A.K. Burns<\/strong><\/div>\n
FAULT LINES<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
February 26 – April 9, 2017<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Opening reception:\u00a0Sunday, February 26th<\/span><\/span>,\u00a06 to 8pm<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201c\u2026it was ambiguous, two-faced. What was inside it\u00a0and what was outside it depended upon which side of\u00a0it you were on.\u201d\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Dispossessed<\/em>\u00a0by Ursula K. Le Guin<\/div>\n
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Knowing is a kind of death, halting pre-lingual sensitivities.\u00a0Knowing what you know, all other knowns precipitate,\u00a0presuming relative truths, knowledge, belief, reality\u2026 your\u00a0norm<\/em>. Admitting a lack of knowledge means accepting an\u00a0inability to penetrate. To be rendered impotent, to be\u00a0released.<\/div>\n
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In a series of three, nearly identical partitions, acting\u00a0jointly\u00a0as thresholds (gates) and obstacles (fences)\u2014 the language\u00a0embedded in their steel bars reads, respectively; KNOWN\u00a0KNOWN, KNOWN UNKNOWN and UNKNOWN\u00a0UNKNOWN. The gates, constructed of sandblasted steel,\u00a0mimic the heavily painted black fences that dominate the\u00a0New York City landscape. The text, a reference to a\u00a0statement made by Donald Rumsfeld (in February 2002) at\u00a0a press conference questioning what substantiation exists\u00a0for the alleged \u2018weapons of mass destruction.\u2019 Rumsfeld\u00a0uses this illusive linguistic detour for the strategic\u00a0production of fear.<\/div>\n
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A figure looms in\u00a0She Was Warned<\/em>, as a dystopic reimagining\u00a0of Artemis of Ephesus, representations of which articulate\u00a0the goddess with a torso covered in numerous breasts.\u00a0Artemis, also known as Diana, is a goddess of the hunt, the natural environment, the moon, women, and childbirth.\u00a0The figure\u2019s breasts are rendered as crudely cast Gatorade bottles. Topped with the iconic cap, like bright orange\u00a0nipples, the bottles are hung from a grid of rusted steel typically used to reinforce concrete. Unlike breast milk or\u00a0water, which provided basic sustenance, Gatorade\u2014the first sports drink, invented in 1965\u2014boasts enhancement.\u00a0Built with industrial materials\u00a0She<\/em>\u00a0is \u00a0both figurative and architectural, a shell of her former self, she is nearly\u00a0depleted. Still she gestures with an offering, and dangling from her gloved palm she presents a gold-plated IUD.<\/div>\n
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Imaged on the walls are combinations of grids and holes, some opaque and some that let the breeze in.\u00a0Metaphorical and literal (window) screens, objects built to block access, are perforated with openings, leaks, and\u00a0passageways for anything that makes it thru. These material collages include bits of outdoors equipment, and are\u00a0punctuated, held together by pairings of grommets. Following the path from entry to exit the orifices are sometimes\u00a0threaded with chains of linked items. Adhered directly to the walls are a series of landscapes extracted from a coverpage\u00a0of the New York Times (of the unfinished Dakota pipeline in a desolate western landscape). Abstracted in\u00a0scale and without evidence of the pipeline, the sites appear ambiguous and hard to read as unified.<\/div>\n
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Leave No Trace<\/em>, 2016, is a record. A limited edition experimental audio-based work, pressed on vinyl and packaged in\u00a0a zip-bag with a pair of nitrile gloves and an accompanying poem. The recording consist of two (unlabeled) tracks,\u00a0one per side that combines ambient environmental recordings, vocalization, sounds generated from various found\u00a0materials\u00a0and an old electric guitar.\u00a0Leave No Trace<\/em>, is the soundtrack for a forthcoming installation, that is part of a\u00a0cycle of related works that includes\u00a0A Smeary Spot\u00a0<\/em>(2015) and\u00a0Living Room<\/em>\u00a0(2017) currently on view at the New\u00a0Museum. The title and the poem (Leave No Trace<\/em>) reference wilderness ethics but also notions of unregulated sites\u00a0and bodies. In questioning\u00a0what is deemed natural or naturalized, it points to the privileges and subjugation of\u00a0bodies and actions that go unrecorded.<\/div>\n
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A stray foot wanders off, holding its ground, bodiless, a host to a quotation scrawled in wire.<\/div>\n
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This is A.K. Burns\u2019 third solo exhibition at Callicoon Fine Arts. Burns is in residence at the New Museum with\u00a0Shabby But Thriving<\/em>, an exhibition open till\u00a0April 23<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0This installation includes the two-channel video,\u00a0Living Room<\/em>\u00a0(2017), which follows on the heals of\u00a0A Smeary Spot<\/em>\u00a0(2015) exhibited at Participant INC, NY and the Portland\u00a0Institute of Contemporary Art, Oregon. This series of works draws on theater, science fiction, philosophy, and\u00a0ecological anxieties.\u00a0Originally from Northern California, Burns is an interdisciplinary artist and educator residing in\u00a0Brooklyn, NY. Currently a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University, Burns is also a 2015 recipient of a Creative\u00a0Capital Foundation Visual Arts Award. In 2008, Burns co-founded the artists activist group W.A.G.E. (Working\u00a0Artists and the Greater Economy), and in\u00a02010 released the feature-length socio-sexual video portrait\u00a0Community\u00a0Action Center<\/em>\u00a0in collaboration with A.L. Steiner. Having exhibited internationally at venues such as The Tate\u00a0Modern, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Burns work insists that matter\u00a0matters, that the body is a site of imminent negotiation, and that\u00a0unexpected affinities between material, medium\u00a0and media offer space to rework economies of gender, labor, ecology and sexuality<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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For additional information contact Photi Giovanis at\u00a0info@callicoonfinearts.com<\/a>, or call\u00a0 212-219-0326<\/a>.<\/div>\n
Callicoon Fine Arts<\/strong>\u00a0is located at 49 Delancey Street between Forsyth and Eldridge Streets. Gallery hours are\u00a0Wednesday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0to\u00a0Sunday<\/span><\/span>,\u00a010am to 6pm<\/span><\/span>. The nearest subway stops are the B and D trains at Grand Street and the F, J, M and Z trains at Delancey-Essex Street.<\/div>\n
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Callicoon Fine Arts<\/div>\n
49 Delancey Street<\/div>\n
New York, NY 10002<\/div>\n
212 219 0326 | info@callicoonfinearts.com<\/a><\/div>\n
www.callicoonfinearts.com<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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