Specific Object / David Platzker
presents an exhibition of
READ Edition
A fundraising Print Edition for the Emily Carr Institute Press, Vancouver
March 28 -- April 20, 2007
Opening, Wednesday, March 28, 5 -- 7 PM
Specific Object / David Platzker is pleased to announce the opening of our new gallery space with an exhibition of
READ Edition, a fundraising print portfolio published by the Emily Carr Institute Press Press [ECI Press] of Vancouver, Canada. Curated by Christoph Keller and Kathy Slade, the portfolio features works by Fiona Banner, Dan Graham, Brian Jungen, Myfanwy MacLeod, Jonathan Monk, Shannon Oksanen, Peter Piller, Frances Stark, Michael Stevenson, and Ron Terada.
The exhibition will be on view at Specific Object from March 28 through April 20, 2007.
Specific Object is located at 601 West 26 Street, Room M285, New York, NY 10001.
Gallery hours for this exhibition will be Tuesday through Friday 11 AM to 5 PM, or by appointment. The gallery is closed Saturday through Monday. The gallery will also be closed on April 5 and 6.
For the portfolio the curators, Keller and Slade, invited ten international artists to respond to the theme of reading. Artists were encouraged to interpret the theme as concretely or abstractly as they wished. The result is an eclectic mixture of work as the artists responded in a variety of ways.
In
The Works Fiona Banner compiled a set list for a firework display that is based on an actual pyrotechnic display she designed and produced for an earlier work of the same name.
Dan Graham provided an architectural drawing and textual notes for
Double Exposure a triangular pavilion installed at the Serralves Foundation in Porto, Portugal.
Brian Jungen’s
Untitled revisits an earlier work in which he drew a post with two signs pointing in opposite directions. One sign said “First Nations” and the other, “Second Nature.” In the new drawing we are presented with a similar situation but now the signs on the post are blank providing the viewer / reader the opportunity to fill the signs in.
With her characteristic sardonic wit,
Myfanwy Macleod’s
Understanding is Love represents a page from a 1940s textbook,
A Primer of Sculpture. MacLeod’s title is taken from the book’s chapter title and the text we are presented with discusses the need for sculpture in the home.
For
The Sun Never Really Sets,
Jonathan Monk takes a page from a Sotheby’s catalogue that is offering Edward Ruscha’s print,
Greenblatts #14, for sale. Monk presents an image of a print for sale as an actual print for sale. While subtly referring to an artists’ book project Monk produced with Christoph Keller in 2002 titled
None of the Buidings on Sunset Strip, Monk displays again his on-going interest in the work of Ruscha.
In
Dominique Sanda, Une Femme Douce,
Shannon Oksanen draws a portrait / production still of the French model and actress in her biggest role as the suicidal heroine in Robert Bresson’s
Une Femme Douce.
Peter Piller’s
Ortsbesichtigung (or
Site Inspections) is an image from a newspaper work showing groups of people examining future construction sites. It is part of
The Peter Piller Archive, an archive that contains over eighty individual categories of groups of images such as "Touching Cars,” "Looking into Holes,” or "Pointing at Vandalism.”
In
The members of the class… Frances Stark presents a diagrammed sentence. This work deals with understanding the mechanics of sense making / grammar and also puts forward the idea of parsing the activity of looking at contemporary art.
Michael Stevenson’s
Making for Timor refers to J. Fairweather, a sixty-year-old Scottish artist who crossed the Timor Sea on a small homemade raft in 1952. His knowledge of navigation was rudimentary -- gathered in a public library -- and his only instrument a 1930’s compass.
Ron Terada’s
Territory depicts an image of his signboard work that was installed on the grounds of the Presentation House Gallery in North Vancouver as his contribution to the exhibition
Territory. Terada’s sign simply stated the title of the exhibit, but some cheeky passerby altered and "improved" the work. Terada managed to get a photo before PHG restored the work.
The
READ Edition has been published in an edition of 15 and is priced at $3,000 (USD) for copies 1 through 5; $4,500 for copies 6 through 10; and $6,500 for copies numbered 11 through 15. Prices do not include shipping, any applicable taxes, and are subject to change without notice.
ABOUT THE ECI PRESS
Emily Carr Institute [ECI] is one of Canada's leading art institutes, offering undergraduate and graduate and degrees in visual art, design, film and new media. Notable alumni include : Douglas Coupland, Stan Douglas, Brian Jungen, Janice Kerbel, Ron Terada and Terence Koh.
The Emily Carr Institute Press was started in 2006 by artist, and ECI Dean, David MacWilliam and artist Kathy Slade. The mandate of the Press is to present the work of emerging Vancouver based artists along side international artists by publishing artists’ books, monographs, collected writings and music projects. The Press’ first offering was a series of artist books titled
Vancouver Special. This series includes Rodney Graham’s
This is the Only Living I’ve Got (Don’t Take It Away From Me) : The Rodney Graham Songbook, Sydney Hermant’s
Aunt Maud’s Scrap Book, Tim Lee & Mark Soo’s
Modern Optical Experiments in Typography : Univers Ultra Light Oblique (1968), and Brady Cranfield’s
The Music Appreciation Society Presents : Vancouver British Columbia Canada
Vancouver Special was co-edited by Christoph Keller and Slade, who while working on their project decided to also collaborate on a print edition. All proceeds from the sale of the
READ Edition will go directly into the development, production, and distribution of new books by the Press. ECI’s website is www.eciad.ca
ABOUT THE CURATORS
Christoph Keller is a publisher, editor, curator, and maker of fine schnapps. He lives on a farm in Germany near Lake Constance. Keller founded Revolver Press in 1999 and was the Director until 2005. Recently he established Christoph Keller Editions, a series of artists projects he edits for JRP / Ringier Kunstverlag, Zürich. Keller’s large-scale artists’ publication exhibition
KIOSK (XIX) -- Modes of Multiplication opens at Artists Space on March 30, 2007. For more information about
KIOSK (XIX) -- Modes of Multiplication please visit Artists Space’s website at : www.artistsspace.org
Kathy Slade is an artist from Vancouver. Her work has been exhibited in Canada, China, Sweden, Italy, Germany and the United States. In 1999 she started READ Books at the Charles H. Scott Gallery at Emily Carr Institute. Slade is the founding editor of the ECI Press. For more information about READ Books please contact Slade at :
[email protected]
ABOUT SPECIFIC OBJECT
Specific Object, is a personal venture by David Platzker, which aims to aggregate interesting objects in any artistic medium.
Specifically, Specific Object is an attempt to isolate distinct works of value -- historically, monetarily and / or personally valuable -- and show them in an isolated context without the artifice of visual confusion or clutter in hopes of allowing these works, or objects, their own place, space and time. The material to be shown will range from artists’ publications, ephemera, prints, multiples and other editions to literature, music / audio works and unique artworks of the contemporary world.
From 1998 through 2004 Platzker was the Executive Director of the non-profit institution Printed Matter, Inc. He is also the co-author, and co-curator -- with Elizabeth Wyckoff -- of
Hard Pressed : 600 Years of Prints and Process (International Print Center New York & Hudson Hills Press, 2000); and -- with Richard H. Asxom -- the book and exhibition entitled
Printed Stuff : Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg : A Catalogue Raisonné 1958-1996 (Madison Art Center & Hudson Hills Press, 1997), which was awarded the George Wittenborn Award for Best Art Publication of 1997 by the Art Libraries Society of North America. Platzker has also curated exhibitions of the works of John Baldessari, Marcel Duchamp, Donald Judd, Oldenburg, Dieter Roth, and Edward Ruscha in addition to commissioning or curating exhibitions at Printed Matter of Angelblood, Larry Clark, Erin Cosgrove, Meg Cranston, General Idea, Jenny Holzer, Reverend Jen, Allan Kaprow, Yoko Ono, Ryan McGinness, Sonic Youth, Tom Sachs, David Tremlett, Richard Tuttle and the Guerrilla Girls. ??
In November 2004 Specific Object acquired the inventory of Bound & Unbound from Barbara Moore.
Specific Object is located at 601 West 26th Street / Floor 2M / Room M285, New York, New York 10001. Telephone (212) 242-6253.
Public hours during this exhibition will be Tuesday through Friday from 11 AM to 5 PM and by appointment. The gallery is closed Saturday through Monday. The gallery will also be closed on April 5 and 6.
Specific Object’s website is www.specificobject.com?
For additional information regarding Specific Object please email David Platzker at
[email protected]
