Abjection and Monument

Mended-Spiderweb-19 thumbnail
Unti­tled (Por­trait of Ross in L.A.) thumbnail
Small Things For­got­ten thumbnail
Small Things For­got­ten 2 thumbnail
Small Things For­got­ten 3 thumbnail
Small Things For­got­ten thumbnail
Small Things For­got­ten thumbnail
Claes Old­en­burg Apple Core thumbnail
Evis­cer­a­tion of waited moments thumbnail
Lupins or Your Life thumbnail
Lupins or Your Life thumbnail
Lupins or Your Life  thumbnail
Mended-Spiderweb-19
Unti­tled (Por­trait of Ross in L.A.)
Small Things For­got­ten
Small Things For­got­ten 2
Small Things For­got­ten 3
Small Things For­got­ten
Small Things For­got­ten
Claes Old­en­burg Apple Core
Evis­cer­a­tion of waited moments
Lupins or Your Life
Lupins or Your Life
Lupins or Your Life

Nina Katchadouri­an Mend­ed Spi­der­web #19 (Laun­dry Line) Cibachrome, 30 x 20 inch­es, 1998

Felix Gon­za­lez-Tor­res Unti­tled (Por­trait of Ross in L.A.), 1991

Ker­ri Reid Small Things For­got­ten, 2009

Ker­ri Reid Small Things For­got­ten, 2009

Ker­ri Reid Small Things For­got­ten, 2009

Ker­ri Reid Small Things For­got­ten, 2009

Ker­ri Reid Small Things For­got­ten, 2009

Claes Old­en­burg and Coos­je van Bruggen Apple Core, 1992 Cast alu­minum coat­ed with resin and paint­ed with polyurethane enam­el 17 ft. 7 in. x 7 ft. 6 in. x 7 ft. 9 in. (5.4 x 2.3 x 2.4 m) (includes remov­able stem 4 ft. 7 in. [1.4 m] high) Col­lec­tion The Israel Muse­um, Jerusalem Gift of the Mor­ton and Bar­bara Man­del Fund, Man­del Asso­ci­ated Foun­da­tions, Cleve­land, and the artists, to Amer­i­can Friends of the Israel Museum

Stephen Shanabrook Evis­cer­a­tion of wait­ed moments, 1993–1994 Amer­i­can Morgue Choco­lates, impres­sions of wounds cast in dark choco­late, col­ored foil. Ed. of 25; each box: 43 x 48 x 8 cm 16.9 x 18.9 x 3.2 inches

a student’s “lost and found” piece from the Lupins or Your Life Ped­a­gog­i­cal Impulse residency

a student’s “lost and found” poster from the Lupins or Your Life Ped­a­gog­i­cal Impulse residency

a student’s “lost and found” poster from the Lupins or Your Life Ped­a­gog­i­cal Impulse residency

When an object los­es its place, it becomes the abject; it slips between bound­aries of what is attrac­tive or repul­sive, pre­cious or worth­less, alive or dead. The abject object moves across such cat­e­gories while retain­ing a haunt­ing mem­o­ry of both belong­ings — a threat and promise that these cat­e­gories them­selves can be breached.

Scaled up in mem­o­ry as the sub­ject of art, the abject is memo­ri­al­ized. For exam­ple, Nina Katchadouri­an makes an “unin­vit­ed col­lab­o­ra­tion with nature” to mend a tat­tered spider’s web, stitch­ing into real­i­ty what could eas­i­ly be for­got­ten in bright­ly-coloured thread.

Félix González-Tor­res remem­bers the body, affec­tion and decline of his dead lover by faith­ful­ly re-mate­ri­al­iz­ing his med­ical­ly ide­al weight as a pile of can­dies, cre­at­ing a new body freely offered for the pub­lic to take from what they may.

Hap­pen­ing upon a puz­zle piece lost in the cold, Ker­ri Reid con­structs a new image and home from its abject con­di­tions, and repack­ages the imper­fect whole by hand. While Reid goes to the trou­ble of find­ing a new retail envi­ron­ment for this stranger, Claes Old­en­berg and Coos­je van Bruggen enlarges the spat-out remains of an apple core to mon­u­men­tal proportions.

Stephen Shanabrook‘s con­fec­tionary impres­sions of fatal wounds make tan­gi­ble a thing­ness so mar­gin­al that it can’t be dis­card­ed. For Shanabrook, the mon­u­ment is not some­thing that com­mem­o­rates a past, but rather a com­plex mate­r­i­al of sens­es that is indeli­ble in pres­ence, edi­ble in expe­ri­ence, and so elu­sive­ly deli­ble once again.

jes sachse’s project Free­dom Tube pays homage to a small but cru­cial every­day tool the artist uses to accom­mo­date their dis­abil­i­ty: the clas­sic red and white drink­ing straw.

The con­clud­ing images of this archive offer the “lost and found” posters cre­at­ed by stu­dents who retrieved and reval­ued lost frag­ments and unnamed enti­ties dur­ing a residency.