Charlotte Posenenske
Vierkantrohre (Square Tubes) (Series D), 1967
Sheet steel, folded stereometric hollow volumes, dimensions variable
Image courtesy of Dr. Burkhard Brunn and Peter Freeman, Inc., New York
DAY OF THE LOCUST
November 3 – December 10, 2011
Opening reception Thursday, November 3, 6-8 PM.
Katherine Bernhardt
Rochelle Feinstein
Jonathan Horowitz
Lee Lozano
Jon Pestoni
Charlotte Posenenske
Mamie Tinkler
Curated by Jessica Baran
"Day of the Locust" is a group exhibition exploring the notion of failed idealism. From the promise of major 20th Century art-formalist strategies (Expressionism, Minimalism, Conceptualism) as historic and qualitative gate-keepers to the hope invested in artists to be uncommodifiable visionaries and agents of social change, our culture propagandizes certain idealistic myths as fervently as it reinforces their impossibility.
Democratic choice, for instance, is most saliently manifest in product diversity; every consumer has a right to Coke and Pepsi. The American Dream is a plot endorsed globally as the ultimate fantasy; its story is a hallucinatory road trip to celebrity, wealth and power. Exceptional citizens must be at once mavericks and conformists. Shades of political activism -- be it vegetarianism or environmentalism -- are stigmatized as soft, extremist or bludgeoning, while political apathy is chastised as unpatriotic. Rules beset even the anarchist. Affluence and eminence are celebrated but also immoral. Education is both a righteous necessity and a form of unwholesome elitism.
Navigating this bizarre climate of contradictions requires a certain resignation to failure, as failure is both inevitable and a productive antidote to being anything in particular. Failure can also be absurd and beautiful. Beginning with mid-Century artists Charlotte Posenenske and Lee Lozano, who both willfully resigned from the art world at the very moment that they were hailed as being at the vanguard of their respective movements, "Day of the Locust" drafts a brief contemporary narrative of the endorsement and critique of radical ideological investment.
Vierkantrohre (Square Tubes) (Series D), 1967
Sheet steel, folded stereometric hollow volumes, dimensions variable
Image courtesy of Dr. Burkhard Brunn and Peter Freeman, Inc., New York
DAY OF THE LOCUST
November 3 – December 10, 2011
Opening reception Thursday, November 3, 6-8 PM.
Katherine Bernhardt
Rochelle Feinstein
Jonathan Horowitz
Lee Lozano
Jon Pestoni
Charlotte Posenenske
Mamie Tinkler
Curated by Jessica Baran
"Day of the Locust" is a group exhibition exploring the notion of failed idealism. From the promise of major 20th Century art-formalist strategies (Expressionism, Minimalism, Conceptualism) as historic and qualitative gate-keepers to the hope invested in artists to be uncommodifiable visionaries and agents of social change, our culture propagandizes certain idealistic myths as fervently as it reinforces their impossibility.
Democratic choice, for instance, is most saliently manifest in product diversity; every consumer has a right to Coke and Pepsi. The American Dream is a plot endorsed globally as the ultimate fantasy; its story is a hallucinatory road trip to celebrity, wealth and power. Exceptional citizens must be at once mavericks and conformists. Shades of political activism -- be it vegetarianism or environmentalism -- are stigmatized as soft, extremist or bludgeoning, while political apathy is chastised as unpatriotic. Rules beset even the anarchist. Affluence and eminence are celebrated but also immoral. Education is both a righteous necessity and a form of unwholesome elitism.
Navigating this bizarre climate of contradictions requires a certain resignation to failure, as failure is both inevitable and a productive antidote to being anything in particular. Failure can also be absurd and beautiful. Beginning with mid-Century artists Charlotte Posenenske and Lee Lozano, who both willfully resigned from the art world at the very moment that they were hailed as being at the vanguard of their respective movements, "Day of the Locust" drafts a brief contemporary narrative of the endorsement and critique of radical ideological investment.
WHITE FLAG PROJECTS
4568 Manchester Ave
St Louis, MO 63110
T: 314 531-3442
WHITE FLAG PROJECTS
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