Camel Art Space presents Sanity Disobedience for a New Frontier, an exhibition that addresses the concept of technological assimilation in the digital age and its relationship to counter-cultural, anti-conformity assumptions. The show alludes to the irrational becoming rational, a paradox reflected in many characteristics of the digital age. In a sense, according to exhibition curator Rod Malin, the show explores the attitudinal space between two media pieces, Bas Jan Ader’s short conceptual film piece of 1970 I’m Too Sad to Tell You, in which the artist cries in front of a camera after a brief title, and Chris Crocker’s more recent YouTube phenomenon Leave Britney Alone. Although neither of these works appears in the show, they act as psychological signposts or brackets for the art on view.

Artists include: Allen Cordell • Tom Moody • Jamie O’Shea • Sophia Peer • Tristan Perich • Meridith Pingree • David Prince • Janos Stone

Sanity Disobedience for a New Frontier pulls together eight unique-minded individuals whose practices parallel those of tech pundits, rewiring the brain to deleterious effect. Tristan Perich is driven by the computational/theoretical limitations of our own brains and of digital code; he uses seemingly simple forms to reveal the sensitivity of complex systems. Tom Moody works in an under-examined form of post-studio art that he has called Psychotronic GIFs, ranging from sincere social commentary to degrading trash. As an advocate of impermanence, usually in the incongruous dual persona of “the lumberjack” or “the scientist,” David Prince uses slight mockery, humor, and a dose of heroism to challenge current unascertainable attributes. Transforming human behavior and traffic patterns, Meridith Pingree creates a spatial interruption with her reactive sculptures. Particularly strange, yet stunning with beauty, the new appropriation piece by filmmaker and artist Allen Cordell inexplicably justifies the act of refrigeration of TV dinners. Sophia Peer teams up with Allen Cordell to create an infomercial embracing the superior ability of Black Water to create a cooler apartment. Janos Stone creates fractal wall pieces out of drywall with relief etching, resulting in images depicting social interactions through media and matter. If Jamie O’Shea were to boast of his civic duties, self-deception would be top on his list, and in doing so he probably wouldn’t stand on a soapbox but rather create a vortex in time so he can levitate.

An exhibition booklet, Sanity Disobedience, will be published in conjunction with the show.

The exhibition is curated by Rod Malin. Malin has been a media specialist for the last five years for Marian Goodman Gallery, Bronx Museum of the Arts, as well as various Contemporary institutions and artists. Simultaneously, Malin has been working on a self-accredited PhD in liminal cultural studies while maintaining his own projects at M A L I N S T U D I O, a space that explores ephemeral and contextual ideas. Malin has worked with several curators including Lance Fung (Fung Galley NYC), Erin Riley Lopez (Bronx Museum of Art), and Catherine de Zegher (The Drawing Center). Malin’s ability to be versatile as a media specialist, artist and curator is exemplified by his recent exploration in “Curating the Virtual,” which has drawn over 7,000 visitors from all over the world to his Invisible Museum of Post Contemporary Art.