Mark Leckey, GreenScreenVegetables (2011), all images courtesy Untitled, New York
Currently on view at Untitled, located at 30 Orchard Street in New York, is a group exhibition of work by both emerging and well-known artists surrounding themes of decontextualization and absence. The show will be on view through August 2nd, 2014.
Entitled The Husk, the exhibition at Untitled takes created objects out of its original environment, and into a neutral space, allowing new narratives, fragments and concepts to emerge. The word “husk” is the gallery’s metaphor for an empty shell, one that can serve many purposes and is capable of fulfilling many roles when separated from a specific period of time and space. True to form, the images and objects on view exist in a type of spatial limbo – “between utility and death, between movement and stasis, between past and future…They are the relics of a past not yet forgotten and a future not yet imagined.”
Mark Leckey‘s GreenScreen series, for example, plays on the colors and textures of vegetables and mechanics in comical alteration, bringing the technique of “keying out” various colors into use as a way to decontextualize various objects, all while underscoring their absence from a concrete locale. The works in turn become floating concepts, real objects making express reference to their presence as images. In another series, Josh Kline presents the body parts and branded uniforms of FedEx employees, contained within their own shipping packages, a chilling image of a corporation sans almost any human analog.
Josh Kline, No Vacation Days (Fedex Worker’s Foot with Nike Sneaker) (2014)
The “husk,” as it is termed here, takes on various forms throughout, from the aforementioned cultural and technological signifiers, to more traditional approaches towards composition and execution. Take Kathryn Andrews, whose Chain Smoker lines up a row of cigarettes, contrasted with old photographs, as if making a light-hearted jab at the arrangements of assemblage artist Joseph Cornell.
Cosima Von Bonin, 36 BUBBLES LOOP #07 (2010)
Other exhibiting artists include Cosima Von Bonin, Eric Davis, Cameron Rowland, and Gedi Sibony. The Husk, which opened on June 26th, will continue at Untitled through August 1, 2014.
Josh Kline, No Sick Days (Fedex Worker’s Head with Fedex Cap) (2014)
—E. Baker and D. Creahan
Related Links:
Exhibition Page [Untitled]
