Peter Brown
Joy Curtis
Alessandro Dal Pont
Patte Loper
Tricia McLauhglin
Kuang-Yu Tsui
Irina Zucca Alessandrelli
An exhibition which fosters unique inquiries and imaginative responses to reality prioritizes the rare, at time surrealistic, point of view of each artist. They all express through different media a freedom in looking at our surroundings with an ironic and critical approach. Curated by Irina Zucca Alessandrelli.
Group show
Curated by Irina Zucca Alessandrelli
Artists: Peter Brown, Joy Curtis, Alessandro Dal Pont,
Patte Loper, Tricia McLauhglin, Kuang-Yu Tsui
Curator's comment:
The first time I encountered "Frequently Asked Questions" on an
American website, I thought it was a democratic way to welcome an
outsider. But when I discovered that I could never find my questions
among those listed, many of my inquiries went unanswered. Because I
repeatedly came across the same void of response in various contexts, I
began to question whether my queries were inordinate or whether the
Frequently Asked Questions were, indeed, not so frequent. The FAQs,
which, at first glance seemed hospitable and comprehensive, became
irritatingly useless. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to
provide space to the "Infrequently Asked Questions". An exhibition
which fosters unique inquiries and imaginative responses to reality
prioritizes the rare, at time surrealistic, point of view of each
artist. Attention to such Infrequently Asked Questions forges an
attempt to adopt a nonconformist perspective to interpreting everyday
life. The invited artists all express through different media a freedom
in looking at our surroundings with an ironic and critical approach.
The questions that the invited artists raise through works are proudly
infrequent.
Peter Brown uses filmed illusion to create scenarios that confuse the
reality of the viewers' inhabited space. Manipulating live video images
of the gallery, the artist floods the basement and leaves the audience
with a real tank of water dripping into a reservoir and an illusion of
it collecting on the ceiling.
Joy Curtis uses a do-it -yourself aesthetic to build her bricolage
sculptures using structures of plywood, cardboard and decorative
acrylic mirror. The artist places the viewer in the middle of an
ambiguous landscape where a fake ice column holds a functioning heater
and a wood stage combines a giant photo of a shark stomach with a disco
ball for a final bewildering effect.
Alessandro Dal Pont is deeply fascinated by the culture of comics. His
geometric vision of Donald Duck and his three nephews, Huey, Dewey and
Louie, serve as viewmasters where the audience can look into the
private worlds of the characters. Literally looking through the eyes of
the famous ducks, the viewer as an added protagonist of the scene sees
the landscape these characters inhabit.
In an attempt to give meaning to the surrounding world and to our
presence in it, Kuang-Yu Tsui uses himself as the subject of his
videos, staging himself in public places in the most unthinkable of
ways. On a busy London street, Tsui signals "Go" by waving a checkered
flag, or engages pigeons in a game of lawn bowling where they are the
target.
Tricia McLaughlin loves to imagine irrational possibilities of living
in the world, making small sculptures-toys. Her unusual swimming pools
function as a sort of parody of calculated every day human behaviour,
creating a surrealistic way of imagining our spare time, hobbies and
commodities.
In Patte Loper's oil on paper paintings deer and fawns appear to be
spiritual guardians of mysterious encounters with the unknown. A
dreamlike clarity characterizes this suspenseful atmosphere, whose
aesthetic reference is 19th Century American Hudson River School style
of landscape painting.
Image: Alessandro Dal Pont
Opening reception: Friday, January 12, 6-8 pm
Ise Cultural Foundation
555 Broadway, Basement Floor, New York
Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11-6 pm