An archaeological survey of 0.002 acres
Under the direction of Dr. Ulf Hueber
November 7 - 30 2014
US Geological Survey Quadrangle Code: o40073f8
Location: Knockdown Center, 52-19 Flushing Ave. Maspeth
Federal Archaeological Investigation Permit #: Pending
▩
Sorry Archive chose 8 curators with diverse modes of practice to participate in this exhibition. They were each allotted one 2’ by 5’ plot of land to use in any way they chose. There was no conceptual prompt other than the physical constraints. Sorry Archive has no authority over the results and presents them in situ, organized alphabetically. A positive control plot is curated by Sorry Archive. The last, empty plot is a negative control.
Aeaeae Gallery (Matthew Speedy)
Chris Romero (Desiree Leary)
Just In Time [Names withheld]
Packet Biweekly (Anthony Cudahy, Bridget Collins, Chris Nosenzo, Christine Zhu, Ian Lewandowski, Nicole Reber)
SIGNAL (Anna K. Miller)
Sorry Archive (Adam Ledford, Alexandra Lombard, Cara Marie Piazza, Carbon Therrien, Carmel Dunlap, Chris Milic, Reade Bryan, Reid Strelow, Sasha Cohen, Saul Schisler, Sophy Naess, Yasunari Izaki)
Vanessa Thill (Alexandra Lerman, Laura Miller, Tai Yin Ho)
Where (Lucy Hunter, R. Lyon)
With Calendar II, Johnston renders an experience from her childhood spent living in close proximity to the archaeological site from which the piece borrows its name. Located on the same land as Johnston’s family farm in South Woodstock, Vermont, Calendar II is a dome structure, the origins of which have never been sufficiently traced. The site’s opaque history and unique physical qualities have attracted a wide spectrum of visitors who embed their own historical and personal narratives on the archeological space. Perhaps the most alluring of these physical properties is the beam of light produced during the winter solstice created by the astrological alignment of the structure. This solar phenomenon serves as a critical focus for viewers of both Calendar II and Johnston’s sculpture. The use of light and material in Johnston’s work evokes a similar mysticism as the archeological site in South Woodstock.
Nighthawking: a term used by Britain’s metal detecting community to describe the theft of archaeological artifacts under the cover of darkness from protected archaeological sites and areas.
Look through the smoke as it exhausts from the stack at a distance and with the sun behind you. If you’re too close, you will look through more smoke and erroneously read the opacity too high.
– NYSDEC, Crematory Operating Training Program, Subpart 219-4
Act 1
Living room scene: An infant crawling on hands and knees searches for the remote controller as a father looks on from the doorway.
Father: “You’ll find it in a suitable place. Where it should be. Like hand in glove”
For its archeological plot Packet presents a graveyard of failed ideas.
May the beloved memory of our disappointments rest peacefully.
Anna Miller’s practice has long focused on repetitive process, the gradual accumulation of effects in a given material. The systematized methods by which she engages with simple materials (honey, beeswax, wood, cheesecloth) intend to bring out some of their inherent qualities – the gradual emergence of a material’s own voice along with her own.
The small objects and material that Miller has buried and unearthed make up some of the base ingredients of her sculptural practice. With the systematic excavation of the plot – tools, objects, materials, and dirt organized into sequential piles – she reflects the processes by which her own work is developed and realized.
Artifact 1:
An object is a vessel is a soul
no longer functional — inutile (comme en français)
but preserved for the purpose of sentimentality
and for the fact that it used to carry
the cremated innards of my great, great, great, great, great grandmother,
possibly grandfather,
who may have been a cousin to his majesty the Pope,
what’s-his-name
Artifact 4:
The original swoosh sound came from primordial shwoozies or colloquially, “basketball nets.”
Often the best shwoozie weaver (obv. a female) was also the most beautiful (obv. first prize) in the village.
[Artifact explanations by June West continued in exhibition catalog, page 46]
Here we see the creative application of boxes on boxes. 2 dimensions suddenly become 3 (2-becomes-3).
The black strands, resembling pubic hair, are counterfeit Fat choy. Fat choy grows on the ground in the Gobi Desert and the Qinghai Plateau. Overharvesting on the Mongolian steppes has furthered erosion and desertification there. The Chinese government’s limiting of fat choy harvesting has caused its price to increase. This may be one reason why some commercially available fat choy is adulterated with strands of a non-cellular starchy material including additives and dyes. Real fat choy is dark green in color, while the counterfeit fat choy appears black. The last two syllables of its name in Cantonese sound the same as another Cantonese saying which means “struck it rich.”
[Continued in exhibition catalog, page 43]
“Famous last words”
Using brain imaging reconstruction during dilapidation, we now know for
a fact
that this is exactly what humans see
when the movie of their lives comes to a close
and they are reduced to dust.
What is it about poop (or vomit) that is not worth saving (or cherishing)?
Where’s plot contains extremely rare first editions of each of our catalogs: the proofs and first runs from our on-demand publication system. These first tries are generally riddled with errors, and the book files quickly updated and re-loaded to the publisher’s server; the prior version, and its attendant faults, are lost. These books are the material remains of discarded information.
An archaeological survey of 0.002 acres
Under the direction of Dr. Ulf Hueber
November 7 - 30 2014
US Geological Survey Quadrangle Code: o40073f8
Location: Knockdown Center, 52-19 Flushing Ave. Maspeth
Federal Archaeological Investigation Permit #: Pending
▩
Sorry Archive chose 8 curators with diverse modes of practice to participate in this exhibition. They were each allotted one 2’ by 5’ plot of land to use in any way they chose. There was no conceptual prompt other than the physical constraints. Sorry Archive has no authority over the results and presents them in situ, organized alphabetically. A positive control plot is curated by Sorry Archive. The last, empty plot is a negative control.
Aeaeae Gallery (Matthew Speedy)
Chris Romero (Desiree Leary)
Just In Time [Names withheld]
Packet Biweekly (Anthony Cudahy, Bridget Collins, Chris Nosenzo, Christine Zhu, Ian Lewandowski, Nicole Reber)
SIGNAL (Anna K. Miller)
Sorry Archive (Adam Ledford, Alexandra Lombard, Cara Marie Piazza, Carbon Therrien, Carmel Dunlap, Chris Milic, Reade Bryan, Reid Strelow, Sasha Cohen, Saul Schisler, Sophy Naess, Yasunari Izaki)
Vanessa Thill (Alexandra Lerman, Laura Miller, Tai Yin Ho)
Where (Lucy Hunter, R. Lyon)
With Calendar II, Johnston renders an experience from her childhood spent living in close proximity to the archaeological site from which the piece borrows its name. Located on the same land as Johnston’s family farm in South Woodstock, Vermont, Calendar II is a dome structure, the origins of which have never been sufficiently traced. The site’s opaque history and unique physical qualities have attracted a wide spectrum of visitors who embed their own historical and personal narratives on the archeological space. Perhaps the most alluring of these physical properties is the beam of light produced during the winter solstice created by the astrological alignment of the structure. This solar phenomenon serves as a critical focus for viewers of both Calendar II and Johnston’s sculpture. The use of light and material in Johnston’s work evokes a similar mysticism as the archeological site in South Woodstock.
Nighthawking: a term used by Britain’s metal detecting community to describe the theft of archaeological artifacts under the cover of darkness from protected archaeological sites and areas.
Look through the smoke as it exhausts from the stack at a distance and with the sun behind you. If you’re too close, you will look through more smoke and erroneously read the opacity too high.
– NYSDEC, Crematory Operating Training Program, Subpart 219-4
Act 1
Living room scene: An infant crawling on hands and knees searches for the remote controller as a father looks on from the doorway.
Father: “You’ll find it in a suitable place. Where it should be. Like hand in glove”
For its archeological plot Packet presents a graveyard of failed ideas.
May the beloved memory of our disappointments rest peacefully.
Anna Miller’s practice has long focused on repetitive process, the gradual accumulation of effects in a given material. The systematized methods by which she engages with simple materials (honey, beeswax, wood, cheesecloth) intend to bring out some of their inherent qualities – the gradual emergence of a material’s own voice along with her own.
The small objects and material that Miller has buried and unearthed make up some of the base ingredients of her sculptural practice. With the systematic excavation of the plot – tools, objects, materials, and dirt organized into sequential piles – she reflects the processes by which her own work is developed and realized.
Artifact 1:
An object is a vessel is a soul
no longer functional — inutile (comme en français)
but preserved for the purpose of sentimentality
and for the fact that it used to carry
the cremated innards of my great, great, great, great, great grandmother,
possibly grandfather,
who may have been a cousin to his majesty the Pope,
what’s-his-name
Artifact 4:
The original swoosh sound came from primordial shwoozies or colloquially, “basketball nets.”
Often the best shwoozie weaver (obv. a female) was also the most beautiful (obv. first prize) in the village.
[Artifact explanations by June West continued in exhibition catalog, page 46]
Here we see the creative application of boxes on boxes. 2 dimensions suddenly become 3 (2-becomes-3).
The black strands, resembling pubic hair, are counterfeit Fat choy. Fat choy grows on the ground in the Gobi Desert and the Qinghai Plateau. Overharvesting on the Mongolian steppes has furthered erosion and desertification there. The Chinese government’s limiting of fat choy harvesting has caused its price to increase. This may be one reason why some commercially available fat choy is adulterated with strands of a non-cellular starchy material including additives and dyes. Real fat choy is dark green in color, while the counterfeit fat choy appears black. The last two syllables of its name in Cantonese sound the same as another Cantonese saying which means “struck it rich.”
[Continued in exhibition catalog, page 43]
“Famous last words”
Using brain imaging reconstruction during dilapidation, we now know for
a fact
that this is exactly what humans see
when the movie of their lives comes to a close
and they are reduced to dust.
What is it about poop (or vomit) that is not worth saving (or cherishing)?
Where’s plot contains extremely rare first editions of each of our catalogs: the proofs and first runs from our on-demand publication system. These first tries are generally riddled with errors, and the book files quickly updated and re-loaded to the publisher’s server; the prior version, and its attendant faults, are lost. These books are the material remains of discarded information.