has been for sale for some time, as you have seen. The maintenance and ongoing development to keep our non-profit and idealistic platform for contemporary art running and safe from hackers etc. costs money that is no longer there. Because of small investments that are necessary now and the running costs, we will have to shut down with a heavy heart at the beginning of summer on June 21.
I invited visitors to the "Welshing" exhibition to engage in a lifestyle photo shoot. Participants made props from cardboard, and were photographed by myself or other participants. The event is archived as a photo slideshow.
Branchville Gallery, Connecticut, USA
"Utility of Obsession: All Things Orange"
http://www.box1035.com/orange.html
Photo: installation view of night stands, orange flags and wire pods
... The “utility of obsession” relates to the elimination of uncertainty by identifying certain synthetic truths. As the politics of orange alerts arouse fear, and fashionable colors encourage conformity, the drive for self-preservation and comfort of belonging maintain the system.....
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A construction of stacked, bright orange bedroom nightstands in a doorless cave-like space, alludes to the notion of insecurity and assaults on privacy. Buckets and drawers with holes are denied their typical function and act as conduits in a self-perpetuating system of recycled water. Wire pods hanging from the ceiling hold unrelated orange objects, reminiscent of the way spiders wrap their prey. A video shows a woman in the woods in an orange shirt during a heavy snow fall, and a voice absurdly sings lyrics reflecting her obsession with the color orange. While an obsession may be defined as a persistent disturbing preoccupation, Mantione and Stepanian have used the idea of obsession both as a conceptual point of departure and a process to inspire their creative act. The color orange is used as the object of a synthetic obsession creating a sense of order and focus. The utility of obsession relates to the elimination of uncertainty by identifying certain synthetic truths. In an oppressive society colors can be used as triggers for instilling fear and enforcing power, and in revolutions they may reminders of the presence of resistance. As the politics of orange alerts arouse anxiety, and fashionable colors encourage conformity, the drive for self-preservation and the comfort of belonging maintain the system.
2006 - 2007, Kunsthaus Tacheles
Berlin, Germany
http://www.box1035.com/hundeVerboden.html
Photo: installation detail with recycled water and sound sculpture
“Other beings, other countries, other people are by definition less important by virtue of their otherness. Their importance can only increase by becoming more like me or us. Once homogenized, they can safely be ignored. Governments and religions are very adept at prescribing what is moral and what is not. Killing is fine if it is for fashion or the spread of democracy. Torture is okay if it prevents terrorism or if no one knows about it. One person’s atrocity is another’s job.”
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The title of this installation is derived from a poem by Stepanian, inspired by the statue of Christopher Columbus at Port Vell in Barcelona (see below). Mantione sets Stepanian’s words against a backdrop of drones created from manipulations of her voice and other percussive samples.
The artists portray themselves as glittering silhouettes with water recycling through their mouths, a reference to filtered experience as more a function of the self than of so-called objective reality. “If the human experience is limited by perception, these featureless figures owe their substance to a controlled diet of information flowing in and out.”
The red-dotted background reaches out into three-dimensional space, enveloping the table and taking on its form. “Other beings, other countries, other people are by definition less important by virtue of their otherness. Their importance can only increase by becoming more like me or us. Once homogenized, they can safely be ignored.”
In a video animals on a fur-farm are routinely and methodically beaten and skinned alive (downloaded from PETA.org). To make this violence morally acceptable, the animals need to be perceived as non-beings. “Governments and religions are very adept at prescribing what is moral and what is not. Killing is fine if it is for fashion or the spread of democracy. Torture is okay if it prevents terrorism or if no one knows about it. One person’s atrocity is another’s job.”
"LAND OF THE FREE"
Barcelona
The tidbit of glitter, glamour and glory
Scientific solutions of rediscovering Columbus as he points to the sea
Marveling at the sumptuous paradise
Disguised in its hell of immortality
Ominous monster of the sea
Fragile, boneless, blind and happy
What does the world want to be when it can fit into a hand-woven basket carried through the fires of eternity?
Does the father ask you to caress the cold metal upon entry,
or do you choose to lift the plight of your dignity?
What forbidden error is it to be carefree,
as you assume your distance and long for autonomy?
Subject to beheading the moose, as it drags its flank through ice and snow,
the edge of the forest on fire through the looking glass of blasphemy
Do the forecasters behold their truth with glee,
or do they double up in pain and wish to be dunked deep at the lobby?
As troublesome as it might seem to me,
I would choose the sea over the land of the free.
© 2006 Alysse Stepanian
Imagine Gallery, Beijing, China
http://www.box1035.com/beready.html
Photo: recycled water sculpture detail
In this installation, BOX 1035 uses the colors of the terrorist alert system adopted by the US government after 911, as a reference to hyper-vigilism, induced paranoia and an Orwellian attitude that has threatened to permanently undermine American civil rights, while paradoxically claiming to protect them. The “Color-coded Threat Level System” ensures that at no time is it possible to live without some level of fear....
Imagine Gallery, Beijing, China
http://www.box1035.com/beready.html
Photo: installation view with sculptures and video
In this installation, BOX 1035 uses the colors of the terrorist alert system adopted by the US government after 911, as a reference to hyper-vigilism, induced paranoia and an Orwellian attitude that has threatened to permanently undermine American civil rights, while paradoxically claiming to protect them. The “Color-coded Threat Level System” ensures that at no time is it possible to live without some level of fear....
