P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

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2007 Spring

Emergency Room: The Colonel and His Discontents

Emergency Room

Installation View at P.S.1, 2007

Photo by Matthew Septimus

Courtesy P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

Emergency Room is a physical space and dynamic process where artists of different backgrounds and methodologies can spark a dialogue and work together on a constantly evolving exhibition. Created by Danish artist Thierry Geoffroy/Colonel, as a means of gathering artists’ views on the world today, Emergency Room encourages artists to produce works in a state of emotional or intellectual urgency, considering only the events of the last twenty-four hours prior to display. Each day at 12:30 p.m., the Emergency Room space at P.S.1 will undergo a complete transformation: replacing yesterday’s artistic observations with today’s new ones. Old works are stored in an adjacent room and remain on view as an archive. Geoffroy’s emphasis on the concept of today is critical to the show, and he accepts no existing or “recycled” works. He urges participating artists to capture their emotional reactions to current events, and to direct this spontaneous energy toward producing “emergency art.”

P.S.1 assistant Beatrice Johnson takes a behind-the-scenes look at the exhibition by accompanying Geoffroy on a studio tour in anticipation of the project.

December 3, 2006: I accompanied Geoffroy on the first day of a whirlwind weekend of studio visits.

3:00 p.m.: Studio of Deborah Grant. Discussing the show’s concept of instantaneous art with Grant revealed an immediate wrinkle. For the artist, today is no more than an echo of yesterday, a week ago, or even 30 years back. She believes that history continuously repeats itself, and no day is ever truly unique. A fervent appropriator of clippings from old periodicals such as Life, Grant’s work shows that even dated images can make pertinent comments on today’s state of affairs. After contemplating both Grant’s methodology and Emergency Room’s primary goals, a possible idea for the project emerged. Using a transistor radio (one of our most stubbornly enduring ways of broadcasting news) to create an interactive installation, Grant will deliver the day’s events to the gallery while also offering the viewer the option of listening, changing the station, or simply turning it off. 

5:30 p.m.: Studio of Toby Barnes. Geoffroy and I entered a room crowded with large, vibrant canvases where Barnes greeted us with a fully developed and complex idea for the show. Owing to a passion for Persian rug patterns, Barnes has decided to merge these fabrics’ symbolic motifs with the contemporary media of stencils and spray paint. In Barnes’s sketchbook were familiar yet mysterious Persian-inspired patterns transformed into barbed wire, iPod headphone cords, empty oil barrels, armed soldiers, Nike logos, and many more. Driven by a desire to develop themes such as war and apathy, Barnes created new methods and codes in his politically charged revision of the traditional Persian rug. Barnes’s intensive, detail-oriented project will involve hours of work prior to exhibition in the space, and the creation of template rugs with pre-printed intricate motifs. In order to be faithful to the project’s mission and to hold fast to the show’s themes, Barnes has decided to fill in the remaining blank center only on exhibition days, when he longs to express his opinion. The Colonel’s demand for immediacy will therefore be preserved.

8:00 p.m.: Studio of Lisi Raskin. We first discussed the artist’s 2006 installation at P.S.1, an imagined bomb factory entitled Jack Shack. Raskin also outlined her ongoing interest in the threat of nuclear war, the life of the imagination within a climate of constant surveillance and potential destruction, and the various characters embodied by her in recent installation narratives. With regards to Geoffroy’s project, Raskin was particularly interested in the creation of a collective work and Emergency Room’s desire to foster the growth of an artistic community. Raskin’s concept was still forming, but she was clearly considering drafting a group of artists to generate a day-long performance.

End of Day Summary: Emergency Room presents a truly unique format for artistic action. It stimulates a great deal of creative impulse, communication, thought, and emotion. The three very different studio visits offer a glimpse into the diversity expected in the Emergency Room space, and only hint at the nature of the work that will appear each day, with unexpected visions, reflections, and the shock of the now.