For the month of April, along with our main gallery exhibition, YOUR WHOLE REAL LIFE, by Leonardo Kaplan SPEC space presents works by David Burr, Goliath.
Burr’s new video works are explorations into the UI mechanics of Google Maps/Google Earth by compositing screenshot flip books. Burr states in response to our current exhibition: “I aim to be in dialogue with Kaplan's effort to materialize the many administrative paradigms in our lives of societal obligations, but in the end the videos are also rather chaotic visual journeys through Seattle. We can teleport.”
On view at Spec. April 2018
me * nag * er * ie
a collection of wild animals kept in captivity for exhibition.
a strange or diverse collection of people or things.
Menagerie is a solo show of digital, found, and crafted objects discussing the specific development of relationships and memories through technology. Schroeder pulls apart classical ideas of intimacy, betrayal, loss, and preservation through quirky objects. Walking lines of grave severity and light humor, Schroeder presents the series of objects interpreting the lack of physical body in modern day encounters. The collection offers a look into faceless emotions through formal objects and references to classical mediums such as Beethoven’s Fur Elise and Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar.
Katie Schroeder (b.1993) recently received two BFA’s from Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her work focuses on the roles technology plays in social intimacy and isolation, often using found objects and construction materials that manifest in installation, video, and performance. Schroeder is currently a candidate in the 3d4m program at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she is broadening her understanding of online community, technology, and media consumption in hypermodernity.
On view at Spec. February 2018
Alex Kang (b. 1989 in Busan, South Korea) graduated with her BFA at the University of Texas at Arlington, and is currently pursuing her MFA in Photomedia at the University of Washington.
Stretching and experimenting with the malleable properties of language is fundamental to Kang’s practice. The artist often criticizes the supposed neutrality of language, especially Standard American English, and questions the inherent power structures that are embedded in everyday exchanges. Kang aims to create new relationships and meanings in the simultaneity that exists in the spoken and written forms of English and Korean.
Kang’s practice is largely concerned with the loss (or conflation) of original meaning in the act of translation between languages or even in the act of “translating” thoughts into the visible, tangible, or audible. She is interested in exploring and embracing the inevitable failures and inaccuracies that nonetheless remain rich in interpretation and possibilities.
Kang has recently exhibited with the Jacob Lawrence Gallery, Seattle CityArts Magazine’s Art Walk Awards, and featured as a participating artist with the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth’s Portable Document Format in conjunction with Doug Aitken: Electric Earth.
On view at Spec. January 2018
ATAVISM
Old longings nomadic leap,
Chafing at custom's chain;
Again from its brumal sleep
Wakens the ferine strain.
Helots of houses no more,
Let us be out, be free;
Fragrance through the window and door
Wafts from the woods, the sea.
After the torpor of will,
Morbid the inner strife,
Welcome the animal thrill.
Lending a zest to life.
Banish the volumes revered,
Sever from centuries dead;
Ceilings the lamp flicker cheered
Barter for stars instead.
Temple thy dreams with the trees,
Nature thy god alone;
Worship the sun and the breeze,
Altars where non atone.
Voices of Solitude call,
Whisper of sedge and stream;
Loosen the fetters that gall,
Back to the primal scheme.
Feel the great throbbing terrene
Pulse in thy body beat,
Conscious again of the green
Verdure beneath the feet.
Callous to pain as the rose,
Breathe with instinct's delight;
Live the existence that goes
Soulless into the night.
—John Myers O’Hara—
Pig Piece
2017
Video still, audio, wooden chair, steel, concrete, poem
$6,000
On view at Spec. December 7 - January 12 2017
Biography
Brock Jensen left his hometown at the age of eighteen; living in primitive shelters for six years throughout the Rocky Mountains, Central Cascades, and Southern Mexico. Jensen experienced the simplicities of life outside public bureaucracy and rigid social standards. This nomadic lifestyle continues to be a major influence for him as he creates ritualistic performances exploring his own mental and physical capacity for enduring pain, suffering, isolation and physical exertion. His work encompasses performance, photography, film, sculpture and drawing while incorporating found locations and materials, in combination with the human body and man-made objects. Utilizing a wide variety of techniques, Jensen addresses issues of human domestication and the need to explore our more animalistic and primordial self.
Brock Jensen’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. This includes exhibitions in Washington, Iowa, Montana, and Venice Italy. He has received several awards including the Catherine Hall Moe Scholarship, Masters Student Creative Activity Award, College of Arts and Humanities Outstanding Graduate Student Artistic Achievement Award, and the Graduate Student Summer Fellowship from Central Washington University.
Ellie Dicola - Notch, Void, and Cashing Out
Notch :
a cut or nick made in a stick or other object of record
(as in keeping a tally)
Void :
having no cards represented in
a particular hand
Cashing Out :
please always remember that
the real minimum wage is
zero
***
Finding herself abruptly unemployed and chronically failing to harness capitalism's promise of success, the ultimate reason for her termination remains mere conjecture. Was it illness or injury, rumors of her advocacy for fair compensation, or just generally her radical political leaning? At-will employment mandates no explanation, and internal oversight is always loyal to itself.
Protocol is never personal and professionalism is never emotional.
This project remixes text from the artist's Employee Manual and Handbook to create poems exploring transactional language--as it extends from the corporate sphere to interpersonal relationships. The documents serve both as a speculative means to process a desperate situation, and as a fierce critique in the form of the artist's exit interview.
On view at Spec. October 5 - November 19 2017