ENDS WELL
Curated by Jacob Rhodes
July 18 - Sep 21, 2024
Upstate Art Weekend: July 18- 21
Mother-In-Law’s Gallery Grounds
140 Church Ave
Germantown, NY 12526
Featuring:
Alison Kudlow, Amanda Browder, An Pham, Barry Hazard, Bob Szantyr, Chiara No, Chloe Mosbacher, David Herbert, DeepPond Kim, Emily Janowick, Eric Araujo, Gabrielle Duggan, Jamie Martinez, Jemila MacEwan, Lara Saget, Lisa Schilling, Lizzie Wright, Lydia Kern, Nazli Efe, Noémie Jennifer Bonnet, Padma Rajendran, Paul Gagner, Peter Hoffmeister, Rachel Frank, Ruth Jeyaveeran, Sarah Grass, Tom Costa, Weihui Lu, Z Behl, Zaq Landsberg.
“ In history as in nature, decay is the laboratory of life.”
Field Projects is honored to partner with Mother-In-Law’s Gallery to present ENDS WELL, an outdoor sculpture exhibition taking place on the MIL grounds. We are also excited to exhibit alongside Dani Klebes solo exhibition “A Dyke Cabin of One’s Own” curated by Elijah Wheat Showroom in the main MIL gallery.
30 artists over 15 acres have created outdoor sculptures that range from playful to foreboding. Ruminating on where we find ourselves at this point in history with an eye on nature and our impact on it. ENDS WELL covers a lot of ground.
Barry Hazard‘s “Walk-In-Painting” invites the viewer to literally step into an idealized hudson landscape painting, complete with a Louis XIV Sunflower frame, creating a photo-opp in nature but separate from nature. Z Behl’s “Thatcher and Snatcher,” is a 25 foot tall Margret Thatcher created from discarded oxidizing industrial metals. Margaret Thatcher is famous for privatizing the English social systems and union busting to make way for the current conservative world order. Peter Hoffmeister‘s “Storyteller”, a standard NYS historical marker that is intentionally left blank, asks viewers to imagine what qualifies recording here and who determines this? Noémie Jennifer Bonnet’s “Eclipse Chaser” is an ambiguous object between two trees. It appears as both the remains of a deep sea alien and an invasive parasitic fungus. Amanda Browder’s “Moon Manicure” is a mix of colorful geometric patterns made from upcycled textiles on the pool house facade and three large-scale fingers with opulent nails draped over the building. They evoke feminine mystique and historic decorative power. Eric Araujo’s “Squamata” is two silver forms that undulate within, through, and around the trees, advancing toward and retreating from the space between. A quick pivot, curl, whirl, deflect, a near miss.
Lara Saget’s “2023, Joshua Tree” is a 21 foot tall inflatable Joshua Tree. Joshua Trees have existed for millions of years. But their home is becoming inhospitable, and they may not live past 2100 unless action is taken now. Everyday the sculpture will deflate at 21:00. Bob Szantyr’s “Big Decree” resembles a billboard which reads "Never Remember" in italicized Times New Roman font. The green color of the text subtly camouflages the words in the surrounding trees until the viewer is close enough where the words tower over, framed by the sky. It points to the ubiquitousness of infrastructural objects that communicate to us and how they punctuate our scenic repose. These objects make up a language that both reflect our values within our current context and inscribe values on future generations. We observe through the repeating of history, that our slogans and monuments swiftly shed their historical contexts to exist as myths, or at the very least join the canon of supporting material of larger myths.
Among the 30 artists sculptures questions of how to live, how to balance what is asked of us as stewards of Earth, and what we are willing to do to bear the burden of our history. The world has always been in a constant decay and that is both a burden and an opportunity. ENDS WELL doesn’t give answers but invites the viewer to contemplate the questions with us.
