Fri 4/22 @ 6-9PM
SPACES’ gallery opens its spring shows this weekend, a pair of highly conceptual shows intended to make people think as much as look.
To the People of That Future We Leave That Legacy, by Chicago-based artist Hương Ngô and Durham, NC-based Hồng-Ân Trương, is based on the 1947 UN partitioning of Israel and Palestine, and scenes from a film made for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. According to the artist statement, it “excavates the seeds of destructive forces of Western diplomacy based on the twin powers of colonialism and capitalism. Examining this fraught moment in time, where the politics of democracy and the concept of the ‘common good’ became bound up with the language and violent imperatives of capitalism and colonialism, this project imagines the past as our dystopic, violent present.”
Hydra, by Cleveland artist Kara Güt, brings a video-game battle to life in the gallery through a large armature, which displays screens and sculptures on its arms. “Through the use of VR chat models, augmented game footage and appropriated imagery, Hydra explores the hyperspecialization of identity through infinite iterations of the self that now exist for inhabitance online, as well as our proximity to parasocial relationships,” we’re told.
The opening reception takes place Friday April 22 @ 6-9pm. It’s free and open to all. Masks are required. The shows remain on view through Friday June 3.