There have been countless individual shows shown simultaneously featuring artists from all over the world, but few of them are as memorable as this. As one of the premier exhibition spaces in Dallas, the DC rarely disappoints in their well-curated exhibitions, and their current series of exhibitions is no different. A collaboration of curation by Executive Director Peter Doroshenko, Senior Curator Justine Ludwig, Adjunct Curator Peter Alonzo, and Assistant Curator Lilia Kudelia, the show flows seamlessly from one space to the next. Artists have themes of social commentary in painting, sculpture, and video installations while still retaining their separate aesthetic. Artists included Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Ukrainian duo Synchrodogs, Brazilian Adriana Varejão, Pakistanian Bani Abidi, and American artist Jason Willaford. These five solo exhibitions are on view at the Dallas Contemporary until December 20.
Nadia Kaabi-Linke explores current cultural climates through portraying fragmented time using organic forms, such as hair, string, and rubber tire tracks. The theme is time is further divided into memories in people and the aging of history itself with her piece Stretched Perm (below).
The work is made of a series of ongoing prints of inked hair bundles. Each picture is an isolated and discontinuous piece, but ligned up they appear as an infinite continuity. The work is referring to the concept of history, the representation and construction of past events as a continuous process and sometimes even as a narrative plot. The choice of the material hair (which I consider a synecdoche for aging) and the series of discontinuous frames is an inversion of this idea, since it refers symbolically to the double fact that any access to what has been is based on individual memories and the private experience. In this respect the past is “naturally” discontinuous and any attempt to make it appear different is suspect to political interests.
Synchrodogs photographed their exhibiting pieces during a 4,000-mile road trip throughout America after being commissioned by the Dallas Contemporary. Using self-made outfits and readily available materials such as glitter, Band-Aids, AstroTurf, and self-reflecting tape, Synchrodogs create dreamlike scenes unable to be explained by rules of logic.
Synchrodogs’ practice is fully immersive and is often driven by visions they see in dreams. They use intuition as a way of acquiring knowledge without the use of reason. Once they have explored an area and found a special location, they stage a desired scene. They dress up in self-made outfits, wait for a perfect natural light and perform in front of the camera in a shamanistic or quasi-fashionable manner.
– Dallas Contemporary
Adriana Varejão uses painting and sculpture to portray relationships between distinct artistic traditions, social groups, and concepts of esthetics and identity. Varejão’s study of cultural progression through time and the evolution of humanity through ideas is seen in her three series. The space was beautifully curated and almost hypnotizing, progressing from the sculptured and cracked White Mimbres to the fleshy Polvo Color Wheel installations.
Bani Abidi transformed a series of video installations into an immersive experience, with the viewer walking between different sets and time frames of her 2014 work Funland (Karachi Series II). She captures different locales in the Palestinian city Karachi, simultaneously exploring censorship and melancholia. Abidi’s latest work featured a constructed storyline using the rumors, videos, and newspaper clippings from the events hosted by the Punjab Ministry of Sports in 2014. The video is a tongue-in-chic commentary on semi-manufactured news stories pushed my modern media.
Continuing with this show’s commentary on time and culture, Jason Willaford’s work takes the shape of smartphone application icons. Willaford created this series of twisted vinyl canvasses during his summer residency in Elaine de Kooning’s house and studio in East Hampton. This series explores the concept of time in modern society and the obsession with being busy. The installation of this series within the interior corridor mirrored the quick pace of guests walking through it, within their own version of time.
For more information, visit Dallas Contemporary.
