging youth and adult audiences.
For press inquiries, please contact Celina Emery at cemery@artpace.org.
