In
their first solo exhibition in New York, artist duo Aeron Bergman and
Alejandra Salinas show a new body of work at DAC that draws attention
to its own durability and physicality. Web content is burned onto acid-free
paper with a laser engraver for maximum longevity. Information from
paper documents is engraved as a series of granite monuments (the same
material used for grave markers and high end kitchen counters). Tang
dynasty poetry is etched into chinaware. Sculptures in marble, granite
and (faux) gold suggest their value as the materials of the beaux arts,
while ceramic, brick and tile pieces invoke the domestic.
GRANITE/MARBLE/PAPER/CERAMIC/LINOLEUM/BRICK/GLASS
Artifacts produced in stone will last for a while, but time will eventually
dissolve them into dust just the same as printed matter. The craze to
digitize books, photos and other paper artifacts seems to be part of
the urge for preservation: but since the average server lasts 5 years
before it needs an upgrade or a replacement, the original paper, if
stored correctly, will last much longer than the digital copy. Digital
files must be continually replaced using new equipment. This continual
renovation assumes the will and ability to cough up a budget, but economics
is fickle: see Detroit.
Hannah Arendt wrote that the art of being happy among "small things,"
within the space of our own four walls where we extend a "care
and tenderness which, in a world where rapid industrialization constantly
kills off the things of yesterday to produce today's objects, may appear
to be the world's last, purely humane corner." Le petit bonheur
of the private sphere is one of the few instances where irrelevant activity
is tolerated. In the res publica, use-value must be clear and immediate.
Artistic production rarely satisfies these terms. Contemporary art exists
in an unstable position because it occasionally draws blockbuster crowds
and high auction prices, but for the most part, it is an irrelevant
activity confined to private spaces such as artist studios.
-Text by Bergman/Salinas
Detroit 2011
Aeron Bergman and Alejandra Salinas are an artist duo
currently living and working in Oslo, Norway. The pair has lived in
Toronto, Detroit, New York, London, La Rioja, Barcelona, Gothenburg
and Oslo. They have had solo exhibitions at Centre d’Art Santa
Monica (Barcelona), Serralves Museum (Porto), Röda Sten Art Center
(Gothenburg), Centre d’Art Contemporain (Geneva), IMO (Copenhagen)
and participated in group shows at ICC (Tokyo), the Taipei Fine Arts
Museum, CCCB (Barcelona), Kunstnernes Hus and Henie Onstad Art Center
(Oslo). They have also done electro-acoustic music and performance art
works in venues around the world such as Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Van
Abbemuseum (Eindhoven), the Knitting Factory, (New York), Overgaden
Institute for Contemporary Art (Copenhagen) and MUDAM (Luxembourg).
Bergman and Salinas have directed Lucky Kitchen editions for electroacoustic
music and published 15 solo audio works on various labels. They have
been awarded an Honorary Mention and an Award of Distinction by the
Prix Ars Electronica (Linz). In 2011 they created INCA: Institute for
Neo Connotative Action, an artist, poet and scholar in residency program,
exhibition and lecture space in Detroit, USA. The pair also curate the
nobelprize.no yearly online exhibition. They have taught and lectured
in art schools such as Umeå Art Academy, Malmö Academy of
Art, Trondheim Art Academy and the International Academy of Art, Palestine
in Ramallah. Bergman is currently professor and chair of intermedia
at the Oslo National Academy of Fine Art.
Feng-Shui master Pun Yin has a reputation for “turning
the fortunes of her high profile clients around since the early 1990’s”.
FORTUNE Magazine in 1996 wrote: “ her work marks a new nexus between
this country’s corporate and metaphysical sectors”. In the
past two decades, her client list includes Trump International, HSBC,
Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Dormitory Authority
of the State of New York, First Republic Bank, New York City Health
& Hospitals Corporation as well as collaborations with the last
and current mayors of New York. She has also appeared in major media
such as CNN, CNBC, BBC, New York Times and Asahai, among many others.
Master Pun-Yin advocates an “authentic, true form Feng Shui that
is a customized art balancing the inner consciousness of people through
the Five Elements theory with the varying earth and solar energy of
each site.” www.punyin.com
Lily Pu studied under ikebana master Fumiko Allinder
in New York City and is a certified teacher in the sogetsu style. She
serves on the board of directors of Ikebana International NY and has
exhibited at, among many others, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the
Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Japan Society.
This exhibition is generously supported by the Royal Norwegian Consulate
General and the Office of Contemporary Art Norway.
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