DETERIORATION, THEY SAID

DETERIORATION, THEY SAID
Cory Arcangel, Jessica Ciocci & Jacob Ciocci / Paper Rad, Shana Moulton, Ryan Trecartin
& Lizzie Fitch
29th August – 8th November 2009

Opening: Friday, 28th August 2009, 6pm (followed by the summer party in the backyard)

Limmatstrasse 270
8005 Zürich
info [​at​] migrosmuseum.ch

www.migrosmuseum.ch

American artists Cory Arcangel, Jessica Ciocci & Jacob Ciocci / Paper Rad, Shana Moulton and Ryan Trecartin & Lizzie Fitch, have been brought together for the exhibition entitled DETERIORATION, THEY SAID. Each will present an individual project in the migros museum für gegenwartskunst. In their works the artists create an overreaching, colour-charged aesthetic of excessive density of content, reacting to the consumer-oriented condition of Western society, while at the same time formulating something out of it. In their image spaces the four positions address a culture of excess, constructing their critique via a form of appropriation, which simultaneously releases a veritable deluge of images. In the tradition of experimental film and “Scatter Art” they probe potential unconventional narrative patterns and test for the disintegration of stereotypes. As a result, the video works are often shown in sculptural settings, in which fragments of pop culture and hand-crafted forms are amalgamated into an “intermedial Gesamtkunstwerk”.

CORY ARCANGEL’S works (born 1978 in Buffalo) frequently treat the subject of the apparently obsolete. The artistic works emerging from this theme know no media limits – video installations with outdated home-computer game systems, videos featuring low-tech aesthetics, performances, or computer programmes all feature in his work. In the exhibition he will present for the first time in Switzerland his video work a couple thousand short films about Glenn Gould (2007), which is in the tradition of the Flicker experimental film. In her videos and performances SHANA MOULTON (born 1976 in California) probes, with humour, the interplay of a popular culture shaped by consumption and commercialised New Age philosophies, and an “elite” culture, exemplified in the spiritualism of Mondrian, and the late works of Georgia O’Keeffe created in New Mexico. The psychedelic low-tech videos recalling the late 1970s and 1980s, and important representatives of early film history such as the films of Maya Deren, exhibit a constant “Migration of Form(s)” – that is to say forms which oscillate between “high” and “low”. The label PAPER RAD, founded in 2000 by JESSICA CIOCCI (born 1976 in Lexington, Kentucky), JACOB CIOCCI (born 1976 in Lexington, Kentucky) and BEN JONES (born 1977 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), uses the most varied media, including video, drawings and wall painting, and also combines with art sectors such as fashion and photography. Paper Rad is not active only in the art world; it also infiltrates cyberspace. In the videos – many of which are made by Jacob Ciocci – TV film outtakes and self-drawn comic and animation pieces are assembled into rapidly cut, hallucinatory flights that can be read as commentaries on the contemporary media world. The Mandala-like, rainbow-coloured neo-geo drawings by Jessica Ciocci directly reflect, in their mixture of excess and monotony, today’s consumption and youth culture. In the exhibition there will be presented new works by Jessica Ciocci and Jacob Ciocci as well as works by Paper Rad. At first glance the sculptures of RYAN TRECARTIN (born 1981 in Webster, Texas) and LIZZIE FITCH (born 1981 in Bloomington, Indiana) stand out on the one hand through their fragility and fragmentation, and on the other through their colourful, playful forms and striking narrative. Trecartin and Fitch frequently collaborate with other artists on their sculptures, which are created with widely varied techniques and materials, one of the most important of which is papier-mâché. The fabrication of papier-mâché is not only a cheap and simple method for the construction of a sculptural body, but it also recalls experiences of childhood when one used this technique for making masks and costumes. The sculptures often serve as props and stage sets for Trecartin’s films.
Curator of the exhibition: Raphael Gygax

PERFORMANCES & VIDEOS: Saturday, 5th September 2009, 8pm.With contributions by Cory Arcangel, Jessica Ciocci, Jacob Ciocci, Shana Moulton, Ryan Trecartin.

CATALOGUE: A comprehensive catalogue will be published by JRP|Ringier, featuring texts by Cory Arcangel, Thomas Beard, Ed Halter and Raphael Gygax.
For further information please contact: presse@migrosmuseum.ch

OPENING HOURS: Tues / Wed / Fri Midday–6pm, Thurs Midday–8pm, Sat / Sun 11am–5pm. On Thursdays from 5pm to 8pm entrance to the museum is free.

migros museum für gegenwartskunst
Limmatstrasse 270
8005 Zürich

info@migrosmuseum.ch
www.migrosmuseum.ch