New Museum to Host Sweatshirt Exchange with Pia Camil, 12/17

By: Dec. 15, 2015
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WHEN
Thursday December 17, 5-9 PM
Free and Open to the Public

New Museum
235 Bowery New York, NY
newmuseum.org

WHO
The New Museum will host the first solo museum presentation in New York of the work of artist Pia Camil (b. 1980, Mexico City). "A Pot for a Latch," Camil's new sculptural installation created specifically for the Lobby Gallery, will be on view January 13-April 17, 2016. The exhibition is curated by Margot Norton, Associate Curator.

WHAT
Inspired by the modular display systems used by commercial vendors, the artist will create a succession of gridwall panels with built-on fixtures commonly intended for store display. Composed of grids, lines, and geometric shapes, the structure will form a volumetric drawing within the space of the Lobby Gallery, referencing cheap commercial constructions as well as the serial patterning in paintings and sculptures made by Minimalist artists such as Sol LeWitt and Agnes Martin. Camil will invite the public to participate in the ongoing creation of her piece, encouraging visitors to exchange their own unique items for others in the installation, thereby transforming the gallery into a "shop" in which the monetary value of an object is supplanted by its personal history and significance.

The title of the exhibition refers to the potlatch, a ceremonial gift-giving festival practiced by the Native-American peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast, for whom it was a central system of wealth redistribution.

More information about the exhibition can be found here.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

  • For the inaugural "A Pot for a Latch" Exchange Day, on December 17, 2015, from 5 to 9 p.m., New Museum visitors are invited to exchange their own unique items for a sweatshirt, designed by Camil in collaboration with Lorena Vega. The event will conclude at 9 p.m. or once all one hundred sweatshirts have been exchanged.
  • For the following Exchange Days, visitors are invited to swap their items for those that are installed in the Lobby Gallery. Each event will conclude at 4 p.m. or once all one hundred items included in the installation have been exchanged.
  • In her invitation to the public Camil states, "The object you bring is a talisman of sorts, and it should be thought of in the same way that the ancient Romans conceived of in their term 'res,' which denotes a gift that has both a personal value and a history. Bring objects of power, of aesthetic interest, and of poignancy. The monetary value of these items is insignificant; their value lies instead in their richness of meaning and in the new life that they acquire on the grid within the Lobby Gallery."
  • Potential exchange items may include: clothing, curtains, blankets, artwork, photographs, paintings, frames, nondescript items of undetermined function, objects that resemble parts of the human body such as wigs or mannequins, costume jewelry and accessories, mirrors and reflective items, potted plants, posters, magazines, books, trinkets, colorful items, and objects with interesting shapes and forms, including transparent materials such as shower curtains, lingerie, or X-rays.
  • Prohibited exchange items include but are not limited to: electronics, heavy items (over twenty pounds), small-scale objects (less than six inches in diameter), food or other perishables, weapons, and chemicals or other hazardous materials.
  • Objects accepted for exchange will not be returned to the submitting party.

EXCHANGE DATES

  • Thursday December 17, 5-9 PM
  • Sunday February 7, 2-4 PM
  • Sunday February 21, 2-4 PM
  • Sunday March 6, 2-4 PM
  • Sunday March 20, 2­-4 PM
  • Sunday April 3, 2-4 PM

ABOUT NEW MUSEUM
The New Museum is the only museum in New York City exclusively devoted to contemporary art. Founded in 1977, the New Museum is a center for exhibitions, information, and documentation about living artists from around the world. From its beginnings as a one-room office on Hudson Street to the inauguration of its first freestanding building on the Bowery designed by SANAA in 2007, the New Museum continues to be a place of experimentation and a hub for new art and new ideas.




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