Working Conditions
A process-based project with 9 artists selected by the SoEx Curatorial Committee:
Steven Barich
Elysa Lozano
Jennie Ottinger
Nathaniel Parsons
Carlos Ramirez
Zachary Royer Scholz
Charlene Tan
Ethan Worden
Wafaa Yasin
Dates: November 11, 2011 – January 7, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, November 11, 2011, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Closing Reception: Friday, January 6, 2011 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
NEW Gallery Hours: Wednesdays, 2:00 - 9:00 pm; Thursdays - Saturdays, 12:00 - 6:00 pm; Sundays, 12:00 - 5:00 pm.
Holiday Closures: November 21-27, 2011, December 19, 2011- January 2, 2012
Working Conditions is a process-based project featuring nine artists invited by Southern Exposure’s Curatorial Committee. Each artist creates his or her own work environment as installation within the gallery and keeps regular work hours there, while developing a project rooted in notions of production, labor, and process. Rather than working alone in their studios, the artists in this exhibition are obliged to interact with their environment as they operate in full view of the public in an open space they share with one another. Each artist will work at Southern Exposure for fifteen hours per week or more.
Working Conditions addresses the role of artists as workers, both as members of a workforce within a broad economy subject to shifting variables, and as makers within a production system in which the final product may be ephemeral or not entirely known until its completion. An artist’s process changes frequently, with the creation of each new piece, the shifts in public understanding of art practice and art objects, and the imposition of external strictures. Working Conditions considers some of these varied approaches to the labor of artmaking, incorporating processes alternately based on patient craftsmanship; futile, seemingly endless construction; conversation; experimentation; gaming; or the delegation of work to gallery visitors.
This project is curated by the nine members of Southern Exposure’s artist-run curatorial committee, each of whom selected one of the artists in the show. The curators for Working Conditions are Amanda Eicher, Courtney Fink, Michael Hall, Tareneh Hemami, Jonn Herschend, Nathan Lynch, Daniel Nevers, Weston Teruya, and Nate Watson.
Video by Sarah Simon