calendario eventi  :: 

X

1/4/2005

Christina Ray

cherrydelosreyes, Los Angeles

Visitor.Files

cherrydelosreyes is proud to present New York artist Christina Ray’s latest site-specific, psychogeographic project Visitor.Files.

Christina Ray’s Visitor.Files originated with a wish to replicate the heightened awareness commonly felt when first landing in a foreign city, when every person, sight and smell appears curious and full of potential. By including herself in the common flow of sidewalk activity and intensely studying the events happening around her, Christina Ray addresses her ongoing interest in capturing and organizing the observations of everyday life. Like On Kawara, Allan Kaprow, Yoko Ono and the Situationists before her, Ray fuses an appreciation of chance and randomness of experience with a need to understand it through the creation of rules, systems, instructions and aesthetic documentation.

The Visitor.Files process involves acting as a passive observer of the activity at street intersections. At the locations she visits, Ray takes notes, shoots video and photographs and collects “samples” such as flyers, newspapers or other urban detritus. Each session of overt surveillance lasts approximately 15 minutes, or until 25 specific activities have been noted. Observations are tied to the date, time, weather, location and direction (i.e. “Woman in a red coat walking a large dog walks west, then south” or “police car stops at light, then goes north”). The information collected is entered into a database which then informs a series of coded maps. These “maps” in turn become geometric abstract paintings on vellum that simultaneously resonate with random activity and systemic order. The paintings, photographs, samples and video footage are gathered into slim file cases, one for each session, to literally encapsulate the original experience and the multiplicity of the data collection.

cherrydelosreyes will host Ray in residence at the gallery integrating her daily life into the work while documenting the many patterns at the intersection of Venice Boulevard and Centinela. Her observations from March 27 – April 2 will be combined into an ambitious wall painting in the gallery. The exhibition will present works from Visitor.Files New York, video footage and the wall painting of the Los Angeles project as well as her temporary studio. An opportunity to join Christina Ray for documentation sessions at the intersection will be available on Tuesday, March 29 from 11:00am–12noon and 4:00-5:00pm and Friday, April 1 from 11:00am-12noon. Contact the gallery to make a reservation, info@cherrydelosreyes.com or 310-398-7404. Space is limited to three participants per session - reserve early.

Christina Ray has exhibited widely at DCKT Contemporary, Participant, and The New Museum, New York as well as Gallery Kobo Chika, Tokyo and Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica. She is the founder of Glowlab, a Brooklyn-based arts lab exploring the concept of psychogeography, an open and highly experimental discipline concerned with the ways in which the geographic environment affects emotions and behavior. Glowlab is particularly interested in the psychogeographic elements of contemporary public-space art, including performance, documentary work, film/video and urban research. Glowlab has worked with organizations including Creative Time, Eyebeam, Parsons School of Design and Intel’s Berkeley Research Lab. http://www.glowlab.com . Both Ray’s work and Glowlab have appeared in numerous publications including the Utne Reader, rhizome.org, Los Angeles Times, Flash Art and the New York Times.

Opening reception is Saturday, April 2, 2005 6 - 9pm

cherrydelosreyes
12611 Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, California
Gallery Hours: Friday – Sunday 11am- 6pm or by appointment

stampa

permanent link