March 8 - April 29, 2006
Opening Reception: Saturday March 11, 8-11pm

MAIN SPACE: WHEN ARTISTS SAY WE

The exhibition When Artists Say We reflects on the context in which artists work as colleagues, as collaborators, in collectives, as friends, as critics, as bystanders, and as allies, sharing New York City as their site of practice.

Artists have always created alliances. The needs that drive artists together are manifold: a discourse that educates, a horizon that widens, a complexity of knowledge, the ability to fail, or a larger capacity to remember critically and productively within their own field and beyond. But artists are also driven by the need for shelter, protection, and support. Such relationships are grounded in structures and language that are inherently self-critical and rarely reflected upon when art is shown. When Artists Say We takes up this task by trying to present some of the forms such collective exchanges have taken in New York City over the last thirty years. One could understand these alliances as a necessary methodology that enables artists to do their work. But rather than assuming that all art is necessarily produced in collaboration, this exhibition suggests that art—made individually or as a collective—is constituted from within such exchange.

When Artists Say We is constituted by four different elements. In the center of the gallery, a mobile archive unit, designed by Nanna Wülfing, holds materials from approximately 90 New York-based artists, artist groups, collectives, and collaborations. To frame the exhibition within an attempt to map historical as well as personal relationships, twelve wall diagrams were commissioned for the surrounding walls, each charting particular discourses, relationships, histories, sites, and people, as well as the ideas that influenced them. Produced by Doug Ashford, Mike Ballou, Gregg Bordowitz, Dean Daderko, Liam Gillick/Gareth James, Arianne Gelardin, Oui, Julie Merehtu/Jessica Rankin, Yvonne Rainer, David Reed/Katy Siegel/Ulrike Müller, Mira Schor, and Jeremy Sigler, each diagram will take a distinct form: analytical, historical, non-linear, partial, suggestive, indexical…. Some of the diagrams will invite visitors to continue their mapping. In five small spaces that surround Artist Space’s main gallery, five artists—Ayreen Anastas, Andrea Geyer, Emily Jacir, Cristóbal Lehyt and LTTR—each put together an individual group show, mapping the work with which they and themselves in dialogue. And as additional element, weekly events, organized by Emily Jacir/Jenny Perlin/John Menick, Jesal Kapadia, Ben Kinmont, neuroTransmitter and Yates McKee, will be held for the duration of the exhibition on Saturday afternoons from 3-5pm, beginning April 1.

Valerie Tevere, UNITED STATES, posters, 17 x 27.5 in. installed Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles, 1996.	Cristóbal Lehyt, The North (fragment), 2006, Marker on board, 64x42 inches, Courtesy the artist	Pedro Lasch, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (West Wing) From the series 'Crumbs: Drawing on a Limited View of New York City's Cultural Wealth, 2000, C-print, 20" x 30", Courtesy of the artist

Saturday Events On Saturday afternoons, beginning April 1, a series of individual events—lectures, conversations, and screenings—present artistic practices that exceed the confines of the exhibition but are considered an integral aspect of its premise.
April 1st, 3-5pm	Ben Kinmont: Introduction to the Antinomian Press As part of his artistic practice, which encompasses conversations, archives, small gestures of kindness, and a bookselling business, among other things, Bay-area based Ben Kinmont will give an introduction to his publishing project The Antinomina Press, which has served as an important medium for many of his projects. Four publications will be printed on site and can be taken free of charge.
April 8th, 3-5pm	neuroTransmitter: A Brief History of Pirate Radios in New York neuroTransmitter will activate the broadcast spectrum in and around Artist Space while simultaneously presenting historical and contemporary models related to the field of radio – as an artistic form, a communicatory tool, a facilitating device, and political and cultural force. www.neurotransmitter.fm
April 15th, 3-5pm	Jesal Kapadia / Jennifer Hayashida / Ayreen Anastas/ Lana Lin Video works and Poetic texts: an afternoon in translation, with Lana Lin, Jennifer Hayashida, Ayreen Anastas and Jesal Kapadia. Lana Lin will show excerpts from 'No Power to Push Up the Sky,' (23 min. 2-channel video installation by Lana Lin, 2001) and 'Departure,' (48 min. video by Lana Lin + H. Lan Thao Lam, 2004). Jennifer Hayashida will read work from her translation ‘Inner China’ 2005, as well as from a new work-in-process. Ayreen Anastas will show excerpts from 'Pasolini Pa* Palestine', (51 min. video, 2005). Jesal Kapadia will show her short videos ‘Telegraph’, ‘This is not a’ and a new work-in-progress. MORE INFO ->>CLICK HERE
April 22nd, 4:30pm	Film screening: John Menick/ Jenny Perlin/ Annemarie Jacir/ Emily Jacir MORE INFO ->>CLICK HERE
April 29th, 3-5pm	THE ENDS OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE RIGHT TO THE CITY An afternoon at Artists Space with Damon Rich, Yates Mckee, and Patricio Del Real MORE INFO ->>CLICK HERE

ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN PROJECT SERIES
Aranda/Lasch and Terrol Dew Johnson: Baskets

Aranda/Lasch & Terrol Dew Johnson Knot Series #1, 2006 Aluminum, bear grass, sinew, 40L x 50W x 20H inches

Baskets is a collaboration between New York architects Aranda/Lasch and Native-American basket weaver Terrol Dew Johnson. Aranda/Lasch and Terrol Dew Johnson began working together in early 2005 on a series of experimental baskets that explore new material and construction possibilities while engaging with the art of traditional weaving. With Terrol, Aranda/Lasch seeks to connect two distinct cultural practices, basketry and architecture, through their shared foundation of pattern-making. In Native-American tradition, pattern-making is a time-honored intersection of cultural tradition and personal expression. In architecture, pattern has emerged as a generative vehicle for new formal and structural expression. Both instances of pattern-making tell of the capacity that simple rule-driven systems, like weaving, have for producing a limitless abundance of pattern and form. For this exhibition, rather than insisting on the novelty of computer-aided design to produce such abundance, the exchange between Aranda/Lasch and Terrol Dew Johnson benefits from a rich tradition with ancient roots. The collaboration has resulted in a series of patterned constructions made from a variety of materials, including grass, wood, glass, and metal. Baskets is curated by Christian Rattemeyer.

Terrol Dew Johnson, a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation, began learning his craft at the early age of 10. Johnson is considered a leading Native American basket weaver known both for his traditional basketry as well as his contemporary innovation in form and pattern. His baskets are collected by museums and collectors across the nation. Terrol says: “My work reflects who I am as a person... my culture... my family... the desert. I have learned much from my elders about tradition, patience and technique. I combine this respect for tradition with my own visions of the world I see around me.”

Aranda/Lasch is a technologically progressive New York-based architecture studio established in 2003 by Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch. The mission of the studio is to play with mathematics and geometry as a way to deeply appreciate space, exploring how advanced computation can be used to foster architectural design.

Baskets is supported, in part, by the New York State Council for the Arts and the Graham Foundation.