Underskog

OPENING FRIDAY FEBRUARY 17th at 7pm
Whiskey & food will be served

Marianne Vitale has for the exhibition worked with reclaimed lumber that until recently was the floors, walls and ceilings of factories and warehouses throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

If You Expect To Rate as a Gentleman, Do Not Expectorate On the Floor is the third autonomous and last coordinate in a series of exhibitions with these works – in London, New York and Oslo –accompanied by the publication What I Need To Do Is Lighten the Fuck Up About a Lot Of Shit with texts of Mark Beasley, Todd Colby and Linus Elmes.

At UKS a site-specific version of Vitale’s Burned Bridge function as the leading element. This spatially, heavily metaphorical and theatrical installation indicates a different world from those in previously circulated versions and could be seen as a new extension of Vitale’s practice.

The exercise of raising material into new realms functions not only as a deconstruction but also as a construction of another world. Instead of individual objects containing encapsulated meaning this is a conversation of cursors insinuating a threatening and violent landscape on the verge of collapse.

Works in the show:

Jail – 2011 (Reclaimed lumber)183 × 183 × 183 cm

A square chamber comprised of heavy wooden beams, piled to create a “butt-and-pass” corner, a type of simple, sturdy building technique used in old barn construction.

Burned Bridge – 2012 (Reclaimed and burned lumber)

Based on a specific bridge truss design from the late 1800’s, this 16 foot-long sculpture of a Northeast American covered bridge was built, and then set aflame, leaving behind a frail, collapsed and charred skeleton.

Torpedo A & Torpedo B – 2011(Reclaimed lumber) 488 × 92 × 92 cm

Based on early water missile renderings from the late 1800’s, in particular an etching depicting a design by an English engineer, the so-called inventor of the “modern” torpedo, as it’s being tested from a ship.

Marianne Vitale (b. 1973) graduated in 1996 from the School of Visual Arts, New York. Her work was featured in the 2010 Whitney Biennial, Performa ‘07, ‘09 and ‘11, as well as exhibitions at the Rubell Family Collection (US), Cass Sculpture Foundation (UK), White Columns (NY), The Kitchen (NY) and Kling & Bang (Iceland). Solo exhibitions of her work include WHAT I NEED TO DO IS LIGHTEN THE FUCK UP ABOUT A LOT OF SHIT, Zach Feuer Gallery, (2012), Too Much Satan For One Hand, IBID Projects, London (2011), The Clipper presented by Kunstverein NY (2010), Landswab Over Berberis, Sculpture Center, NY (2009), Missing Book of Spurs, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (2007); and OK/KO at White Columns, NY (2007).