Featuring: William Cordova, Leslie Hewitt and Wardell Milan.

Curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud.

This exhibition deals with the idea of appropriation. It can be seen, in some way, as a collaboration between artists and curator, in that the curator has given over all aspects of the project as ludic substance, molded according to the artists desires.

In typical installation work, it might be seen that only the space itself serves as an element of media from which the work is created. In this case every aspect of the project from title to invitation card to the physical gallery itself, becomes fodder for the creation.

In the same way that the artists appropriate all mechanisms associated with the gallery presentation they also manipulate other “found” material to complete the work. The title of the exhibit refers to the famous 1979 Peter Sellers film “Being There” which itself deals with media and appropriation. The card for the exhibit is based on a found image, and is designed by the artists to be an additional artwork in the show.

William Cordova’s work is rooted in literature and cinema. His work addresses ideas of location, intent, origins and authorship. Cordova’s work for Being There is a found drawing made in the interior of the gallery walls when the space was originally built.

Leslie Hewitt addresses architectural space and the fragmentation of time, through photographic and sculptural means. For Being There, Hewitt will install Untitled 2005, an uncanny photograph printed to scale of the space originally photographed, physically addressing appropriation and loss. Hewitt’s life size image exposes the syncretism of a seemingly mundane section of a room.

Wardell Milan addresses historic American narratives and the retelling of these “truths” from an alternative perspective, by weaving both fact and fiction as an attempt to reach a more accurate understanding. For the Being There exhibition, Milan will install A walk in Alice’s flowers, a quilt constructed from vintage wallpaper. Inspiration for this piece came from “Flowers,” a short story by Alice Walker. Milan’s quilt addresses the moment in which an individual recognizes their contribution and social placement in American culture.