Project Birch Forest Part II: Stirrings Still

photo by Eldon Garnet

August 19 – September 7, 2010

Opening Reception: August 19, 6-9 PM

The phrases Samuel Beckett pens in his final piece (Stirrings Still, 1986-9) embody a truly post-modern postulate that continues to address us in a tense present, urging us to consider ‘gathering’ together. In a song of farewell to fatigued elitist separations of art and real experience, the full text situates us in a “strange place seeking the way out,” urging a return to more essential, common origins. During the dot-com boom of the not-so-distant '90s, when the prosperous art scene mingled with the design and entertainment industries, artists of all sorts easily found solicitous admirers, fans, and collectors. Now, contemporary art is presented as a dislocated, colorful, and entertaining commodity mediated by remunerated arts professionals into a spectacle gracing blogs, reality television, and the pages of glossy old media. This exhibition simply ponders the question of whether we have arrived—or not—at a moment in time where we need to drop our “heads on hands”—a recurring phrase in Stirrings Still— to thoroughly question the accrued social and cultural value of our incessant production. There is an imperative need for provocative expression in a Now stunned by swift communication, mesmerizing new artificial intelligence discoveries, and unending applications extending to the arts.



Curator: Juan Puntes

Exhibition Design: Jee Won Kim

Curatorial Collaborators: Isaac Aden, Robin Wallis Atkinson

Project/Concept Director: Tatyana Stepanova

Stirrings Still Video Project curated by Andrea Monti


Participating Artists:
Isaac Aden
Anonymous
China Blue
The Blue Noises
Stefano Cagol
Tania Candiani
Stephen Collier
Lance de los Reyes
Susana Delahante
Caraballo Farman
Eldon Garnet
Jakko Heikkila
Ali Hossaini
Richard Humann
Rodrigo Imaz
Carlos Irijalba
Boyun Jang
Pablo Jansana
Anton Kandinsky-Melamid
Ray Kelly
Todd Knopke
Grace Kim
Gosha Likhovetsky
Irina Margolina
Ferran Martin
Alfredo Martinez
Mary Mattingly
Jonas Mekas
David Opdyke
Rosemarie Padovano
Matt Posey
Osmo Rauhala
Carl Skelton
Joel Simpson
Michael Snow
Tatyana Stepanova
Susan Sully
Natalia Ushakova
Roi Vaara
Allan Wexler

Performers:
Lutz Rath/Janosch Parker
Pasha Radetzki

For more information, visit http://www.whiteboxny.org/projectbirchforest/