- Cimiteria
Petrine, Paris
June 23 - August 5, 2023
Exhibition Checklist
Exhibition Text
Apotheosis (Full Audio) Soundscape Designed by Ian Ellison for Cimiteria
At the center of the space, Garden’s ballasts are composed of concrete, calcium-oxide from limestone carapaces of marine life, incinerated refuse from an undisclosed waste-to-energy facility (which functions as a binding agent), and coated/mixed with iron-oxide. Prior to coating, they are bathed in sea water, a method pulled from the processes of antiquity primarily used in the production of Roman concrete, which continuously strengthens the mineral bonds over long periods of time. The iron-oxide coating materially entreats its historical referent: the iron ballasts discovered in 2015 off the coast of South Africa which belonged to the slave ship known as the São José Paquete D’Africa. Documents from the ship recorded the presence of 1,400 ballasts; only 12 have been recovered and are in transnational circulation between institutions. These ballasts were used to offset the weight of enslaved ‘cargo’ and maintain the ship’s buoyant stability for the duration of its passage.
Garden’s ballasts were cast in a mold designed to produce concrete beams used strictly for flexural testing. This procedure tests the tensile strength of a concrete composite before proper constructional use. The beams produced with this mold are cast to be pushed to their tensile limit and discarded thereafter. They are valuable/indispensable to the extent that they must be used to the point of uselessness which yields measurements toward optimal stability.
The French phrase in the title of the series, ‘après-coup 1 of 1,400,’ is borrowed from the work of Jean Laplanche and translates roughly as “deferred action” and/or “after-effect”. This is theorized and applied with regards to unconscious material/memory which does not present itself as repressed to the subject until a later point of actuation, whereupon the recognition of this repression (different from an acceptance of it) is only possible through negation or distortion.
The paranthetical wall works in the main gallery space as well as the embossed print hung by chrome bier pin plates in the office space focus on two unmarked slave cemeteries in Florida and their enduring captivity to their respective property relations. Garden enacts a critique upon the inability of archeology (whether in the ocean, the earth, or the clinic) to produce a stable connection between a buried, repressed object ‘discovered’ and the historical moment it claims to signify when encountering or working with the artifacts of slavery. Put differently, antiblackness has severed the possibility of a link between the slave and appearance, between the slave and referential origin. Destined to be, at the same time, deferred and repeated without psychic or historical recognition in the World.
Installation View, Gallery
Installation View, Gallery
Installation View, Office
Caro, Cathexis, Contraband
2023
embossed paper, bier pins, steel clamp
110 x 25.4 cm
The longing I have for an evening walk on the course is insatiable. I need the crisp air of Spring in my lungs, the weight of clubs on my shoulder, and the delight of a dog by my side. Only these ingredients can cure the ailments of a maddening Winter. There are 19 days until daylight savings time... #playorperish
2023
archival inkjet print, walnut frame
93 x 62.5 cm
FrankCrum remains steadfast in our beliefs that hard work should be rewarded, that growth opportunities and flexibility is key. Everyone benefits when we work together to create a fun, engaged, and stable workplace.,
2023
archival inkjet print, walnut frame
93 x 62.5 cm
The Nocturnal Letter
2023
A Semblance of the Barracoon
2023
acrylic-based laminate, walnut mount
28.5 x 17.5 x 6 cm
A Semblance of the Barracoon, detail