Devin Balara “Probable Lots”
Ortega y Gasset Projects @ The Old American Can Factory
[Image: Devin Balara "Greening" (2014) $1000 worth of green rugs, purchased, Installed, returned, refunded]
This event has ended.
Ortega y Gasset Projects presents a new sitespecific installation by Devin Balara in OyG’s Vestibule. Probable Lotsmaterializes the artist’s larger curiosity about nature’s potential for spontaneous selfdomestication.
In Probable Lots, two works exist in conversation and function as scenic overlooks, pointing to a possible mesh or plot. Amass of green flows down the steps and appears to seep beyond the Vestibule’s boundaries, treating the hallway as a site to be landscaped. The rugform invites viewers to speculate as to its scale (a garden? farm?continent?)andaboutthestagesofplanninginwhichitissuspended. AcontinuationofBalara’s Greening project (in which the artist purchased 56 green rugs, installed them as grassy surrogates in paved suburban spaces, and then returned them to the store), this new iteration involves collected rugs, heavily used, dyed, deconstructed,and upcycled to propose new possibilities—greener still.
The plan manifests around the corner in a loose grid of snakes. Here, domestication functions in response to training supposing that we increase the probability of such organized phenomena the more we alter our environment to collapse into predictable patterns. There is also the suggestion of a halt in a natural process, such as migration, as the snakes have cemented in formation. Yet the form is far from rigid; it vibrates with textilelike potential, suggesting the myriad of yetuntested patterns.
curated by Will Hutnick
Media
Schedule
from April 15, 2016 to June 19, 2016
Opening Reception on 2016-04-15 from 18:00 to 22:00