Martin Gantman: “Empire: Davos”

AC [Direct] I and II presents the first complete showing of Martin Gantman’s new project “Empire: Davos.” Each January the founder and President of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Wachs, announces the opening of the Forum’s annual conference with the words: “Welcome to Davos.” The conference is populated with elite members who have been selected and invited from the worlds of business, politics and entertainment. They are there, ostensibly, to discuss issues of global importance with respect to improving the quality of life of the world’s inhabitants and the ecological systems within which they reside.

“Empire: Davos” strives to portray in a discernible way the seemingly contradictory notions of bottom line economic performance and human benefit. Centered on Davos, Switzerland where the World Economic Forum conference is held, the work projects, as a device for representing the above notions, Davos as the capital of an economic empire, as was Rome its empire’s capital. The project to date includes direct correspondences with heads of state and CEOs of international corporations and NGOs, two-dimensional works, a book and a revisited globe of the Earth.

Martin Gantman is a Los Angeles based artist and writer who has exhibited internationally in such venues as the Alternative Museum (New York), A.R.C. Gallery (Chicago), HAUS (Pasadena), POST and Los Angeles Center for Digital Art (Los Angeles), Artetica (Rome and Viareggio, Italy), and La Coruña (A Coruña, Spain). His recent solo show at HAUS Gallery, “Tracking Identity,” was reviewed in the January, 2008 issue of Art Ltd. His project, “See you when we get home.” was featured in Art Journal and his most recent project, “Atmospheric Resources Tracking Incorporated” was shown at the Seyhoun Gallery in West Hollywood last year. He is currently working on a multi-faceted undertaking entitled “Tracking Empire.” Recent published writings include: “The Irresolute Potential in the Unimagined Possibility,” “Swingin’ in the Slammer,” “The Word Was Charm,” “DuSable Park: An Archeology,” “Notes on the Oddness of Things” and “Mapping the Lost Idea.” He also co-edited “Benjamin’s Blind Spot: Walter Benjamin and the Premature Death of Aura” for the Institute of Cultural Inquiry, distributed by DAP Publications in 2001.

Gantman’s work is included in numerous contemporary collections such as the Peter Norton Foundation, the Marv and Judy Zeidler Collection and the Michael Collins/Daniel Banchik Collection.

Elizabeth Gower: he loves me, he loves me not

AC [Direct] I and II presents Australian artist Elizabeth Gower’s installation project he loves me, he loves me not along the outer walls of the galleries.

The familiar phrase “he loves me, he loves me not” is written 20,097 times symbolizing the number of days Gower calculates she has lived and asked the question. Written in white chalk directly onto and entirely covering the black walls, this repeated statement is ephemeral and exists only for the duration of the exhibition. The repetitious process is simultaneously obsessive, cathartic and physically draining. As is the continual speculation of whether “he loves me” or “loves me not.”.

The ‘he’ is generic, representing the fathers, brothers, boyfriends, lovers, husbands and sons in a woman’s life, as well as the critics, the audience, the colleagues, the bosses, the friends and deities. This private exchange of intimacy, removed from a particular speaker/reference, becomes a universal construct or consciousness. Explored with each reiteration and inscription is the transience of language, its instability and capacity to fluctuate. Also within he loves me, he loves me not, a process of synthesis and transformation takes place whereby the concept’s part–the fragment or detail–is integrated to form a transcendent whole.

Between March 6 – 8, 2009 Elizabeth Gower will be one of the Co-Hosts in AC [Institute]’s “Live in the Limo” at the Armory Fair, where he loves me, he loves me not will be referenced in a related performance.

Elizabeth Gower lives and works in Melbourne, Australia, teaches at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, and is currently completing a PhD from Monash University (Melbourne). Gower has exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions and participated in many major group exhibitions in Europe, U.K, United Arab Emirates and throughout Australia including Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney), Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (Melbourne), Centro per le Arti Visive (Venice), Auronzo di Cadore (Treviso), Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane), Museum of Modern Art at Heide (Melbourne), National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney), Sharjah University (UAE), Gramercy Art Fair (New York) and International Contemporary Art Fair: ARCO (Madrid). Her work has been chosen for public commissions for The Super Dome Olympics (Sydney), City of Port Phillip, Southbank and World Congress Centre (Melbourne) and Victorian Ministry for the Arts.

Gower has received grants and awards from Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), Arts Victoria (Melbourne), Alliance Française Art Fellowship, Georges Art Prize as well as multiple grants for residencies abroad from The Australia Council. She is currently Artist-in-residence in New York. Her work is held in collections within Europe, Australia and the United Arab Emirates such as The Australian National Gallery (Canberra), National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne), Parliament House Collection (Canberra), Queensland University of Technology and The University of Tasmania (Hobart).

Holly Crawford: Outsourced Critics 2006-2009

Presented for the first time as a full installation in AC [Chapel], “Outsourced Critics” is a project conceived by artist Holly Crawford. Through an unconventional use of the catalogue from the Amory International Art Fair, “Outsourced Critics” challenges conventional aesthetics, explores the preconceived concept of an authentic experience in viewing artwork as well delves into the inherently polemic nature of art fairs.

The premise behind “Outsourced Critics” consisted of recruiting 9 people including artists, critics, curators and museum directors from around the world (Europe, India, Hong Kong, Thailand and the Middle East) to review the Armory Fair. Each participant was asked to be an “out”sourced critic—meaning that they were not present in New York City while it took place. Moreover, the terms “outsourced” and “critic” were presented as conceptual questions in themselves. The participants were asked to experience and critically reflect on, and respond to, the fair solely through the Armory catalogue that was FedEx-ed to them along with the payment of $1.00. Responses had to be text only, no images or other visual mediums were permitted and their submission had to be returned in two weeks time.

The submitted texts consist of essays, lists, stories, email correspondences and critical commentaries by Claude Closky, Eitan Buganim, Hemda Rosenbaum, Jerome Sans, Josette Balsa, Brian Curtin, Yonatan Amir, Vasif Kortun and Sven Lutticken, who were brought together with the assistance of Lillian Fellmann. The overall piece reflects the commodification and objectification of art within the market and fairs. The installation also includes the logistical ephemera for Outsourced Critics, such as FedEx tracking numbers and shipping schedules that mark and connect the time and space of the catalog in transit from New York to each participant.

Both Crawford’s art and poetry give new meanings to critical art theories as well as draws artistic categories into question through unexpected, transformative juxtapositions. As with “Outsourced Critics,” many of her projects are ongoing, site-specific and participatory.

Born in California and now living in New York City, Holly Crawford is cross-media installation artist, poet, behavioral scientist, economist and art historian. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Essex in Art History and Theory, a B.A and M.A. in Economics as well as M.S. in Behavioral Science from UCLA. From 2004-2006, Crawford was a non-clinical Fellow at NYU Medical School Psychoanalytic Center. She has also been a professor of art at both UCLA and SVA.

Crawford exhibits internationally. Some selected projects include: Offerings, Ars Electronica, .net Participant, 1998; Open Adoption, Pool Art Fair, 2005 (Miami); The Road, Downey Art Museum, Vacaville Art Museum, Pittsburg Art Gallery, and South Bay Contemporary Art Center; Hyphens, Brown Bag Contemporary Photograph Fair (San Francisco); Voice Overs, Found Punctuation (video), Tate Modern, 2007 (London); My I have your autograph?, unofficial, Basel-Miami Art Fair, 2007; Critical Conversations in a Limo, 2006 (New York) and the VIP project, at the Armory International Art Fair (New York), Melbourne International Arts Festival (MIAF) and The LAB and Sesnon Gallery, 2007 (San Francisco and UCSC). Other projects are Sound Art Limo, 2007, (New York and Melbourne), 2007; Flatland Limo, (New York), 2008 and Live in the Limo, 2009 (New York). Crawford is also the author of Attached to the Mouse, 2006; the catalogue essay, “Disney and Pop” published in Once Upon a Time Walt Disney Studio and the editor of the recent compilation of essays Artistic Bedfellows, 2008. She is the Founder and Director of AC [Institute Direct Chapel], a series of exhibition spaces for experimental art in Chelsea, New York City.

Elizabeth Gower project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. AC is pleased to collaborate Elizabeth Gower in her Australia Council awarded New York Residency.