September 21, 5:00 PM–8:00 PM

We will open our newest, original exhibition with a free, public reception on Saturday, September 21st from 5-8pm.  The exhibition, “Otherwise Obscured: Erasure in Body and Text,” is curated by Danilo Machado.

The evening will also include a performance by Joey De Jesus that will take place organically throughout the space during the opening.

On view from September 21, 2019 – Jan 26, 2020, “Otherwise Obscured” is curated by Danilo Machado and examines relationships between the erasure of text through cross-out, redaction, and white out and the erasure of bodies through policy, norms, and violence. One of the aims of the show is to blur distinctions between obscuring and revealing, showing how acts of erasure can subvert notions of authority. It will focus on ideas of illegibility, invisibility, and censorship as represented visually, textually, and politically.

Tactics of erasure can be used to uphold systems of oppression and colonization, but can also be counterpoints—artists can turn a subtractive act into an additive one, poke holes in the colonizer’s language and logic, and queer temporal spaces and histories. While the exhibition is informed by legacies of conceptual artists and poets beginning in the 1950s, it will feature works by contemporary artists of color, as well as queer, gender non-conforming, and trans artists working with issues of erasure across media. The exhibition will subvert expectations through the incorporation of sound, video, and performance as well as accessibility, camp, and cheek.

Phil America, Peter Baldes, Bahar Behbahani, Hannah Black, Jesse Chun, Noelle de la Paz, Joey De Jesus, Alex Dolores Salerno, Francisco Eraso Jr., Noah Fox, Harmony Hammond, Jenny Holzer, Tony Lewis, Guadalupe Maravilla, Ana Mendieta, Oscar Muñoz, Niina Pollari, Pope.L, Wendy Red Star, and Jennif(f)er Tamayo.

THE PERFORMANCE:

Joey De Jesus has created, “PROMESA: SENTENCIA,” which is a commissioned performance around their poem  PROMESA.  For the performance De Jesus reads the introductory text and table of contents from H.R. 4900 PROMESA (Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act) and their poem PROMESA from transparencies projected on a blank wall. They will redact and read the source text live, writing upon and manipulating the transparencies throughout the duration of the performance while modulating their voice using live vocal augmentation equipment.