INDIAN OCEAN

Free Association, No Input Books, Slow and Steady Wins the Race, and Jason KakoyiannisX X XXXX XXX XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX

April 3 – May 10, 2009 Opening reception: Friday, April 3, 6-8 pm

Office hours: Thursday–Sunday, 1–6 pm

Dispatch is pleased to present Indian Ocean, a group show examining the nature of XXXXXX as a productive means of creation, dissemination, and reevaluation. The exhibition features new works by Free Association, No Input Books, Slow and Steady Wins the Race, and Jason Kakoyiannis.

In its most basic form, XXXXXX elicits a fear of systemic economic disruption. XXXXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX, designer XXXXXXXXXX, and XXXXXXXX all threaten to collapse the structure of free-market enterprise through parasitic stress as the XXXX grafts itself to the history of the authentic and burrows its way into the marketplace by offering the same (or similar) for XXXX. The artists featured in Indian Ocean, however, look beyond the financial implications of XXXXXX in an effort to reveal the ways in which its stimulating effect far outweighs its fiscal burden.

No Input has produced a series of hard drives filled with impeccably indexed histories of art in the form of digitized film, music, text, and other rare art historical documents. These files, archived and repackaged, have an academic quality in their offer of art for study rather than for exclusivity. Additionally, Mary Ping continues her meditation on the essence of the XXXXX-XXX through Slow and Steady Wins the Race with a series of bags that dangle from the precipice of originality, blurring the space between XXXXXXXXXX and inspired originality. Her XXXXXXXXXX narcissistically cannibalize themselves in an extreme act of self-consciousness.

The press release produced by Free Association, physically identical to the original produced by Dispatch, questions curatorial authority in an attempt to reengage the viewer with the artwork. The mere act of creating a second explanation of the exhibition prevents any viewer from mistaking the gallery’s statement as a singular and authoritative interpretation and projects a parallel pseudo-gallery on the physical space. Finally, Jason Kakoyiannis’ Tool for Duplicating Fragrances (YES! to Carrots), resurrects classic scents in an act of heroic reconnaissance. The entire process calls to mind the alchemical notion of solve et coagula, a metaphysical act at once destructive and creative. INDIAN OCEAN

Free Association, No Input Books, Slow and Steady Wins the Race, and Jason Kakoyiannis

April 3 – May 10, 2009 Opening reception: Friday, April 3, 6-8 pm

Office hours: Thursday–Sunday, 1–6 pm

Dispatch is pleased to present Indian Ocean, an exhibition that intimates a zone of pathways and intercept featuring new works by Free Association, No Input Books, Slow and Steady Wins the Race, and Jason Kakoyiannis.

Covering 20% of the earth, the Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world’s five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean, but larger than the Southern Ocean and Arctic Ocean). A spring 2000 decision by the International Hydrographic Organisation delimited a fifth world ocean, stripping the southern portions of the Indian Ocean.

The Indian Ocean provides major sea routes connecting the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia with Europe and the Americas. It carries a particularly heavy traffic of petroleum and petroleum products from the oilfields of the Persian Gulf and Indonesia. Its fish are of great and growing importance to the bordering countries for domestic consumption and export. An estimated 40% of the world’s offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean. Beach sands rich in heavy minerals and offshore placer deposits are actively exploited by bordering countries.

During Egypt’s first dynasty (c. 3000 BC), sailors were sent out onto its waters, journeying to Punt, thought to be part of present-day Somalia. Returning ships brought gold and myrrh. The earliest known maritime trade between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley (c. 2500 BC) was conducted along the Indian Ocean. Since World War II the United Kingdom has withdrawn from the area, to be only partially replaced by India, the USSR, and the United States. The last two tried to establish hegemony [citation needed] by negotiating for naval base sites.

Recent transnational issues include intercepts of trade in the Indian Ocean by small-organized groups operating in regions of developing or struggling countries with smaller navies and large trade routes. In some cases, these groups are not interested in the cargo and are mainly interested in taking the personal belongings of the crew and the contents of the ship’s safe. In other cases, the intercepts force the crew off the ship and then sail it to a port to be repainted and given a new identity through false papers often purchased from corrupt or complicit officials. Developing countries bordering the ocean, however, seek to have it made a “zone of peace”[citation needed] so that they may use its shipping lanes freely.