PROW "The Prequel"

Sara Meltzer Gallery

poster for PROW "The Prequel"

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Sara Meltzer Gallery presents The Prequel, the first solo exhibition of PROW in a commercial setting. PROW is a collaborative entity founded by artists Peter Rostovsky and Olav Westphalen. Rostovsky was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Westphalen was born in Hamburg, Germany and lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden.

Proposing that much of contemporary art production has become a province of the entertainment industry, PROW structures itself like an independent movie studio; as a collective production effort that produces various types of spectacle. Mimicking the collective nature of cinematic production, PROW contests the art world’s standardized distinction between authorship and fabrication by crediting all of its contributors for their respective participation in the final creation. The works in The Prequel address this communal structure and offer a regenerative perspective on our moment in history and in art production.

While the exhibition at times strikes a ominous chord, it nevertheless points to the hope offered through new virtual communities and modes of collectivity. Understanding these new forms of collectivity as part and parcel of a globalized spectacle and an image-recycling culture, the series Sequels offers deadpan renditions of faux movie posters of sequels devoid of originals. Also included in the exhibition is a large stage fire, an entertaining prop cum-sculpture that offers as much a symbol of the end of things as of a potential rebirth.

A complimentary idealistic perspective is manifest in the drawings that line the walls. Derived from Google’s open source ‘3d Warehouse’ where frequently anonymous contributors post rudimentary 3d models for anyone’s use, the drawings reflect, both, the fantasy of remaking the world in model form as well as the utopian dream of an open source ‘wiki-culture." These drawings embed authorship in an endless stream of images and collective contribution: a virtual world of fragmentary and shifting authorial identity both administered and individuated through personal use.

Media

Schedule

from January 22, 2010 to February 27, 2010

Opening Reception on 2010-01-22 from 17:30 to 20:00

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