STRANGER CIRCUMSTANCES
7 November – 29 November 2009
MASSIMO GUERRERA, PDL, ALANA RILEY, RON TRAN
Curated by JENNIFER CAMPBELL
OPENING RECEPTION Saturday 7 November, 6-10pm
Crawl Space is pleased to present Stranger Circumstances, an exhibition that brings together artists who devise strategies to connect with people they would otherwise never encounter. The artists approach strangers either as collaborators, research subjects or participants in unconventional performances.
Stranger Circumstances includes a two-week residency by Montreal-based artist Massimo Guerrera, during which time he will meet and collaborate with participants from the Seattle area. The artist, along with the participants, will work on several drawings, sculptures, photographs and performances that will later culminate in what the artist calls a ‘living’ installation. Guerrera’s work explores the social complexities of how people relate to each other through language, meditation, exertion and sharing. More about Massimo Guerrera’s residency here.
Alana Riley places herself and the strangers she solicits into playfully awkward situations and documents the outcome photographically. In her series Support System, she asks strangers to lie on top of her, and relinquish their body weight as they see fit. In the series Surrender, she piggybacks employees around their workplace, transforming the environment into a more lighthearted context where she literally carries the weight of the employee or business owner.
Ron Tran takes a more voyeuristic approach when relating to strangers. Instead of interacting with them directly, he chooses to observe both their language and behaviors from an arm’s length away. Both in the video Dinner with a Stranger and the outdoor installation he created specifically for Stranger Circumstances, Tran draws attention to the subtle interpersonal gestures and communication we have with individuals on a daily basis.
On opening night, PDL will perform Sociology Lab Theater, a series of interactive street theater pieces that will take place near the gallery. The short performances will challenge innocent bystanders to respond to a variety of spectacles instigated by PDL while a live audience from Crawl Space watches behind the scenes.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES:
Massimo Guerrera, born in Rome, lives and works in Montréal. He trained at the Atelier Graff in Montréal and received a B.A. in Fine Arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal. Guerrera has exhibited his work in solo exhibitions at prestigious venues such as Siège Social Temporaire with Parachute Magazine (Paris), the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery at Concordia University (Montreal), Biennale de Montréal, Musée du Quebéc; Clint Roenisch Gallery, White Columns (New York); the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux (France) and the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver), National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa). In 2001, he won the prestigious $25,000 Prix Ozias-Leduc from the Fondation Émile-Nelligan and was a finalist for the Sobey Art Award in 2004.
Alana Riley’s work has been shown in group exhibitions in Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, Baltimore and New York. She recently completed a residency and solo exhibition at the Museum of Rimouski in Quebec, a solo exhibition at Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul and Galerie Vu. She is represented by Joyce Yahouda Gallery.
Ron Tran, a Vancouver-based artist, studied at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design and has participated in group and solo exhibitions in Canada including Saidye Bronfman Centre, Helen Pitt Gallery, Artspeak Gallery, Access Artist Run Centre, and Charles H. Scott gallery. Tran has also exhibited in Liu-Haisu Museum Shanghai, China. Tran was selected to be in East International 2007 Norwich England, and completed his two months residency in Sweden at Neon Gallery. Tran is represented by Lawrence Eng Gallery.
Working under the moniker of PDL, made up of Seattle-based Jason Puccinelli, Jed Dunkerley and Greg Lundgren. PDL is responsible for the portable confession booths, the coin drop, offspring at the Olympic Sculpture Park and the Unauthorized Audio Tour at the SAM and Portland Art Museum. Over time the group has grown to include many other artists, most notably, their collaborations with Arne Pihl, Mike Katell and Michael Leavitt.
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