I DON'T KNOW IT'S AN ILLUSION I DON'T CARE

An exhibition by Preteen Gallery

Private view Thursday 7 February 2013
7 February - 9 March 2013

Participating artists:
Darja Bajagic, Luis Miguel Bendana, Jennifer Chan, Phoebe Collings-James, Petra Cortright, Radames “Juni” Figueroa, Rodrigo Hernandez, Calvin Holbrook, Donna Huanca, Emily Jones, Brian Kokoska, Kubiat Nnamdie, Carlos Laszlo, Angelo Plessas, Przemek Pyszczek, Abdul Vas, Lewis Teague Wright, Elliott Wright, Jeff Zilm, Mario Zoots.

Vamiali’s gallery presents the exhibition titled 'I DON'T KNOW IT'S AN ILLUSION I DON'T CARE', organized by Preteen gallery from Mexico and curated by Gerardo Contreras. According to the curator,  'I DON'T KNOW IT'S AN ILLUSION I DON'T CARE' is part of an ongoing investigation on nonsense, randomness, derailment and non sequitur in relation to altered mind states. The title, the text and the actual exhibition are not related to each other, they don’t describe each other, and so on. This particular approach to curating will happen at all levels, where the title of the exhibition, the accompanying text and the actual exhibition are autonomous “pieces” that are “glued together” when the show happens. This is when conceptual disjunction plays a role and becomes one of the expected outcomes of this exercise.

The exhibition becomes an installation that would not result in a clear coherent message. Instead, the exhibition as a whole or even each artwork on its own can be experienced without the necessity of a “reading”, the focus is pure aesthetic experience, devoid of theory or spoken/written language based interpretations. Total failure is very likely, as it is almost for sure somebody will come up with a coherent reading of the exhibition. Yet, the acknowledgement of total failure of communication lies at the core of this experiment.

The installation of works will be a direct response to the exhibition space from an architectural point of view; Being-in space and place: an existential approach to the reading of enclosed space and the particularities that make it a place for art. 

It will be an assemblage of artworks by young artists whose practice is informed by the Internet and the particular non-linear interpretations of the history of visual culture it generates. This does not mean that the selected works rely on the Internet's own aesthetic dispositifs. The works are the result of individual artistic praxis that surpasses notions of immateriality commonly related to net art or new media art. Aesthetically, the works belong to a post-internet realm and as much as they may reference 20th Century avant-garde art directly or tangentially, they are informed by novel experiences of visual culture through the Internet and they are not the result of a nostalgic gaze or a revisionist intent; Instead, they are the result of each artist's own return to the object.

Many thanks to Angelo Plessas for the exhibition’s initiative.

Angelo Plessas (left), Elliot Wright (centre), Lewis Teague Wright (right), ground floor, installation view

Radames “Juni” Figueroa, Phoebe Collings-James, Rodrigo Hernandez, Donna Huanca, (clockwise), ground floor, installation view

Rodrigo Hernandez (left), Abdul Vas (centre), Przemek Pyszczek (right), ground floor, installation view

Abdul Vas (left), Przemek Pyszczek (centre), Radames “Juni” Figueroa (right)

Rodrigo Hernandez (back), Donna Huanca (front), Angelo Plessas (right)

Elliot Wright

Carlos Laszlo

Calvin Holbrook (top left), Luis Miguel Bendana (left), Kubiat Nnamdie (right), Jennifer Chan (front), basement, installation view

Brian Kokoska (left), Jeff Zilm (centre), Mario Zoots (right), Jennifer Chan (front), basement, installation view

Jeff Zilm (left), Luis Miguel Bendana (right)

Kubiat Nnamdie

Calvin Holbrook (left), Jennifer Chan (right)

Brian Kokoska (left), Mario Zoots (right)