RESPONSE I & II: Culture Laboratory Collective in collaboration with Ben Lewis and Noah Simblist
Martha Gault Gallery, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA
January 26- Feb 21, 2012

(curated and coordinated by Ian F. Thomas.)

Exhibition format:An outside party (Ben Lewis for Response I and Noah Simblist for Response II) proposes a theme in the form of a 12 word sentence and a word is designated for each artist in Culture Lab. The gallery will be set up to read in a linear format following the sentence structure. Each artist will be given approx. 4 feet of horizontal space in which to ‘consider’ their word.

Response I: Culture Laboratory Collective in collaboration with Ben Lewis and Response II: Culture Laboratory Collective in collaboration with Noah Simblist have been displayed at Richland College (Dallas), Box 13 ArtSpace (Houston) and recently at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY). Both Response I and Response II exhibits will be on exhibit at Slippery Rock University, PA.

“Nowadays we must distinguish between the deeply superficial and the superficially superficial.“
~Ben Lewis (of ‘Art Safari,‘ London)

In this exhibit we have been provided with a sentence by outside party Ben Lewis, an award winning director, writer, and interviewer based in London. In his acclaimed contemporary art series, ‘Art Safari,’ Lewis has interviewed internationally recognized artists Matthew Barney, Sophie Calle, Santiago Sierra, and Maurizio Cattelan. He has recently released a new documentary titled “The Great Contemporary Art Bubble.”

“I am writing this (self reflexive) sentence but it is writing you.”
~Noah Simblist (writer for ArtPapers)

Noah Simblist is an artist, writer, curator, and associate professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.  His work explores the relationship between politics and abstraction with an emphasis on the Palestine/Israeli conflict. Simblist has written for Artpapers, Artlies and several web publications. He has curated Abstraction/Construction at SOIL gallery in Seattle, Collecting and Collectivity at Conduit Gallery in Dallas and the 3 Propositions and a Musical Scenario in Ft Worth along with Subtext Projects.

THEME: As a group Culture Lab will focus on themes of interpretation while highlighting ideas of diversity and individuality within a community.

Concept: The exhibit involves relational aesthetics, pinpointing the individuality of the artists and our localized attempts to remain a part of the group discussion.  Each artist is naturally unique, so the idea is to promote an artist group that does not attempt to homogenize it’s member’s but allows them a voice that contributes to the vitality of the community.

For previous RESPONSE exhibitions:

Response I: Dallas

Response II: Houston

Response II: Ithaca

~Noah Simblist (artist/critic/curator, Texas)

RESPONSE II: Culture Laboratory in collaboration with Noah Simblist
Olive Tjaden Gallery, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
September 26-30, 2011

“Response II: Noah Simblist,” originally displayed at Box 13 ArtSpace in Houston, Texas, will be on exhibit at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

Exhibition format: An outside party (Noah Simblist) proposes a theme in the form of a 12 word sentence and a word is designated for each artist in Culture Lab. The gallery will be set up to read in a linear format following the sentence structure. Each artist will be given approx. 4 feet of horizontal space in which to ‘consider’ their word.

THEME: As a group Culture Lab will focus on themes of interpretation while highlighting ideas of diversity and individuality within a community.

Concept: The exhibit involves relational aesthetics, pinpointing the individuality of the artists and our localized attempts to remain a part of the group discussion.  Each artist is naturally unique, so the idea is to promote an artist group that does not attempt to homogenize it’s member’s but allows them a voice that contributes to the vitality of the community.

Noah Simblist is an artist, writer, curator, and associate professor at SMU in Dallas, Texas.  His work explores the relationship between politics and abstraction with an emphasis on the Palestine/Israeli conflict. Simblist has written for Artpapers, Artlies and several web publications. He has curated Abstraction/Construction at SOIL gallery in Seattle, Collecting and Collectivity at Conduit Gallery in Dallas and the 3 Propositions and a Musical Scenario in Ft Worth along with Subtext Projects.

( Coordinated by Piotr Chizinski )

images:

CORNELL AAP [Architecture Art Planning] 

ARTISTS and ARWORK Titles

Brian Jobe

But (Vapor Trails)

Zipties, object

2011

Loren Erdrich

Is (After Laughter Comes Tears)

Digital Video

2011

Jonathan Whitfill

I

Books, resin

2011

Ryder Richards

AM: radio waves offering proof of existence

Rfid tags, rfid reader, resin, website, ipad

2011

Piotr Chizinski

Writing

Dvorak keyboard, tablet, game

2011

Ian F. Thomas

You

Chrome plated inflated steel, found object

2011

Sue Anne Rische

Reflexive

Ink, paint, paper, tracing paper, thread

2011

Kale Roberts

This

Digital print

2011

Shreepad Joglekar

It

Photo

2011

Dryden Wells

Sentence

Porcelain

2011

JD Durham

Calamity Jane (Writing)

Aryclic, gypsum, concrete on panel

2011

Sarah Haven

Self… but I smell good

Soap, cotton shower curtain

2011

Loren Erdrich

Is

Video

2011

Land Portrait
January 2012
UTSA Satellite Space
Blue Star Art Complex, San Antonio, TX

Opening Reception: Jan 5 & 6, 2012 (6-9 PM)

Land Portrait will feature work from Culture Lab members based upon his or her relationship with a particular place, landform, landscape, topography, or state of current residence. The works, when combined, will act as comprehensive land portraits. These translations of site are needed as societies are continually in flux and locations are fluid. Histories are waiting to be formed.

(Coordinated and Curated by Brian Jobe.)

PRESS:

Review: ”Earth isn’t always what we try to make of it” by Scott Andrews, San Antonio Current_ Jan 11, 2012
Review: “Exhibit Focuses on Landscape” by Elda Silva, MySanAntonio.com, Jan 17, 2012

_________

Images:

8.6- 9.10.2011

“I am writing this (self reflexive) sentence but it is writing you.”
~Noah Simblist

Exhibition format: “Response” is part of an ongoing series of exhibitions where Culture Laboratory invites an outside party to propose a theme in the form of a 12 word sentence. A word is designated for each artist in Culture Lab. The gallery will be set up to be read in a linear format following the sentence structure. Each artist will be given 4 feet of horizontal space in which to ‘consider’ their word. In this exhibit our sentence is contributed by Noah Simblist, Texas based artist, writer, curator and Assoc. Prof. at SMU, Dallas.

THEME: As a group Culture Lab will focus on themes of interpretation while highlighting ideas of diversity and individuality within a community.

Concept: The exhibit involves relational aesthetics, pinpointing the individuality of the artists and our localized attempts to remain a part of the group discussion.  Each artist is naturally unique, so the idea is to promote an artist group that does not attempt to homogenize it’s member’s but allows them a voice that contributes to the vitality of the community.
++ The first attempt at this exhibition format was “Response in collaboration with Ben Lewis“ [of Art Safari, London] and was held at Richland College, Dallas in early 2011. The success of the exhibit prompted another collaborative effort to further explore the discourse and relation of object to context.

Noah Simblist is an artist, writer, curator, and associate professor at SMU in Dallas, Texas.  His work explores the relationship between politics and abstraction with an emphasis on the Palestine/Israeli conflict. Simblist has written for Artpapers, Artlies and several web publications. He has curated Abstraction/Construction at SOIL gallery in Seattle, Collecting and Collectivity at Conduit Gallery in Dallas and the 3 Propositions and a Musical Scenario in Ft Worth along with Subtext Projects.

To be held at Box13 Artpspace in Houston, Dallas.

( Curated and coordinated by Ryder Richards )

Artists word assignment:

Co:Modify

Theme: Culture Laboratory members will focus on the  idea of ‘commodification as a form of validation of life concepts.’
For example: the health care industry, or the health food industry. One can observe that for an idea of common good to be viable, it needs to attain the form of an industrial product.

CURATORIAL STATEMENT:

After observing the changes in my life-choices over last few years I have realized how increasingly our society is going away from tradition-based knowledge. Instead, media, advertising, and celebrities guide today’s choices. It seems, in this post – cultural society, for every common-sense daily practice that our families evolved with, there is a mass-produced industrial product. This product not only cheaply imitates the real social and cultural values, but also cunningly tries to replace them. We have come to embrace the imitational commodities at the expense of the original rituals rooted in cultures. This issue of commodification will be at the heart of the works exhibited in the show at the Nave Museum.

As a collective of artist we will be responding to the condition that we find ourselves today: our society is increasingly going away from experience-based traditions, and tradition-based knowledge. Instead, advertising, mass media, and celebrities guide our choices. It seems, in this post-cultural society, for every common-sense daily practice of the past, there is a mass-produced industrial imitation. We embrace the imitational commodities at the expense of the original rituals rooted in our past, and, at the same time, we invent new rituals in the search of a feeling compatible to memories of a comfortable cultural past; like Oreos and milk.

_Shreepad Joglekar, 2011

PRESS: Victoria Advocate, Dec. 10, 2011

REVIEW: Glasstire.com - “Co-Modify: Culture Lab Collective” at Victoria’s Nave Museum by Harbeer Sandhu, Jan 2012

 

“Nowadays we must distinguish between the deeply superficial and the superficially superficial.“
~Ben Lewis (of ‘Art Safari,‘ London)

RESPONSE
Brazos Gallery, Richland College, Dallas, TX
February 03 – March 03, 2011

Exhibition format: An outside party (Ben Lewis) proposes a theme in the form of a 13 word sentence and a word is designated for each artist in Culture Lab. The gallery will be set up to read in a linear format following the sentence structure. Each artist will be given 4 feet of horizontal space in which to ‘consider’ their word.

In this exhibit we have been provided with a sentence by outside party Ben Lewis, an award winning director, writer, and interviewer based in London. In his acclaimed contemporary art series, ‘Art Safari,’ Lewis has interviewed internationally recognized artists Matthew Barney, Sophie Calle, Santiago Sierra, and Maurizio Cattelan. He has recently released a new documentary titled “The Great Contemporary Art Bubble.”

THEME: As a group Culture Lab will focus on themes of interpretation while highlighting ideas of diversity and individuality within a community.

Concept: The exhibit involves relational aesthetics, pinpointing the individuality of the artists and our localized attempts to remain a part of the group discussion.  Each artist is naturally unique, so the idea is to promote an artist group that does not attempt to homogenize it’s member’s but allows them a voice that contributes to the vitality of the community.

To be held in the Brazos Gallery at Richland College, Dallas.

( Curated and coordinated by Ryder Richards )

__ images __

Press:

Glasstire_ Spring Preview 2011 :: recommended exhibits in Dallas

TTU alumni_ blog post

Press Release:: Response by Culture Laboratory and Ben Lewis

Mention in D Magazine: Article

____________________

Artist and artwork information:

Sue Anne Rische
Nowadays
Tape, plastic wrap, sequins, thread, light, antique bell
8x8x8

Jonathan Whitfill
We
type, wood, metal
12x12x1

JD Durham
Must: Dally’s Beer Run
acrylic on canvas
24x24x2

Loren Erdrich
Distinguish: One instance in which I thought we were walking
together but we were actually walking apart
paint on paper, ipod, earphones
14x12x14

Shreepad Joglekar
Between
still image sequence loop, DVD player, cinderblocks
42x20x20

Ian F Thomas
The
gold leaf on paper
44×40

Brian Jobe
Deeply: Deep Weeds
zip ties, tape, and found object
57×42

Dryden Wells
Superficial
Pocelain, PVD coating
28×40

Piotr Chizinski
And
gypsum
40x4x4

Kale Roberts
The: the anticipation of the
lemon pilfs, scented air freshener
20×4

Sarah Haven
Superficially
polymer clay
4×24

Ryder Richards
Superficial
Found muffler, incised pattern, chrome plated
48x24x10

_________________

About Response: “I like that the structured relationship between the curatorial statement, the work, and the viewer is very clear. And that the space created by that structure is vast with sputtering proclamations, suspicious murmurs,and egregious affirmations.” _ Josh Keller, 2011

Translatory Motion
The Pottery Workshop Gallery, Jingdezhen, China
Shanghai, China
Beijing, China

The exhibit challenges conceptual and cultural translation while pinpointing identity through the objects we propose for creation by another culture.

Theme: Culture Laboratory members design images which will be hand painted as blue glaze onto porcelain tiles  by the phenomenal ceramics workers in China. Dryden Wells has been working in China for almost 3 years. He is coordinating the exhibit with stateside help from Ian F Thomas.

The exhibition entangles intention, translation, and the potential for communication into a series of finely crafted objects. The exhibit will first be shown in China and later exhibited in the US. We will post more details as they emerge.

Exhibits will continue from August until December 2011.

Our first exhibition “Culture Lab:: So Say We All, Sort Of…” was at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. A Culture Lab member, JD Durham, coordinated and curated the exhibition. On Friday, July 31st 2009 we had the Closing Reception at 5PM and the Gallery Talk at 3PM.