September 5 - October 21, 2002
Opening Reception: Thursday September 5, 6:30-8:30pm

Sharon Ya'ari Chairs, C-print, 34x43 inches Courtesy of Lombard-Freid Fine Arts

MAIN SPACE: Multitude

Do Ho-Suh, Sharon Ya'ari, Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber, Kamrooz Aram, Orit Raff, Rick Buckley, Jean Shin, Nayia Frangouli, Sung-Hee Choi, Txuspo Poyo, Matsue Taiji, Ararat Sarkissian, Hong Hao, Cari Gonzalez Casanova, Corine Borgnet

Co-curated by Lauri Firstenberg
and Irene Small

This exhibition uses an open and flexible conception of "multitude" as a model of subjectivity and a mode of production to question the relationship between modernity and difference. Multitude addresses identity, language, history, memory and territory by focusing on operations of translation and interpretation via artistic strategies of abstraction, repetition and obscuration. Multitude investigates the interface between subjectivity, space, and indeterminacy, as it is negotiated by various international contemporary practitioners through photography, film, painting and installation.

Multitude is made possible, in part, by contributions from The Consulate General of Israel In New York, Office of Culture Affairs, Rafi and Vicki Hovanessian, Lombard-Freid Fine Arts, Atelier 4, Sprint Graphics, L.A. Galerie, Frankfurt, British Council, and with the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum, New York.
       

PROJECT SPACE 1: Sarah Dobai

Above the City, 2001, C-print. Courtesy of the artist.

The psycho-social staging of Sarah Dobai's subjects points to her engagement with the larger discourse of cinematic photography. Speaking to traditional genres of painting, Dobai records everyday scenarios, which, when filtered through the lens of the camera are reconfigured and defamiliarized.

PROJECT SPACE 2: Touhami Ennadre: Documents

New York, September 11, 2001, black and white photograph 40 x 50 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Touhami Ennadre's larger photographic practice is marked by the dislocation of sites of memory, identity, death, and disaster through the representation of indistinct emblems. His photographs memorialize place and identity, but often resonate a lack of cultural specificity. However, his work from September 11 contradicts his former project. Resistant his entire career to taking pictures in the documentary style, Ennadre's incessant refusal of reportage was dispelled by this event. These images signal a continuation of Ennadre's efforts towards the transfiguration of subjects and the documentation of trauma as memorial.

ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN PROJECT SPACE: Lindy Roy: Meatspace

In Meatspace, an installation that serves as a precursor to the commercial project, the track-and-switch infrastructure once ubiquitous in Manhattan's Meat Packing District will be retooled, and a defunct meat cooler will transform into a bar. An optical fiber weave powered by a light engine will distribute light across the space which forms and reforms in response to crowds, program or whim.