FEBRUARY 24, 2012
39 W 56TH STREET, BETWEEN 5TH AND 6TH
A VALUATION
Featuring work by:
What is it that makes an object valuable? Can garbage become valuable?
“Garbage is spiritual, believable enough to get our attention, getting in the way, piling up,” writes A.R. Ammons in his poem Garbage. But can it become both a spiritually and physically precious thing?
In A Valuation, seven artists present new work that performs a strange alchemy, imbuing intrinsically useless or indiscriminate objects with a sense of worth and significance. Through these new alterations, the objects take on a new altered existence, one with a conceptual value that was not previously discernible. Why not carefully appraise and examine these items? The Modernist idea of elevating an object to a new level by altering its form is stretched to the very limit.
Using a landfill’s worth of disparate materials and methods, David, Lauren, Osamu, Andy, Chris, Tara and Justin join the ranks of those humble alchemists to whom Ammons dedicates his own work: “the bacteria, tumblebugs, scavengers, wordsmiths—-the transfigurers, restorers.” We are pleased to show the results.
-A and Peter Joseph
