Stacked

On Friday, September 15, from 6 to 9 p.m. the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts presents STACKED, a group exhibition of artists whose work examines structure, componential systems, and building materials. Curated by Matthew Distel of the CulturalMachineComplex, STACKED will feature a diverse group of 25 artists and projects employing a wide range of media including sculpture, video and film installations, audio constructions, works on paper, and digital images. The conceptual theme uniting all of these works is the artists’ revelation of both physical and conceptual structure(s). Numerous strategies will be utilized such as:

open construction [!]
re-contextualized building materials/replacement [@]
inversion [#]
subtractive processes [$]
serial or componential systems [%]
narrative [^]
extraction [&]
use of deconstructed equipment [*]
examination of identity [)]
addressing the architecture of the space [+]

The exhibition will encompass the entire upper and lower galleries including traditionally “off-limits” spaces such as a janitor’s closet and the gallery prep space. The Weston Art Gallery’s upper space will be the site for several of these projects including a video installation by Derek Fansler of Chicago, IL. Fansler’s work Action Movie [!@^)] will consist of a video depicting a scene from an action movie in which the artist has recreated the set and replaced the actors, either with himself or masked versions of himself, engaging in the action of the scene. The video will be presented outside of the reconstructed movie set resulting in a humorous examination of identity and displacement.

At the entrance to the lower galleries will be an installation by Cincinnati artist Peter Huttinger, entitled Pee-Poop-Soup a/k/a A fort built (around 8 years ago) by Francis, Max, Andrew and Ted with help from John (Andrew and Ted’s dad) in the woods behind Vicki and Peter’s (Francis’ mom and dad) apartment; containing a video by Peter edited with help from Russ (a few weeks ago) entitled ‘Silent Film’ using footage of the installation-activity ‘Water Sports’ (recorded static) – ‘Water Sports’ was presented in March, earlier this year, at the Semantics gallery run by David; the above mentioned presented here, at this time, at the Weston Art Gallery run by Dennis and Kelly in an exhibition entitled ‘Stacked’ organized by Matt. [!@&]. Huttinger’s project is a fort built by his son 9 years ago, reconstructed in the gallery and presented with a video component. The crude construction techniques of a group of childhood friends are celebrated here as the fort is given a new context within the gallery.

Kristin Rogers of newsense enterprises, Cleveland, OH; will install his work Guttermouth[!@^+] in the east gallery. Guttermouth, a sound installation, simulates a work environment in which the workers are concealed from the viewer, leaving the viewer with only the sounds and the surrounding construction equipment to decipher the activity.

The gallery prep space will be opened to the public to view a collaborative work by Andrea Sparks, of Stratford, CT; and Mark Fox, of Cincinnati, OH; installed in the open ductwork of the ceiling. Carousel Traces [!@$%^*+] is essentially an 8mm film projection. In this context, however, the projector will encompass the entire room and is composed of homemade sprockets and several deconstructed projectors and their basic components. The film will wind its way around the ceiling and columns of the prep space. The film itself is a simple, yet beautiful visual rendering of decomposing moths.

Also participating in STACKED will be Aaron Arendt, Minneapolis, MN; Aaron Morse, Los Angeles, CA; Cary Leibowitz, Jonathan Liss, New York City, NY; Joel Whitaker, Dayton, OH; Peter Kalbfleisch, Seattle, WA; Todd Pavlisko, Pittsburgh, PA; Alan Sauer, Andy Marko, Bryan Huff, Charles Woodman, Cooper Burchenal, Fred Ellenberger, Jacob Dyrenforth, Janalyn Glascock, Laura Herman, Rachel Rampleman, Robert Dyehouse, Sarah Colby, Tony Luensman, Cincinnati, OH.

STACKED is curated by Matthew Distel, Cincinnati, OH; of the CulturalMachineComplex – an offshoot of the now defunct alternative gallery space DiLeia Contemporary where he served as founder and co-director with Kristin Rogers. The CMC is a Cincinnati-based organization that seeks to bridge gaps between communities through its support of innovative programming, social intervention and athletic competition.