Small Editions is pleased to announce a group show of work by Jordan Barse, Jack Henry, Andrew Laumann, & Miles Pflanz.  Entitled Pet Names for Wastelands, the exhibition is organized by Alt Esc, and will run from 10 February  through 7 April 2017. Opening is Friday, 10th of February from 7 p.m.-10 p.m.. Small Editions is located at 60 Sackett St, Brooklyn, NY 11231.

“I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.”

Song to Myself. Whitman. 1888

We scavenge our landscapes sentimentally,  reappraising refuse, and finding hidden potential in the abandoned or undervalued. There is subjectivity of a value in art and daily life. One man’s trash is another’s treasure.

Pet Names for Wastelands revokes the traditional phases of consumerism through denying it’s  linear chronology. American consumerism choreographs an object’s transgression with a finite start and finish. It amalgamates the new with the coveted and operates under the belief that an object will erode physically and sentimentally to detritus. We are taught to think, “That’s it. Let’s buy the new thing!” However, through recycling of material, there is a chance to rebel and move past our economic model’s systematic constraints. Marx’s theory of value claims that the value of a commodity can be objectively measured by the hours of labor required in production. Following that argument, if new labor and energy is directed into an object, value can be restored and (even) expanded. There is  chance of rebirth and to diverge from an original purpose.  

 Through the reappropriation of the object, Pet Names for Wastelands countermands the linear transgression of commodity. An object’s life is duplicative and cyclical: the line between the old and the new blurs. New life tangles with decay. Sometimes the mark between the old and new is delineated. Other times it's hard to tell where the old ends and new begins.

The title, Pet Names for Wastelands alludes to our tenderness to the discarded. It stands for material reappraisal, but also the abstract notation that even if  surrounded by garbage you have power, you are the élan vital, to create evolution. The exhibition is reflective of the sub communities that grow stronger during dark times, and find beauty and hope in spaces where other’s have forgotten or lost hope. It reminds us that there are second chances, that we can’t erase our past, but we can move forward and change who and what we are.  

The world falls apart and comes together simultaneously.

Jordan Barse (b. 1992, New York, NY) lives and works in Brooklyn. She has recently exhibited with 15 Orient (New York) and Young Professionals (Cincinnati).  She is also the director of Theta, an itinerant exhibition space.

Jack Henry has had solo/two person exhibitions at  Storefront (New York), Nudashank (Baltimore), and Greenpoint Gallery (New York). He has been featured in group shows at The New Gallery for Contemporary Art at NOVA (Virginia), Idio Gallery (New York), Centotto (New York), Last Daze (Maine), Kunsthalle Galapagos (New York), Dodge Gallery (New York),  Radiator Gallery (New York) the Stamp Gallery (UMD, College Park), and Fjord (Philadelphia).

Andrew Laumann (b. 1987) has had solo exhibitions at Terrault (Baltimore), Farewell (Austin), Galerie Jeanroch Dard (Paris), and Penthouse (Baltimore). His work has been included in two-person and group exhibitions at New Museum (New York), Outpost (Brooklyn), Signal Gallery (Brooklyn), Springsteen & Nudashank (Baltimore), 12 Mail Gallery (Paris), Pre Teen Gallery (Mexico City), Reference Gallery (Richmond) among others.

Miles Pflanz (b. 1988) is a video and installation artist. In 2012, he founded Fitness Center for Arts & Tactics (New York), a beloved and now defunct venue for for art and music. In 2014, he ran new media workshops for prisoners at Lincoln Correctional Facility. Since 2015, his work has screened at Satellite Art Fair (Miami), MoMA PS1 Printshop (New York), Pace University (New York), at dozens of DIY venues including Trans Pecos (New York) and Grace Exhibition Space (New York), and at festivals in Cuba, Ethiopia, Germany, and China. He is currently making feature length remakes of popular apocalyptic franchises like the Purge and Left Behind.

PET NAMES FOR WASTELANDS BOOK RELEASE

March 3rd, 2017 | 8pm - 10pm | Small Editions

Coinciding with the exhibition, Pet Names for Wastelands, Small Editions is pleased to present music performances by Ily Pad (Alex Drewchin) & Chicklette (Esra Padgett) and a short video screenings by Miles Pflanz. The event celebrates the release of the accompanying exhibition catalog by Small Editions and includes writing from Dana Kopel and Alison Sirico 

ILY PAD is the new experimental music project of Alexandra Drewchin in which muted death metal screams accumulate over transitions of beats. Alexandra Drewchin is a performance and visual artists based in Queens, New York. Her other projects include Guardian Alien and Eartheater.

CHICKLETTE is the solo project of Esra Padgett. Esra Padgett is a New York based sound artist and experimental musician. Her other music projects include Angels in America (ANGELS USA) and the DJ duo Bambi & C.H.E.B.S.