Descent to Revolution
A group exhibition featuring site-specific commissions and interventions by artists who use urban spaces and social contexts as primary means of production.
Curated by James Voorhies
Columbus College of Art & Design, Ohio
September 10–November 24, 2009
Claire Fontaine, Learning Site, Red76, REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT, Tercerunquinto
Made possible with funding and staff of Columbus College of Art & Design with grants from Greater Columbus Arts Council, the Ohio Arts Council, a Project Grant from Etant donnés: The French-American Fund for Contemporary Art; and a grant from the Danish Arts Council; realized within my responsibilities as Director of Exhibitions at Columbus College of Art & Design
During the course of the exhibition, participating artists visited Columbus in a series of residencies to make projects specific to the city. The work did not take place inside the space of the gallery but in concert with community and physical mediums outside of it.
Drawing on a range of ideas about urbanism, community, play, collectivity, education and revolution by figures like Jean Baudrillard, Guy Debord, Henri Lefebvre, Thomas Jefferson, Jean-François Lyotard and others, Descent to Revolution investigated how incremental shifts in cultural behavior are generated by continual production of knowledge, action and conversation. Revolution then is a slow, ever-evolving process responsive to a changing contemporary society. Within this investigation was a look at the role of the institution of art in realizing projects by practitioners whose production relies on contexts outside of the gallery.
So, while part of the gallery became an information outlet for Descent to Revolution, the remainder of it was vacant. Visitors were given the maps and information allowing them to wander back outside to discover what was happening over the course of the exhibition, to experience and contribute to works and projects organized in response to the city of Columbus.
Office of Collective Play was a space and program organized in association with Descent to Revolution.
Descent to Revolution served as an archive blog of the exhibition making.
Book, Archive
Claire Fontaine, WARM WAR, 2009, neon: 8 high x 34 wide x 4 deep inches, solar panel: 39 high x 193 wide x 20 deep inches. Courtesy of the artists.
Learning Site, Audible Dwelling, 2009, installation on Columbus College of Art & Design campus. Courtesy of the artists and Columbus College of Art & Design.
Red76, Surplus Seminar, Columbus, Ohio; A/AA (anywhere/anyplace academy), 2009. Courtesy of the artists and Columbus College of Art & Design.
REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT, The Readymade Demonstration, 2009, outdoor parade re-staging the East German peaceful revolution. Courtesy of the artists.
Tercerunquinto, It Was Built to Fail, 2009, concepts and residency for an unrealized project, downtown Columbus, Ohio. Courtesy of the artists.
Office of Collective Play, temporary occupation of downtown storefront and nomadic program accompanying Descent to Revolution, 2009.
Audible Dwelling is a combination loudspeaker and dwelling. It is composed of two identical units that make it into a composite stereo house. Each unit has two compartments; one compartment is for recording sound and considering what we hear, what we say in relation to the sound of public space. The other compartment contains speakers and the transmission line, a space especially designed with inspiration from Eileen Gray’s De Stijl table. In Audible Dwelling, the furniture and interior design optimize how recorded sound is inserted, projected into public space. Audible Dwelling is currently situated in one of the many parking lots in downtown Columbus, Ohio. It is in a parking lot at the corner of Washington and Long Streets on the campus of Columbus College of Art & Design. Is this Columbus, Ohio? is a speech by Learning Site. It is written by Jaime Stapleton, produced in collaboration with sound specialists Tony Peluso and Joshua Penrose and performed by artist Cassandra Troyan. Is this Columbus, Ohio? is about the economies of urban landscape–cars, asphalt, parking lots, malls, museums.
For some folks living in Skagaströn, Iceland, the end of long weekend nights are filled with group sing-alongs. In this tradition Ben Kinsley led a lively sing-along of his favorite songs as well as those quite popular with Icelanders.
Descent to Revolution, 2010, 8.25 x 5 inches.