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Community Board

Petzel is pleased to present Community Board, an online exhibition highlighting artists who rely on, and incorporate, their communities and networks to realize their work. At a time when our communities are forcefully insular and our social and physical dynamics are drastically changing due to the implications of COVID-19, the relationships and systems of support we have maintained are arguably more important than ever. These links are the results of both physical closeness, as with roommates or doctors, as well as emotional closeness, whether that is calling home, a wedding officiated over Zoom, or somewhere in between with a shared demand for justice and change through protest. These relationships and interactions correlate with what we have decided is most important to focus our energy on in the current state. The works included in Community Board, all executed pre-pandemic, are transformed under our new circumstances. Community Board presents the dichotomy of our more intimate and personal bonds alongside the virtual connections that are increasingly prominent in our lives, to explore what community means today.

Community Board includes works by Walead Beshty, Ross Bleckner, Cosima von Bonin, Fiona Connor, Wade Guyton, Allan McCollum, Sarah Morris, Seth Price, Pieter Schoolwerth, and Rirkrit Tiravanija.

It’s an interest in that kind of aspect of objects which is not so much about art and our expectations for authorship, but about the way that objects can embody more complex social relationships… I guess that an object is dependent on its context. It comes from somewhere at a certain time and doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Art and objects are the products and constructs of the people that either bring them into being or live with them. I’m interested in how a built thing interacts with many different kinds of people during its lifetime.

Fiona Connor, Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer, Interview with Fiona Connor, 2017

I work very differently, I think, from how other artists work. And the word “assistant” breaks my heart. It’s not in my vocabulary. They are my slaves and I am their slave. It’s the same with the word “project.” You don’t have a project, you have an idea or you steal the idea, or you work together with people on an idea. Everyone is allowed to do what he wants to do.

Eleanor Heartney, “In Conversation: Cosima von Bonin with Eleanor Heartney,” The Brooklyn Rail, 2018

Slide-1-(OLD)

Allan McCollum, The Shapes Project: Collection of Seventy-two Perfect Couples

Allan McCollum

The Shapes Project: Collection of Seventy-two Perfect Couples

2005/2012

Acrylic with varnish on New England Rock Maple with cradled basswood panels

10 x 10 inches (each)

25.4 x 25.4 cm (each)

In his series of Copper Surrogates Beshty explores the ways in which objects accrue and produce meaning through their placement and circulation in the world. For Petzel Gallery’s 2014 exhibition, Beshty created polished raw copper sculptures built to the dimensions of the gallery’s work surfaces. As the gallery staff carried on with their daily routine, their natural contact and resting bodies tarnished a patina on to the reflective copper surfaces. Just as a camera captures a moment in time, the copper surrogates trace the movement of the staff’s immaterial labor.

In Rirkrit Tiravanija’s “Demonstration Drawings” the artist has taken images from the then-current issues of the International Herald Tribune and asked his former students in Thailand to redraw the depictions of protest. The resulting drawings reveal not only Tiravanija’s and the individual author’s perspective of those demonstrations, but also their interpretations of the media’s portrayal at the time, examining the relationships of several communities at once. Despite the nearly 15 year old subject matter, these drawings feel particularly relevant at the present moment, especially when thinking of the physical distance between author and imagery.

Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled (Demonstration No. 130)

Rirkrit Tiravanija

Untitled (Demonstration No. 130)

2006

Graphite on paper

7.75 x 10.75 inches

19.7 x 27.3 cm

Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled (Demonstration No. 193)

Rirkrit Tiravanija

Untitled (Demonstration No. 193)

2006

Graphite on paper

8.25 x 11.63 inches

21 x 29.5 cm

Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled (Demonstration No. 194)

Rirkrit Tiravanija

Untitled (Demonstration No. 194)

2006

Graphite on paper

8.25 x 11.63 inches

21 x 29.5 cm

Walead Beshty, Brian, 456 West 18th Street, New York, New York, July 1, 2014

Walead Beshty

Brian, 456 West 18th Street, New York, New York, July 1, 2014

2014

Chromogenic print

20 x 13.5 inches

50.8 x 34.3 cm

Walead Beshty, Table [Source: wood and glass coffee table designed by BassamFellows from the office of Friedrich Petzel at Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York. Surrogate: WB72514 (produced in conjunction with Friedrich Petzel, Owner), Copper Surrogate (designed by BassamFellows, 456 West 18th Street, New York, New York, June 26–October 4, 2014), conceived in 2013, produced in 2014, made of polished copper and powder-coated steel with the dimensions 25 1/2 x 55 x 1 1/2 inches. Production completed by Benchmark Scenery Incorporated, Glendale, California from 48 ounce Electrolytic-Tough-Pitch C11000 Copper Alloy cut from 60 x 120 inch mirror-polished sheet and 24 ounce Electrolytic-Tough-Pitch C11000 Copper Alloy cut from 60 x 120 inch mirror-polished sheet, with formed corners where necessary, copper plated hardware, perimeter edge French cleat system, and separate black powder-coated steel support structures. $7,527.00 production cost including travel and storage crates with floating lockable cleat system. Unexposed surrogates shipped by Crate 88 Incorporated from Los Angeles to New York, June 19 through June 23, 2014. Installed in place of BassamFellows table at 456 West 18th Street, New York on June 26, 2014, exposure through the duration of A Machinery for Living organized by Walead Beshty and Walead Beshty: Performances Under Working Conditions at Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York, closing October 4, 2014. Table has one base surrogate with the dimensions 12 1/8 x 55 x 25 1/2 inches.]

Walead Beshty

Table [Source: wood and glass coffee table designed by BassamFellows from the office of Friedrich Petzel at Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York. Surrogate: WB72514 (produced in conjunction with Friedrich Petzel, Owner), Copper Surrogate (designed by BassamFellows, 456 West 18th Street, New York, New York, June 26–October 4, 2014), conceived in 2013, produced in 2014, made of polished copper and powder-coated steel with the dimensions 25 1/2 x 55 x 1 1/2 inches. Production completed by Benchmark Scenery Incorporated, Glendale, California from 48 ounce Electrolytic-Tough-Pitch C11000 Copper Alloy cut from 60 x 120 inch mirror-polished sheet and 24 ounce Electrolytic-Tough-Pitch C11000 Copper Alloy cut from 60 x 120 inch mirror-polished sheet, with formed corners where necessary, copper plated hardware, perimeter edge French cleat system, and separate black powder-coated steel support structures. $7,527.00 production cost including travel and storage crates with floating lockable cleat system. Unexposed surrogates shipped by Crate 88 Incorporated from Los Angeles to New York, June 19 through June 23, 2014. Installed in place of BassamFellows table at 456 West 18th Street, New York on June 26, 2014, exposure through the duration of A Machinery for Living organized by Walead Beshty and Walead Beshty: Performances Under Working Conditions at Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York, closing October 4, 2014. Table has one base surrogate with the dimensions 12 1/8 x 55 x 25 1/2 inches.]

2014

Polished copper table top and powder-coated steel

22.5 x 55 x 1.5 inches

57.2 x 139.7 x 3.8 cm

Walead Beshty, Jason, 456 West 18th Street, New York, New York, July 1, 2014

Walead Beshty

Jason, 456 West 18th Street, New York, New York, July 1, 2014

2014

Chromogenic print

20 x 13.5 inches

50.8 x 34.3 cm

Sarah Morris, White House

Sarah Morris

White House

2017

Household gloss paint on canvas

60 x 60 inches

152.5 x 152.5 cm

Sarah Morris, Five Seconds

Sarah Morris

Five Seconds

2017

Ink and gouache on paper

30 x 30 inches

76.2 x 76.2 cm

Pieter Schoolwerth, Shifted Sims #3 (Get Famous)

Pieter Schoolwerth

Shifted Sims #3 (Get Famous)

2019

Oil, acrylic, inkjet on canvas

48 x 84 inches

121.9 x 213.4 cm

Slide-2-(OLD)

Wade Guyton, Untitled

Wade Guyton

Untitled

2018

Epson UltraChrome HDX inkjet on linen

84 x 69 inches

213.4 x 175.3 cm