Sarah Hromack

An Acceptable Approximation

… is the title of an essay I wrote—in the first person, no less—for Never Odd or Even, a book designed by Project Projects and featured in the exhibition We would provide complete darkness, curated by Alfons Hug and Sarah Demeuse for the Goethe Institut. Contributors include myself, Heike Baranowsky, Alejandro Cesarco, Angie Keefer, Christoph Keller, Adam Kleinman, Kitty Kraus, Jorge Méndez Blake, Carsten Nicolai, and Project Projects. The exhibition opens on 1 December from 6-8:00 pm at the Institut’s Wyoming Building; Cabinet will host a related event on 7 December. (details)

The volume will be surreptitiously inserted throughout the Goethe Institut’s collection—amidst volumes slated for de-acquisition and the Institut’s current, circulating stacks, where those who find it shall carry it into the world. A bibliographic intervention, if you will.

An excerpt:

The differences between paper and e-ink; the gallery, screen, and stage; or the library and database are clear enough, in material terms. Where things become genuinely disconcerting, I believe, is when we—when I—fail to control my own behavior in relationship to the Internet, allowing it to serve as an acceptable approximation for physical experience itself. When I catch myself feeling convinced, even momentarily, that I know something of an exhibition or performance based on the amount of documentation I’ve perused online, or when I feel judgments beginning to form in my mind based on first-hand reports gleaned from various social networks.

Cabinet magazine asks WWSLD? in a recent call for entries targeted to “those who share an affinity with Sol LeWitt’s legacy as a conceptual artist, to those who knew him and those who did not — to anyone who has ever wondered, ‘What would Sol LeWitt like?’” Aside from economic theory, the project draws on the history of Lewitt’s material exchanges with artists, wherein he traded work with artists both known to him and not; the Sol Lewitt Private Collection (which desperately needs a website, IMHO) retains the rights to all works received, as well as a record of what Lewitt sent in return. Suggested gifts include books, ephemera, and other non-perishable items. (Project guidelines and other brass tacks may be found here.) An Exchange With Sol Lewitt is a two-part exhibition co-presented by MASS MoCA and Cabinet, and organized by curator Regine Basha. The project will remain on view at Cabinet’s Gowanus space from 20 January–19 February, 201, and at MASS MoCA from 22 January–31 March, 2011.

My submission: fuckyeahsollewitt.tumblr.com.

Conrad Shawcross’s, Pre-Retroscope VI: Gowanus Journey opened last night at Cabinet’s space on Nevins Street. On Friday, I ran the second half of my previous Art in America interview, where he discussed the project, which originated in London.

+ Pre-Retroscope: Conrad Shawcross Charts the Gowanus Canal (Art in America)

See also:

+ Control: A Conversation With Conrad Shawcross (Art in America)
+ Cabinet (website)