Group Exhibition: Domestic Ann Torke: The Residue Series: Everyday Accumulation Jeff Becker: CapaCity Project Bryan Whitney: Myriad – The Ten Thousand Things Andrew Erdos: Santalope

do?mes?tic /d??m?st?k/ [duh-mes-tik] 1. of or pertaining to the home, the household, household affairs, or the family: domestic pleasures. 2. devoted to home life or household affairs. 3. tame; domesticated. 4. of or pertaining to one’s own or a particular country as apart from other countries: domestic trade. 5. indigenous to or produced or made within one’s own country; not foreign; native: domestic goods. 6. a hired household servant. 7. something produced or manufactured in one’s own country. 8. domestics, household items made of cloth, as sheets, towels, and tablecloths.

AC [Direct] II presents a group video exhibition, by Rhizome and Perpetual Art Machine (PAM) members, that investigate the various facets of the definition of “domestic.” The videos are presented in a home-movie theater atmosphere, including seating and 9ft projection screen.

Artists:

China Blue, Phyllis Bulkin-Lehrer, Osvaldo Cibils, Erica Clayton, Andrew Erdos, Kristen Galvin, Scott Groeniger, Henry Gwiazda, Jan Hakon-Erichson, Moira Holohan, Ellen Lake, JD McPherson, Jane Philbrick, Elise Roedenbeck, Robert Spahr, and Keith Sullivan.

Curators:

Holly Crawford, Sonya Hofer and Christine Licata

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Jeff Becker: CapaCity Project

Jeff Becker’s “CapaCity” project, on view in AC [Direct] II, was initially started as a response to his inability to recycle plastic caps and container lids. It quickly grew to include all plastics that were not recyclable as well as metal jar lids, egg cartons, phone books and wooden crates.

Becker explores how much “trash” he—as an individual, frugal and anti-consumptive person—can generate. Transforming the concept of consumption into a visual installation, his work shows how truly monumental the issue of waste is, especially when multiplied by the world’s 6 billion consumers. Businesses, government, and industry compound the problem further. “CapaCity” is one man’s city of refuse, comprised of cast-offs from life in the 21st century.

Jeff Becker’s work has been exhibited in a vacant storefront for Art on the Edge (New Haven), Yale Women’s Center (New Haven), Artspace (New Haven), Exit Art (New York), the Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Silvermine Guild of Artists (New Canaan), Barnum Museum (Bridgeport), the Housatonic Museum of Art (Bridgeport) Center for Fine Art Photography (Fort Collins) and Real Art Ways (Hartford). He has also shown repeatedly at the NEST Building (Bridgeport) and New Haven Open Studios.

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Ann Torke: The Residue Series: Everyday Accumulation

AC [Direct] II presents Ann Torke’s “The Residue Series: Everyday Accumulation” a continuation of her interest in tracking the detritus of everyday life. Part Petri dish, part performance, part sculpture—this work is an examination of accumulation: of the traces of presence, of the mark making of everyday life. The work makes manifest the dialectic of entropy and order from various sites including the floors of her house, studio and the surface of the stovetop.

The debris is cast into solid forms or sealed under epoxy. In House and Studio, the debris is suspended in layers of clear resin—molds from classically inspired forms. For the Stovetops the actual metal tops from the stove are removed after a month and sealed, while a new stovetop is put in place to continue to collect the organic spew from cooking. It is a mix of conceptual and formal provocation, an “ugly/beautiful” display that explores notions of domesticity, beauty and value.

Torke has also included the work-in-progress accumulation of debris from all the AC [Institute Direct Chapel] galleries. The sweepings are the first in her exploration of public, non-autobiographical sites.

Ann Torke received a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, a MFA from the University of California (San Diego) and was a fellow in the Whitney Independent Study Program. Her work has been exhibited in venues such as Art in General (New York), Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center (Buffalo), and de Balie, (Amsterdam). She has taught at School of the Art Institute (Chicago), Oberlin College (Ohio) and is currently an Associate Professor at UMass (Boston).

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Bryan Whitney: Myriad – The Ten Thousand Things

AC [Chapel] presents the installation Myriad – The Ten Thousand Things by Bryan Whitney. Inspired by the overwhelming abundance of “things” in the world and the equally daunting number of images that represent them, the work is both an appreciation and exorcism of the myriad of things seen and photographed by Whitney over the past few years.

Whitney’s installation is composed of hundreds of digital “snapshots,” collected into a single print whose content ranges from the beautiful to the mundane and the momentary to the historic. In contrast to the “myriad” composition is a larger-than-life sized, Buddha-like figure. Within the narrow confines of the AC [Chapel], the monumentality of Whitney’s figure conveys a similar singularity and importance relative to the myriad of things that recall traditional effigies to Buddha. The images are printed on a mirror-like surface reflecting the adjacent print and the viewer serving as an allegory for the origin of the myriad of things through light and reflection.

Bryan Whitney has a BA in Psychology of Art from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Photography from the Tyler School of Art (Philadelphia). He has recently mounted installations at the Vanderbilt Conservatory at Dowling College (Oakdale, NY), The Montblanc building (Manhattan, NY) and the Power Center (Ann Arbor, MI). Whitney has also been an instructor at the Mason Gross School of the Arts (NJ) and is currently an artist-in-residence at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (NY).

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Andrew Erdos: Santalope

SANTALOPE IS A LARGE SANTA CLAUS CREATURE WITH A ROBUST BELLY, A LARGE FACE AND ANTLERS. THE SANTALOPE IS A HUMOROUS YET DISTURBINGLY BIZARRE INTERPRETATION AND OBSERVATION OF THE PERVERSIONS AND ABSURDITY OF A GLOBALIZATION INDUCED, UNIVERSALLY CONFUSED, IRREVERSIBLY HOMOGENIZING INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY. SANTALOPE OBSERVES, CREATES, AND SUPPORTS A NEW CULTURALLY IMPERIALISTIC SPECTACLE OF INSATIABLE, EPIC and UGLY PROPORTIONS.

Andrew Eros’ humorous, invasive, ferocious, creepy and delicious spectacle that is SANTALOPE has found its way to the AC [Direct] I and II exterior walls and ceiling. For this installation, SANTALOPE, along with his sidekick DONKEY, create a disturbing and decadent view of cultural imperialism and vacuous commercialism.

SANTALOPE will be making an appearance in AC [Direct]’s “Domestic” video exhibition as well AC [Institute]’s CEOs & Outsourced Critics (MIA) Champagne Brunch on Saturday March 7 where Andrew Erdos will presenting the “SANTALOPE BAKE $ALE.” This is a unique opportunity for collectors to invest in the creation of the SANTALOPE’S next international spectacle—a nature documentary on the mating habits and rituals of the SANTALOPE in the Australian Outback. All proceeds go to the artist.

Since graduating from Alfred University in 2007, 23-year old American artist Andrew Erdos has participated in over 30 exhibitions on 5 continents. His work combines sculpture, video, performance, and installation. He has shown at venues such as The National Centre for Contemporary Art (Moscow), BS1 Contemporary Museum (Beijing), The Chelsea Art Museum (New York), and was included in the 2008 Deitch Projects Halloween Day Parade.