Posted January 27, 2010 by John Menick
Seventeenth century plan for a perpetual motion machine.
For a long time now I’ve wanted to see an exhibition devoted to discredited scientific theories. Most science museums focus on what science got right; I care more about what science got wrong. Ideally, this exhibition would include all kinds of missteps, failed experiments, and insane quackery; but most importantly, it would highlight theories scientists thought previously untouchable or unthinkable. (Lavoisier once disproved the existence of meteorites, despite the protests of witnesses.) What qualifies as a “scientific idea” is an open question, but I hope the exhibition would include Martian canals, Ptolemy’s astronomy, phrenology, hollow earth theory, and lots of alchemy.
It’s also hard to say what’s been completely disproven — Freudian unconscious? Extraterrestrial intelligence? — so I’ll leave those questions to my fictional curators who are infallible on these matters. However, if the exhibition proves impossible, and the curators resign in protest, I would gladly settle for a backup plan: a collection of alien portraits, in oils, watercolors and acrylics, painted by U.F.O. abductees. Which exhibition is less truthful, I don’t know.
Posted July 14, 2009 by John Menick
I’m participating in a group show at Bitforms gallery opening Thursday, July 16, 6-8pm. I’m showing a new work, Subliminal Projection Company — part of a series of works dealing with brainwashing and subliminal messages. The show is curated by Mireille Bourgeois and Anaïs Lellouche also features Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, Roee Rosen, Thomson & Craighead, and Brina Thurston. Hope you get a chance to see it.
Posted July 6, 2009 by John Menick
I’ll be participating in Pecha Kucha Freestyle this Friday, July 10, 8 pm at the ISCP in Brooklyn. From the press release:
‘Pecha Kucha’ (chatter in Japanese), is an international social event initiated by architects who were tired of never-ending presentations by their verbose colleagues. It consists of a series of slide projections by the participants who also comment on the visuals. It has strict rules: one can present twenty slides for twenty seconds each, which allows everyone to speak and shine for no less and no more than 6 minutes and 40 seconds… On the occasion of Pecha Kucha Freestyle, participants – ISCP residents, and artists, curators and architects from NYC – were asked to present on anything that goes on in their minds; to share impulses, memories or obsessions that influence their work, to tell true stories, fiction, and lies, to impart theories and suspicions that inform their thinking process. You won’t see their artworks.. this playful format will certainly allow for a jam of eclectic source materials, quickly alternating between slapstick and serious, performative and poetic, found, archived and invented; giving you long-awaited translations of eighties Russian punk-rock, Sempé comics on NYC, the secret systems of bank vestibules, and animal presenters, mustaches and mullets… You will want more.
Address, full line-up, and more on the ISCP Web site.
Posted February 16, 2009 by John Menick
I’m showing Hearsay in “A Series of Coincidences,” a group exhibition curated Regine Basha opening this Saturday (Feb 21) at Cabinet’s new exhibition space. Stop by if you get a chance. Details follow.
A Series of Coincidences
Sat, February 21, 6pm – 9pm
Cabinet, 300 Nevins Street, Brooklyn (map)
FREE. No RSVP necessary.
Organized by Regine Basha
Featuring:
Serkan Ozkaya: Installation
Daniel Bozhkov: Object
John Menick: Video
Dario Robleto: Text
6-7 pm: conversation with Serkan Ozkaya and Daniel Bozhkov
7-9 pm: hobnobbing, conversation, and drinks
Posted January 13, 2009 by John Menick
John Menick. Plot Points, 2009. Graphite on paper. 18″ x 24″.
“Paper Exhibition,” a group exhibition curated by Raimundas Malašauskas, is opening on January 15, 7 pm, at Artists Space (38 Greene Street). I have a couple of new works in the show — Hearsay and Plot Points. From the press release:
What does the line between reality and fiction look like? Can an exhibition be a life-sized paper model of itself? Whose name didn’t make the press release? And if it sounds good on paper, where is the paper? These enigmatic questions locate Paper Exhibition at the periphery of the known—between paper architecture and new pages of old books. The exhibition renders the open space of the gallery as a labyrinth of folds, holes and gaps through which an exchange between the literal and the literary can happen…
The exhibition includes works and performances, in order of disappearance, by: Julieta Aranda / Olivier Babin / Fia Backström / Judith Braun / Alex Cecchetti / Mariana Castillo Deball / Dexter Sinister / Gintaras Didziapetris / Jonah Freeman / Aurelien Froment / Dora Garcia / Mario Garcia Torres / Mark Geffriaud / Loris Gréaud / Morten Norbye Halvorsen / Will Holder / Pierre Leguillon / Gabriel Lester / Marcos Lutyens / Benoit Maire / Nicholas Matranga / John Menick / Melvin Moti / Trong Gia Nguyen / Job Piston / Pratchaya Phinthong / Conny Purtill / Adam Putnam / Amy Robinson / Joe Scanlan / Gareth Spor / Donelle Woolford / Joe Zane
