USA Projects

In October of 2011, English Kills Art Gallery will present the first full solo exhibition of my work after a decade of rigorous investigation into the nature of myth, ritual, and the role of the storyteller. I seek 8,500 dollars to install the exhibition, purchase materials for a new immersive performance installation, and for two new performance works that debut as part of the show. I am incredibly excited to cohere my work and vision at English Kills, a noted supporter of radical, experimental work. Support for the show will supplement the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art's 2010-11 Artist grant I received this year.

The show comes at a critical juncture in my career. The show, titled DOOR WORK, connects narrative threads I have developed over the last ten years and frames them (quite literally) within a structure. My work hews at the genesis and location(s) of our private moments of spiritual transformation, and penetrates further into territory I have been mining for a decade: the intersection of the spiritual and profane, the role of ritual in a civilization that moves impossibly fast, and the boundaries we accept and those we will ourselves to cross.

Your support will enable me to produce new performances for the show in a new format: directly to large-format photography, as an extension of my "Minotaur" series. With the USA funds, I'll create large format, professional grade photo documentation, and install and frame the images, fulfilling my ambition for this work: stark, professional-grade artworks that outline the vision of a fearsome yet impotent Minotaur. Initial sketches place the Minotaur around children, alone in an easy chair, dreaming.

In DOOR WORK I attempt to bridge the psychic and material distance between performance and the static art object. I will create a "translation" of a landmark performance created two years ago: Sky Burial pts. 1 + 2. I am planning a structure (a room within a room) that will enable a visitor to go on a sonic, physical, and metaphysical journey by themselves within the gallery. The piece is rooted in the Tibetan practice of placing the bodies of the dead before carrion birds, and passing their energy and life on through the consumption of their material body. Your support will pay for the materials for this sculpture, and consultation with collaborating artists to build a sonic and visual landscape penetrating enough to catch the visitor and initiate a transformative process.

Finally, I will present two new major performance works: one, a collaboration with Hrag Vartanian, founder and visionary at Hyperallergic.com. We will research and develop a performance work that metaphysically addresses the notion of proliferation and viral growth through an endurance action. The second work will be a massive live interpretation and growth of my Minotaur work, involving tens of performers. Your funds will support my work collaborating with other artists, and providing them with payment for their work in addition to materials for the performances: such as masks, clothing, and documentation.

In 2003, I cleaned the floor of the gallery Exit Art for three months. Roberta Smith of the New York Times wrote, "In a piece that suggests interior reconstruction Rob Andrews has been and will continue cleaning the gallery's entire floor with a toothbrush, a few square feet each day. His air of meditative concentration contrasts noticeably and nicely with the prevailing sense of bustle and bulk." Please support me in bringing together old and new work into a singular vision, towards the induction of interior reconstruction in viewers and visitors to the show.

I offer you my deepest thanks for your support and time. 

Rob Andrews