Artists Space

Coop Fund, Amalle Dublon & Constantina Zavitsanos, Devin Kenny, John Neff

February 1 – March 2, 2018

Coop Fund, Amalle Dublon & Constantina Zavitsanos, Devin Kenny, and John Neff present newly-commissioned and existing artworks that destabilize conventional approaches to education, economics, and the labor of artmaking. A series of public programs and workshops provides an important component to the exhibition.

A screencapture from a video taken on a phone in Times Square, depicting a person facedown beside a car, still in motion, in the street.
Devin Kenny, Not This, 2018. Single channel video. [A screencapture from a video taken on a phone in Times Square, depicting a person facedown beside a car, still in motion, in the street.]

Artists Space is an organization whose name discloses its foundational mission and purpose. The frankness of this nomenclature, however, is deceivingly complex, as it foregrounds a critical reflexivity within its own expression of availability. Put simply, there are many different ways of interpreting how a space for artists should conceive of itself. The proposition is, by necessity, mired in instability.

The artists in this exhibition collapse relations of production and conditions of presentation, surfacing the structures that frame their work. Emma Hedditch joins with Lydia Okrent and Elsa Brown to establish Coop Fund, using funds from this exhibition to initiate a cooperative funding platform for artists. John Neff exhibits a new video, in part co-produced with Artists Space staff through a process of inquiry-based learning, featuring an interview with Tom Marioni about his work The Act of Drinking Beer With Friends is the Highest Form of Art (1973–) and scenes from Neff’s daily life. Distilling their ongoing study into forms of care and dependency, Amalle Dublon & Constantina Zavitsanos stage a demonstration of a quantum eraser experiment in the gallery space alongside video and audio works. Devin Kenny utilizes Artists Space as the site for a dedicated computer that mines cryptocurrency to be donated to bail funds, and exhibits works that probe social and material networks in relation to Blackness, the prison-industrial complex, and identity formation.

The exhibition follows a series of conversations and workshops held between the staff of Artists Space and the five exhibiting artists in early 2017, at a time when Artists Space was without an Executive Director. Called Authorization Sessions, this internal work was driven by the staff's desire to interrogate the institution's organizational arrangements, and to re-orient and invent anew its practices. While some of the artists index their respective contributions to these conversations, this exhibition is organized as a second, distinct phase of work.

Coop Fund is an experimental funding platform that accumulates financial resources through member subscriptions and redistributes funds through a cooperative decision making process. Current members as of January 2018 are Elsa Brown, Emma Hedditch and Lydia Okrent.

Amalle Dublon received a PhD from Duke University’s Program in Literature, with a Certificate in Feminist Studies. She teaches at the New School and NYU. An essay on Ultra-red and TLC’s 1990s albums will appear in GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, and one on gossip and girl talk in recent artwork is forthcoming from TDR: The Drama Review, both in 2018.

Devin Kenny is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, musician, and independent curator. He has collaborated with various art and music venues in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and elsewhere, including Recess, Het Roode Bioscoop, REDCAT, MoMA PS1, Freak City, and Santos Party House. A graduate of Cooper Union, he received his MFA in 2013 from the New Genres department at UCLA and is an alum of the Whitney Independent Study Program.

John Neff makes artworks, organizes exhibitions, and works as a teaching artist. He serves as a curatorial board member at Chicago’s Iceberg Projects, co-director of the Ravenswood Elementary School Curatorial Practice Program, and a faculty member at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Low-Residency MFA Program. Neff has exhibited in galleries and museums nationally since 1999.

Constantina Zavitsanos works in sculpture, performance, text, and sound. Zavitsanos has exhibited at the New Museum and the Hessel Museum of Art in New York; Arika Episode 7 in Glasgow, Scotland; and Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridge, England. With Park McArthur, they co-authored the texts “Other Forms of Conviviality” in the journal Women and Performance (2013), and “The Guild of the Brave Poor Things” in Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility (2017).

February 14, 2018

Coop Fund Workshops
Workshops
7 p.m.

February 20, 2018

Quantum Entanglement: Producing Entangled Photon Pairs
Talk
7 p.m.

March 9, 2018

Not This
Performance
7 p.m.

March 13, 2018

Code is LAWL: Diversifying the Crypto Demographic
Workshop
7 p.m.

March 22, 2018

What Are Our Questions?
Performance
7 p.m.

March 29, 2018

Fag, Stag, or Drag?
Conversation
7 p.m.

A white wall in a dimly lit room is illuminated in patterns by circles of light.
Amalle Dublon & Constantina Zavitsanos, a composition of waters (adjusted to fit), 2018. Photo: Daniel Pérez. [A white wall in a dimly lit room is illuminated in patterns by circles of light.]
A device with several electrical wire connections is displayed on a metal wire shelf.
Devin Kenny, “What would Upski think?”, 2018. Photo: Daniel Pérez. [A device with several electrical wire connections is displayed on a metal wire shelf.]
A monitor on a wheeled stand is displayed in the corner of two white walls. The monitor projects an image of a whiteboard with hand written text that reads, "People think because, People lie others..., People ignore..." circled in red, green and blue. A green office swivel chair with headphones is placed in front.
John Neff, Authorization Sessions Set 2018: Manhattan Project, 2018. Photo: Daniel Pérez [A monitor on a wheeled stand is displayed in the corner of two white walls. The monitor projects an image of a whiteboard with hand written text that reads, "People think because, People lie others..., People ignore..." circled in red, green and blue. A green office swivel chair with headphones is placed in front.]
A view of a dimly lit room with a video monitor sitting on the ground of the right wall. The monitor screen is black with white text reading, "[The Manhattans continue to sing
Coop Fund, Amalle Dublon & Constantina Zavitsanos, Devin Kenny, John Neff. Installation view, Artists Space, 2018. Photo: Daniel Pérez. [A view of a dimly lit room with a video monitor sitting on the ground of the right wall. The monitor screen is black with white text reading, "[The Manhattans continue to sing 'Shining Star']." Towards the corner, an inferometer projects green dots onto adjacent walls.]
An angled view of the illuminated stage of a overhead projector. A red flashlight descends from the lamp onto a flat pile of objects including photographs, drawings, transparents material, and more.
Devin Kenny, Stop following me/follow me, 2016. Photo: Daniel Pérez. [An angled view of the illuminated stage of a overhead projector. A red flashlight descends from the lamp onto a flat pile of objects including photographs, drawings, transparents material, and more.]
Two monitors are hung on a white wall. On the left, an image of a man crouching in a room with a chair sitting on the ground behind him. On the right, a purple, pink, and red graph is displayed next to a column of indicating numbers.
Coop Fund, Amalle Dublon & Constantina Zavitsanos, Devin Kenny, John Neff. Installation view, Artists Space, 2018. Photo: Daniel Pérez. [Two monitors are hung on a white wall. On the left, an image of a man crouching in a room with a chair sitting on the ground behind him. On the right, a purple, pink, and red graph is displayed next to a column of indicating numbers.]
A barrel, converted into a grill, sits horizontally on a wheeled cart. It is opened, with a silver metallic interior, in the center of the room. On the left, three long planks of glass lean onto the wall. To the right, photographs displayed in a pane of glass sit at eye-level on the wall.
Coop Fund, Amalle Dublon & Constantina Zavitsanos, Devin Kenny, John Neff. Installation view, Artists Space, 2018. Photo: Daniel Pérez. [A barrel, converted into a grill, sits horizontally on a wheeled cart. It is opened, with a silver metallic interior, in the center of the room. On the left, three long planks of glass lean onto the wall. To the right, photographs displayed in a pane of glass sit at eye-level on the wall.]
Three planks of glass lean on a white wall. Etched displays read from left to right; "The more you teach the less you learn," a smiley-face,"But I swear dis beat go."
Coop Fund, Amalle Dublon & Constantina Zavitsanos, Devin Kenny, John Neff. Installation view, Artists Space, 2018. Photo: Daniel Pérez. [Three planks of glass lean on a white wall. Etched displays read from left to right; "The more you teach the less you learn," a smiley-face,"But I swear dis beat go."]
Five photographs arranged in a pane of glass lean on bolts against a wall. The images in the photographs (from left to right) include a man exhaling smoke, a man looking towards the viewer, a man in a bathtub, a man, turned away from the camera, in a hospital gown, and an empty dinner plate.
John Neff, Authorization Sessions Set: Proof prints from Time Dust, 2013 – 2018, 2018. Photo: Daniel Pérez. [Five photographs arranged in a pane of glass lean on bolts against a wall. The images in the photographs (from left to right) include a man exhaling smoke, a man looking towards the viewer, a man in a bathtub, a man, turned away from the camera, in a hospital gown, and an empty dinner plate.]
Two blue chairs face a monitor that displays a still image of framed windows in which three curtains have been tied to look like bodies in dresses.
John Neff, Tony Greene Movie, 2016. Photo: Daniel Pérez. [Two blue chairs face a monitor that displays a still image of framed windows in which three curtains have been tied to look like bodies in dresses.]

Coop Fund, Amalle Dublon & Constantina Zavitsanos, Devin Kenny, John Neff Exhibition Booklet

Coop Fund, Amalle Dublon & Constantina Zavitsanos, Devin Kenny, John Neff Exhibition Map

Coop Fund Handbook

Iadarola, A. and Markbreiter, C. “Coop Fund, Amalle Dublon & Constantina Zavit- sanos, Devin Kenny, John Neff, Artists Space, New York.” Mousse. Online.

Wallace, I. “Coop Fund: Amalle Dublon & Constantina Zavitsanos, Devin Kenny, John Neff.” The Brooklyn Rail. April 4, 2018. Online.

Exhibition Supporters:
The Friends of Artists Space, The Artists Space Program Fund, The Greenwich Collection Ltd., Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature

    An angled view of a long white table with eight wooden chairs. A galvanized bucket, an iPad, and two stacks of paper sit on the surface.
    Coop Fund, 2018. Photo: Daniel Pérez. [An angled view of a long white table with eight wooden chairs. A galvanized bucket, an iPad, and two stacks of paper sit on the surface.]