RECESS invites you to participate in an ongoing, cross-collaborative series of exhibitions that will inject a dialectical approach straight into the veins of the contemporary arts - from the level of production up to the display. In contrast to the didacticism that has historically run rampant in art practice, this formula seeks to incorporate methods gleaned from the Socratic/Hegelian dialectic. In this formulation, rather than one thesis or statement that aims to convince an audience of its (truth) value, there are multiple, reactionary perspectives that seek to develop a more complete, rounded perspective by moving beyond the limitations of the first ones. These ‘statements’ form a trajectory illustrated by Thesis --> Antithesis --> Synthesis.
The model calls for three months, three venues, and approximately twelve dedicated artists who are interested in, or inspired by, working closely with others. For the ‘Thesis’ show, the artists will be randomly paired off into groups of two. Each group will have a month to collaborate on a project, loosely based on the ‘Thesis’ theme, to be displayed at Research Club. For the second installment of the series, ‘Antithesis,’ the groups will shift. One partner will continue working on the project with a new collaborator from another group. The new pairing will synthesize their interests to form the second installment of the continued project to be displayed at an alternate venue. For the final exhibition at RECESS the groups will shift again, but this time with the other side of the pairings that hadn’t already switched it up.
In the end there will have been six projects with three exhibitions, each building on the one before. We’re looking for a few more artists interested in participating.
If interested, please get in touch with RECESS. Direct all responses, questions, submissions, concerns, statements, clarification issues, ethical disputes, or other kinds of disputes to recesspdx@gmail.com If you would…
Briefly describe your experience with or interest in collaboration,
Mention any relevant skills/interests/research that you could bring to a collaborative team,
Include up to five images of recent work (optional),
and tell us anything else about you that you find relevant (optional),
…that would be fabulous.
We’ll be considering collaborators until October 15th, so hurry up and let us know that you’re interested!
If you don’t want to collaborate - that’s cool, too. You should still come check out the exhibitions, when they’re ready. We’ll let you know more about that when the time comes.
-Tori Abernathy
Director, RECESS
recesspdx.blogspot.com
