// Upcoming Exhibition @ the Carpenter Center//

EXHIBITION: TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER

February 28-April 6, 2008 

Reception Thursday, February 28 following the 6 pm Carpenter Center Lecture by Catherine Lord

Two or Three Things I Know About Her brings together the time-based video, sound, and slide pieces of five artists living and working in New York: Moyra Davey, K8 Hardy, Sharon Hayes, Ulrike Müller, and Wynne Greenwood. The title’s homage to Jean-Luc Godard’s masterful eponymous film of 1966 suggests that the works are all concerned, to varying degrees and with different points of entry, in the intersections of sexuality, freedom, and urban space. The backdrop of each piece is post-September 11th and post-Giuliani New York. The trauma of 9/11 is omnipresent, but more as a backdrop to the central narrative (much as the rise of the Parisian suburbs form the back drop of Godard’s film). The loss of the Twin Towers is doubled by the loss of New Yorkers’ rights to convene, march, and protest as a result of the newly infringed-upon rights of assembly and freedom of movement. The increasing homogeneity of the city is held in opposition to the desire for an explicitly feminist form of engagement with it as an historical site for dissent, free speech, and protest, as well as its primacy in the history of sexual liberation. The economic flows of the city are held in relation to the libidinal and psychic flows of its inhabitants. What happens to our identities when the fabric of urban space changes? What new identities are called for to engage with the increasing commodification of public space? In an increasingly alienated culture what are the points of conflict, contact, and contingency between us?