| P.S.1 Contemporary
Art Center presents Seconds of Something, 2004, a new site-specific
installation by New York-based artist Phoebe Washburn.
Using recycled materials found on local loading docks and
in alleyways, Washburn creates post-minimalist constructions
that appear as swells of urban refuse. In each of her installations,
Washburn paints scavenged wood, cardboard, or newspaper
in institutional pastels--greens, pinks and blues--and subsequently
cements it all together to form a sedimentation of layered
detritus. Washburn refers to her works as "spontaneous
architecture," emphasizing a bipolar urge to merge
the accidental and the intentional. Her massive, undulating
structures consume and overpower the gallery space, swallowing
their audience, and all else in their path.
For Seconds of Something, Washburn uses recycled newsprint
painted with mistint (custom mixed color paint rejected
by the consumer). Tracking the relationship between time
and the amount of paper mass discarded daily, Washburn assigns
each weekday its own color: Monday/blues, Tuesday/greens,
Wednesday/yellows, Thursday/oranges, Friday/reds, Saturday/pinks
and purples and Sunday/whites. She coils the painted newsprint
together to form colossal landmasses, supported by an ad
hoc, makeshift ramp. The ramp, formed by a variety of materials
that range from generic folding chairs to conventional industrial
building materials and scrap wood from a previous installation,
is not fixed, so that the substructure can compress into
spaces, against walls, into corners, and wrap around architectural
details.
Phoebe Washburn (b. 1973 Poughkeepsie, NY) currently lives
and works in New York City. Washburn received a BFA at Newcomb
College, Tulane University in New Orleans (1996) and completed
an MFA at School of Visual Arts (2002). Solo exhibitions
include Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC (2004);
LFL Gallery, New York (2004); Ierimonti Gallery, Milan,
Italy (2004); Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell University, Grinnell,
Iowa (2003); Rice University Gallery, Houston, Texas (2003);
Mixture Gallery, Houston, Texas (2003); and LFL Gallery
(2002).
This exhibition was made possible in part by the Manhattan
Community Arts Fund/ New York City Department of Cultural
Affairs, administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Special thanks to installation volunteers: Vince Alcaide,
A.J. Bocchino, Michelle Calabro, Emily Chua, Corry Kanzenberg,
Patrick Lim, Peter Mallo, Joan Monserrate, Joel Murphy,
Rick Ponce, and Erica Pajerowsky.
This exhibition is curated by P.S.1 Assistant Curator Amy
Smith-Stewart
For more information, please
contact Rachael Dorsey, P.S.1 Press Office, at press@ps1.org
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