DOOR WORK
October 22-November 5, 2011
/opening Oct 22 – performance begins at 8pm/
English Kills Art Gallery
English Kills Art Gallery presents DOOR WORK, the first full solo exhibition of Rob Andrews’ work after a decade of rigorous investigation into the nature of myth, ritual, and the role of the storyteller.
DOOR WORK hews at the genesis and location(s) of private moments of spiritual transformation, the intersection of the spiritual and profane, the role of ritual in our social landscape, and the boundaries we accept and those we will ourselves to cross.
DOOR WORK bridges the psychic and material distance between performance and the static art object. Rob will present two new major performance works: one, on October 29th @ 8pm for Bushwick BEAT night, Clean Hrag, is a collaboration with Hrag Vartanian, founder and visionary at Hyperallergic.com, and the other which opens the show October 22nd @ 8pm: Ant–Bird 2, is a ritual designed to open a spiritual and metaphysical door using the power of blood, sweat, spit, and the vocal power of a human chorus.
In 2003, Rob 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.” DOOR WORK balances performance and the object towards speaking to interior reconstruction: destroying old doors, and opening new ones.
Rob is proud to officially join English Kills Art Gallery. He has shown work at the Museum of Modern Art, Exit Art, Grace Exhibition Space, and travels to Bitola, Macedonia in early November to take part in Exchange Radical Moments, a Pan-European live art festival that takes place in 11 European cities on 11.11.11
DOOR WORK is dedicated to the memory of Jeanette Ingberman.
This performance/variable media art work was made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Major support of the Franklin Furnace Fund was provided in 2010-11 by the Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation and Jerome Foundation. Special thanks also to the Gowanus Studio Space, United States Artists, and numerous private donors.
