September 6 - October 13, 2001
Opening reception: September 6, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Exhibition open: September 6 - October 13, 2001

Lilah Freedland Picture of Myself in other People's Houses, 1999-present (detail: 1 of 64 Polaroids)

MAIN SPACE: Purloined

Sophie Calle, Lilah Freedland, Nancy Hwang, Nikki S. Lee, Lisa Levy, Guy Overfelt, Mark Wallinger, Eric Wesley

Curated by Christine Y. Kim

Purloined

pur·loin \...1. Obs : to set aside : render inoperative or ineffectual 2 :to take away for oneself : appropriate wrongfully and under circumstances that invoice a breach of trust : FILCH ~ vi: to practice theft syn see STEAL; pur·loin·er \... one that purloins : THIEF, PILFERER

The works of art presented in Purloined reflect explorations of fraudulence. Whether the artist performs a falsehood or reversal, he/she examines how identities and cultural practices are transgressed, or the objects consist of stolen merchandise or materials obtained through alternative means, each piece addresses a form of manipulation or thievery. The processes of deviance conjure notions of desire, privacy, ownership and materialism in contemporary culture.

By posing as a chambermaid, Sophie Calle gained access to hotel rooms and photographed guests' belongings. Paul Auster, in describing "Maria," the fictive counterpart to Calle, explains how "she invented life stories for them [the guests] based on the evidence that was available to her. It was an archaeology of the present, so to speak, an attempt to reconstitute the essence of something from only the barest fragments: a ticket stub, a torn stocking, a blood stain on the collar of a shirt." Works from the Autobiography series will also be included in Purloined.

Calle has been a critical influence on several artists in the exhibition including Lilah Freedland, whose polaroids serve as temporal documents of her solo performances. For Pictures of Myself in Other People's Houses (1999-present) Freedland breaks into apartments and houses and photographs herself clad, posed, and depicted in the domestic spheres of others. These documents of stolen moments juxtapose privacy and intentional self-incrimination.

N (2001) by Nancy Hwang is an interactive performance that consists of the artist working as a manicurist, offering her services in the space of the gallery. By setting up a manicure station and posing as a stereotypical working-class Korean immigrant woman, Hwang manipulates the position of the viewer-participant vis-à-vis commodity, desire and service industry. The manicures are "performed" in the gallery Thursday through Saturday 11 - 6 and by appointment.

Nikki S. Lee's self-portraits examine social identities. Grouped under rubrics such as "The Yuppie Project," "The Swingers Project" and "The Punk Project," her photographs depict herself disguised and belonging to various subcultures and communities. She first studies a stereotype and then takes on the constructed role and is photographed circulating in public.

Lisa Levy works as a contemporary anthropologist or archeologist, collecting what one might consider banal objects of contemporary culture. Stolen items such as articles of clothing belonging to ex-boyfriends and ashtrays from bars are displayed like artifacts at an ethnographic museum. Each item is tagged and labeled with a title, description and date.

Stemming from his in-depth scrutiny of the rapid merging between government, media and the corporate complex, Guy Overfelt's projects address "the notion that collective identity and everyday life are hybridized by consumer-based, media-driven culture." Untitled (stack no. 5) (2001) represents an accumulation of mail and paraphernalia obtained through 1-800 ads, television and online notices offering free merchandise and sent to Artists Space over the past four months.

Mark Wallinger's video, Angel (1997) challenges the practice of understanding truth through documentation. Walking backward at the bottom of a central escalator, the blind subject recites verses of the Gospel according to St. John in reverse. As the entire loop is projected in reverse, the skewed monologue and the motions appear to move forward in real time but are in fact the composite of a double negative.

Responding to the recent MTV frenzy surrounding the missing $50,000 platinum pendant and chain belonging to singer-actor Tyrese, Eric Wesley devised a plan to locate and claim the prize for himself. Research on scuba lessons, metal detectors, and submarines as well as painted self-portraits over Tyrese posters and a marine-model of the seafloor of Miami are some of the elements that make up this installation.

Each of these artists examines a specific kind of behavior through a slightly different lens. The tone is active, and the variety of works -from photography to video and from sculpture to performance- dynamic. Purloined addresses a shared desire for, and rejection of, manipulation.

N (2001) by Nancy Hwang

Eric Wesley Tyrese Project, 2001 (detail: video stills)   Christine Y. Kim is Assistant Curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem, where she curated For the Record: Julie Mehretu, Senam Okudzeto and Nadine Robinson. She has also coordinated exhibitions such as Freestyle, Glenn Logan: Stranger, and Isaac Julien: Vagabondia. Recent catalogue essays include "Candice Brutz: Third Degree Burn, Interview with Odili Donald Odita" and "The Korean War, Fifty Years Later: Y. David Chung, Michael Joo, Ik-Joong Kang, Yong Soon Min and Soon-Mi Yoo".

ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN PROJEC SERIES: 2 x 4, Museum of the Ordinary

Presented by 2 x 4's Michael Rock, Susan Sellers and Georgianna Stout and located in lower Manhattan, the Museum of the Ordinary organizes exhibitions that focus on contemporary design and urbanism. The Museum's permanent collection is on display throughout the year in SoHo and travels to cities worldwide. This installation, entitled "Staples," presents a selection of objects that are both drawn from and emblematic of the conflicted neighborhood that both the Museum and Artists Space share.

PROJECT SPACE: María Alós: Incognito

Incognito; The Collector's Edition, 2001 50 dolls, acrylic on sculpy, 2" x 1" each

With conceptually transgressive strategies, María Alós utilizes a mischievous sensibility to confront institutional structures and individual belief systems, both in society, and within the art world. Characterized by a naïve, almost child-like playfulness, her work encourages us to reconsider practices and actions that normally go unquestioned. Incognito considers the legitimacy of the art object, the validatory systems of the art world, and the deferential gaze of the museum visitor.