Conduct Matters
Hammer Project, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA May 6-August 6, 2017
Project curated by Connie Butler and Emily Gonzalez-Jarrett.
Exhibition Catalog: Connie Butler, curatorial essay, “Hammer Project: Jeanine Oleson: Conduct Matters,” exhibition brochure, published by the Hammer Museum, May 2017
A large-scale project cycle including an exhibition and performance related to research on copper extraction/usage in late capitalism and the irreconcilable contemporary relationship between land, labor, resources, and art. Playing with conduct as a material transmission, musical prompt and ethical reminder, the exhibition includes catalytic instruments and objects that interrelate the body’s function and relationship to materials and representation with humor and pathos. The exhibition also premieres a video, Crossed Wires, a three-channel absurdist ensemble work based on the production process of copper. A hand-woven rug anchors the project, its composition based on perspectival issues of 3D imaging.
Project also premiered a new performance, Breathe in the World (or problems with you, me, we, they, hear and see) on May 13 & 14 at the Hammer.
A new performance concerned with the movement of breath in and out of the body through the vector of a new instrument as the primary catalyst. This instrument splits the breath’s production of sound through analog loops as well as a series of temperature sensors that create independent sound based on data. Three musicians improvise with the single instrument, illustrating the symbiotic connection of the body with its surroundings, analog and digital, communication and chaos. The performance is also an examination of the constant negotiation of external life through language, musicality, mis/connections, labor, and material, all wrought with some humor through fear. Video and images below.
Directed/Written by: Jeanine Oleson
Performers: Tim Aaron, Scott Cazan, Rachel Higgins, Sharon Kim, and Jeanine Oleson
Set design: Rachel Higgins
Supported by the Hammer Museum, Creative Capital and UrbanGlass.
