Friday, December 31, 2010

ABRAK48DABRA & K48 Kontinuum: The Last Slice 2010


COMING SOON!!!

The Last Slice: Tate Modern, London May 2010

AS AN UBIQUITOUS, and iconic symbol of New York City, pizza was the collaborative’s interests in cultural appropriation for No Soul For Sale, Tate Modern. A large black and white photograph of a slice of pepperoni pizza covered the floor in Turbine Hall. The crude image was juxtaposed with an empty pizza box with leftover crusts and greasy pizza box liner referencing forensic photography, the Grotesque, the Absurd, Dada, Surrealism and Pop. The empty box is a signifier of depletion, deflation, exhaustion, waste and void, but also, satisfaction, fullness, and wanting more. The recognizable pop culture motif of a slice of pizza is a conceptual indicator for all these things and more. Delivering a subversive critique of Postmodern culture’s rampant consumption and depletion, dwindling natural resources, and over population. One slice left of the whole. Our last slice is a symbol of economic collapse—an illusion of our Post-modern dilemma. Rich people eat it, poor people eat it. It’s delicious and satisfying whether it’s a cheap dollar slice on St. Mark’s Place in NYC or from a chic gourmet restaurant. Pizza is an egalitarian cuisine. K48 is an egalitarian collaborative group. The Last Slice is about current economics and trying to “make it” in New York and all corners of the globe.

K48 Kontinuum Black Cube / OoO 2009


K48 WAS INVITED by the X-initiative in New York to take part in their No Soul for Sale, a festival of independents, celebrating independent art projects and initiatives from around the world. K48 Kontinuum, a collaborative group of nine members, undertook the project, housed at the former Dia Art Foundation in Chelsea. A black cube was created inside one of the large exhibition spaces using black plastic, inflated by an air pump to sustain the temporary structure. Inside the cube, a strobe light flickered on and off slowly and intensively, making visible a black microphone resting on a small table. Visitors who ventured inside were often disoriented by the flickering darkness of the space, and were met by an acousmatic sound piece that played throughout the structure. Those who approached and spoke into the microphone found their voice changed and echoed by that of a little girl, repeating and temporally becoming part of the piece of music, providing an otherworldly experience. This collaboration marked a distinct new way for K48 to function, relying on a creative collective to produce one distinct work of art or environment.

Anne Koch performing inside of The Black Cube




Order of play
There is also and always
Toward great moved wrinkle disorder

Falling apart at the seams
Gut instincts, an internal logic
In the scope of our PC brains

We
The world is to us shadow
Strange shutter
Mind blanketed

Subversion of order, chance,
Strands of the hair
Backwards sweater
Shattered sunglasses

Super Collider
Asperger’s syndrome
Smashed self
Un-
Aware

Precariousness is the new order
Beyond politics
Flower prick
A dismantling of the ego

Naturally pick up the leftovers,
Cut them
The double up, and reassemble

The most uncertain way to proceed
Stamps and cats
Sinking ships, scripted vases

Primal is therapy with repair
Information hungry, chopped, twisted
And sometimes dysfunctional
Surfing on the clashing waves of confusion

OoO, Andrew Edlin Gallery, NYC

Starship Counterforce 2008


LIGHT AND SPACE FOR ALL

James Swain


Grant Worth


Shoplifter


avaf


K48 Starship Counterforce installation, Rekord, Oslo



Artist As Publisher, Center For Book Arts, NYC

Too Much Too Little Too Late 2007


An awesome tabloid sized, 96 page glossy featuring Polaroids of past K48 collaborators and friends...




In Lockdown We Bite! 2006


Dear Wentworth,

Greetings with all due respect! I pray that this letter reaches you in the best of health and spirit and that you haven’t been caught yet!

Man I can not imagine that there is only two more episodes to Prison Break—I am going to cry. But I have to learn to bite the bullet. At one point I read that you are the 14th most Googled person.

I saw you in the “my scene” doll booth at the teen choice awards autographing a pink surfboard. I wondered if you noticed the “my scene Lindsay Lohan” doll there. Why don’t we see you in a picture with Lindsay? Is there a rivalry between you and Lindsay?

You are so internal. You are psychologically still behind bars. How can you open up your story line? I need to be more inside your character. I want more… I’m so confined inside your walls. You can never go back to your previous life.

Went, what’s your plan? How can you manipulate them and still have feelings?

Tweener is a total RAT! But, HOT!

Freedom to me is the ability to walk away and not have to look over your shoulder.

Who are you and what drives you? You’re living your life so scared. I can totally feel the paranoia is setting in…

You must blend in… your storylines are too simple. But now that you’ve broken out of Fox, you can really expand your story… improvise as you go.

You’re our fearless leader. Everybody’s got their own agenda…

A lot of testosterone and egos going on… it’s like a pissing contest!

You’re marked for life.

You can’t go to a corner without being recognized by the news media... you’re not free. It’s about whatever works for the show. Nobody’s safe.

What the hell’s gonna happen next? Your new free life is more of a prison then you just escaped from—your home sweet home. The trick of it is to continue to be charming with whatever plot is thrown at you. T-Bag is a big kitten—he’s always suckin’ us in—I hate him!

We need to get to the money!

It’s the regular routine… it’s nice to be in different clothes.

It’s a lot of woods, spiders, bugs, running, sweatin’, smelling kinda bad…

We don’t trust each other. Tweener is always off on his own… you should totally nail him!

Wentworth, you’ve been eating too much chocolate cake!

Emotions, tensions, down each other’s throats… everything is very urgent. You’re never free man. I don’t care how big the world is—you’re still a slave! Maybe we’re free but we’re fugitives… How can we get the money and live a happy life somewhere other than the U.S.?

Government conspiracy—time to hunt some human flesh—Bellick’s jealous and wants your hot ass just as much as we all do! I think the hammer is gonna fall. It’s kinda like working for a large corporation… you never know when you’re gonna get laid... off!

Everyone has their objective—debts to repay… you’ve got to get that 5 million man! T-Bag needs a new hand and you need a new plan—you need to manipulate and maneuver around these idiots who continue to get in our way. All those other cons want the money too!

Success and money as an actor, you’ve got to accommodate that! Finding the balance. At the end of the day you were just hired to do a job. Be committed but not necessarily attached.

There’s no sense in worrying… you’re forced to deal with what life gives you. You didn’t ask for it.

Poor thing. I think it’s getting too much for you. Time for a meltdown.

They messed with the wrong guy!

I think you’ve met your mental match.

Yours truly,
Hugs

p.s. If you do see this, you can totally contact me and you guys are more than welcome to hide out at my place.

Cover by Superm


Christophe Chemin


Eve Fowler


Solomon Chase & Lauren Devine


a still from the film, Fire by Annika Larsson shown at The Kitchen, NYC

Is There Anybody Out There 2005


Hiromi Yoshi Gallery, Tokyo Japan: Justin Samson, Debra Mesa Pelly, Bill Saylor, and Rachel Howe explore reality from the perspective of an outsider youth — mixing-up fiction/daydreams/fantasy with the everyday — allowing them to reassess a version of reality.











K48 is an Animal 2004-2006



This book belongs to:

___________________________

My favorite animal is a(n):

___________________________


Billy Miller & PFFR


A.L. Steiner and Matt Murphy


Trinie Dalton & Matthew Greene


Shoplifter




Ponce de Leon performing at Sundown Salon, Fritz Haeg LA

Kult 48 2003


Find strength and encouragement in your walk with K48...



Genesis Breyer P-Orridge


Keegan McHarge


Rusty Santos


Shoplifter












DO NOT PROVOKE US: Marres Gallery, Maastricht, The Netherlands