The New Normal
A traveling exhibition co-organized by iCI,
New York, and Artists Space, New York
Touring April 2008 through June 2010
Curated by Michael Connor
On view: April 25 – June 21, 2008
Artists Space
38 Greene Street, 3rd Floor
New York, New York
Panel Discussion at Artists Space
Wednesday, May 28, 2008, 6:30 – 8:00 pm
The New Normal brings together thirteen recent artworks that use private information as raw material and subject matter. The concept of privacy, though widely invoked, is difficult to define. The private sphere encompasses domestic spaces, bodies, thoughts, communications, and behaviors—contexts that are usually rendered inaccessible to the public eye by legal, social, and physical boundaries. The practices that demarcate the private sphere are so much a part of the fabric of everyday life—wearing clothing, politely pretending not to overhear a cell-phone conversation— that they only become noticeable when they shift, making the private sphere visible to the public eye. Privacy, to put it bluntly, captures our attention only when it is under threat.
The spread of social technology has affected privacy no less profoundly. With the rise of online commerce, many banks and retailers have developed sophisticated methods of tracking and studying the behavior of consumers, while increased use of the Internet has created new platforms for voluntary self-disclosure, from blogs to MySpace. Each of the works in The New Normal—video, Web sites, sculpture, artist’s books, found objects, and photographs—grants access to the private sphere of the artists themselves, of strangers, and of public officials. Overall, the exhibition creates a sense that access to private information is a kind of currency, the exchange of which is growing and evolving in bewildering ways. We may find it frightening or fascinating, but we are all inescapably complicit in it.
The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue co-published by iCI and Artists Space, New York, with essays by guest curator Michael Connor, Clay Shirky and Marisa Olson.
Panel Discussion at Artists Space, co-organized by iCI and Artists Space
Wednesday, May 28, 2008, 6:30 – 8:00 pm
A panel discussion will focus on works of art and themes addressed in the exhibition. The participants will include exhibition curator Michael Connor, artists Jill Magid, and Jennifer and Kevin McCoy. The panel will be moderated by Benjamin Weil, director of Artists Space.
Artists in exhibition
Sophie Calle
Mohamed Camara
Hasan Elahi
Eyebeam R & D/Jonah Peretti and Michael Frumin
Kota Ezawa
Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher
Guthrie Lonergan
Jill Magid
Jennifer and Kevin McCoy
Trevor Paglen
Corinna Schnitt
Thomson & Craighead
Sharif Waked
Exhibition Itinerary
(to date)
Artists Space
New York, New York
April 25 – June 21, 2008
Huarte Centro de Arte Contemporáneo
Huarte, Spain
July 4 – September 28, 2008
The Decker Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art
Baltimore, Maryland
November 6 – December 14, 2008
Canzani Center Gallery, Columbus College of Art & Design
Columbus, Ohio
February 11 – April 22, 2009
Pomona College Museum of Art
Claremont, California
August 25 – October 19, 2009
The New Normal is a traveling exhibition co-organized by iCI (Independent Curators International), New York, and Artists Space, New York, and circulated by iCI. The guest curator for the exhibition is Michael Connor.
Independent Curators International
799 Broadway, Suite 205
New York, NY 10003
212-254-8200
info@ici-exhibitions.org
www.ici-exhibitions.org
