Start date: May 23rd, 2015
End date: May 23rd, 2015
Start Time: 12:00 PM
End Time: 05:00 PM
“This complicated and conflicted understanding of the relations between the public space of the street and the public sphere of representation was nascent at the beginning of the decade. For many artists, the street represented a site outside the structures of power (however ‘true’ or phantasmatic such a concept may have been); the idea of the street, in other words, retained an antithetical relation to the space of the museum and television.” – Helen Molesworth, This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s
The wide-ranging responses enacted throughout Lower Manhattan highlighted in the exhibition include the institutionally-supported erection and eventual removal of Richard Serra’s large-scale sculpture Tilted Arc; Keith Haring’s radiant subway drawings in the space of everyday transit and their lasting impression on street art culture; and Jenny Holzer’s conceptual texts focusing on social and political commentary wheat pasted in heavily populated public spaces, among others. The exhibition’s title is informed by Michael Warner’s concept of “counterpublics,” which are communities that form around relationships in conflict with the standards and norms of their existing environment. A resonant idea for the represented decade in art, each exhibited work relates: questioning the record of the historical past, critiquing the contemporary circumstances of the present, or gesturing towards alternatives for the future.
The exhibition features artwork and documentation of public art, performance and interventions by Agnes Denes, Eiko & Koma, the Guerilla Girls, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Tehching Hsieh, John Kelly, Pope.L, REPOhistory, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the collaborative co-creators of Electric Blanket (Allen Frame, Frank Franca and Nan Goldin), and more.
Curated by Alex Fialho & Melissa Levin.
Saturday, May 23 – Sunday, September 27, 2015*
Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Monday, May 25 and Monday, September 7
Open: 12:00–5:00pm
*During the River To River Festival we are also open Monday–Thursday
Thursday, June 18–Sunday, June 28
12:00–5:00pm daily
at the Arts Center at Governors Island
Building 110 near Soissons Landing
FREE. RSVP recommended but not required. RSVPs will open in May.
May include sensitive material.
