"Open Space" participants, James Fuentes Gallery

OPEN SPACE • JAMES FUENTES GALLERY, NEW YORK, NEW YORK

"Open Space" was a series of solo shows that occurred at the James Fuentes Gallery. Artists were given 48 hours to put up, have an opening, and then take down their shows.

12.4.99 Aaron Diskin "Clam Redux and the Aquatic Monkey"–Aaron closed off the gallery to everyone but himself and Pete Mauney, the documenter; he also decided to control visibility through the window by covering it with black fabric. The only way to see the performance was from the outside through two peepholes he cut into the fabric. He proceeded to perform nude for seven hours. He danced, smoked big joints, drank wine, played music and administered himself enemas. Meanwhile, there was a surveillance camera recording people watching this event from outside. The performance occurred simultaneously in Wisconsin by Aaron's collaborator. Aaron left behind a bag and a bucket of shit which were exhibited the very next day.
12.6.99 Chris Kendi "The Incredible Sea"–There were ten rows of toilet paper hanging from the ceiling. The rows were as wide as the room. Chris projected a video of a very blue ocean onto this toilet paper. The paper moved softly, harmonious with the moving water that was being projected on to it. The room was very blue and very serene. Chris, however, stiffed the gallerist with the fee for the projector.
12.8.99 Ami Sioux–Ami exhibited work she did in college. There were rubber casts of her torso, a film projection on a wax cast of her torso and a wax model of a spine.
12.10.99 Adam Simon–Adam is a founding member of Dissociationism and Four Walls which is currently run by Mike Ballou in Williamsburg. He exhibited a painting and several works on paper. Adam really enjoys tricking people: he told me that the Dissociationist movement did not exist, but I knew he was just putting me on.
12.12.99 Lisa Kereszi–Lisa exhibited twelve 16" x 20" color C-prints. She is studying photography at the Yale MFA program. It is obvious in her work that some of these images were very influenced by Gregory Crewdson.
12.14.99 Hiroshi Sunairi "Early Hiroshi"–Hiroshi premiered a new video called Early Hiroshi: A New Polymorphic Visual Spectacular Masturbatory Video. He went home to Japan when he was sixteen, and videotaped himself masturbating. The way he edited this video was pretty funny; a porno man pointed out how it resembled some of his favorite Japanese porno from the '70s.
12.16.99 Rikki Kasso–Rikki got the gallery very exited when he claimed that for his show, he was going to have one of his "bitches jumping up and down and shit on a trampoline naked with her titties all bouncin' up and down . . . "instead he exhibited a group of photographic color photocopies and screened a video of a girl undressing herself. Everyone loved Rikki's gear, which consists of red suede shoes, and quite a few gold chains, one of which held a fly medallion. 12.18.99 Paul Steketee "Stretch"–Paul threw up several large canvases. They were paintings of people and there was one really funny painting about a pig in a blanket in a blanket.
12.20.99 Marni Gianotti–Marni displayed images of women's lips along with lipsticks that that belonged to the lips in the images. The lipstick shapes varied tremendously.
12.22.99 William Meyer–Bill is part of the Rapid Response crew. Rapid Response just exhibited at Colin de Land, American Fine Arts, Inc. He exhibited a large sculpture of ripped-up car tires held apart by these long bamboo sticks. He also put up some charts about the effectiveness of many potential new fuels. Bill is environmentally conscious.
12.28.99 David West–David is a solid artist. When you pay him a visit at his Lower East Side tenement apartment, he throws you the key in a dirty sock so you can let yourself in.
1.3.00 Tony–Somehow Tony slipped through the Open Space cracks.
1.5.00 Sean Dack–Sean is a photographer. His pictures were mostly clean, symmetrical portraits of suburbs, buildings, and highways. His opening was very successful considering the holiday.
1.7.00 Nicholas Zinner "I-Zone on I-20"– Nick displayed a series of photos that were taken during a recent cross-country trip with his I-Zone camera. The images are Polaroids and they come out very small. He turned all the lights off and hung five pen lights from the ceiling, in order to see these tiny images you had to put the pen light up to it. There were also little magnifying glasses that you could use to enlarge the little pictures. Nick sold a piece!
1.9.00 KK Kozik–KKK was a last minute addition to Open Space. Her work was probably the only work I hung at the gallery that my grandmother would like to hang on her walls. She left behind three beers after her opening, I remember thinking, "At least I got something out of this show." When she took her art away she noticed that I was enjoying one of her beers so she took the remaining two. She may as well have taken the one I was drinking away from me, too.
1.11.00 David Stringfield–David flaked.
1.13.00 Amy Granat–Amy did a project but I wish she had flaked. No, actually her project was fun, she gathered trees that were dumped on the street. We hung six of them against the wall and she covered the entire floor in Astroturf. One person came to her opening.
1.15.00 ARE Weapons–Nothing brought the place more alive than the music . . . Braine may not seem like it but he is quite a proficient musician. The kids love the weapons. They threw Amy's Astroturf and Christmas trees in the garbage.
1.15.00 As Four–I only mention As Four because after ARE, Kai and Adi painted really beautiful flower murals all over the walls with pink spray paint. They were As Four flowers. I think As Four all sleep in the same bed.
1.17.00 Liz-n-Val–The art world has been very unkind to Liz-n-Val. I was proud to give them a solo exhibition. They are two of the most persistent (however sometimes nagging) people I know. God bless their commitment to art.