What is left over

What is left over - oktober 2000

Pressrelease
Hysterics of the World Unite! By Blake Stimson
A collaboration by Carlos Andrade and Todd Ayoung October 6 - November 4

North Udstillingssted is pleased to present new work by New York based Colombian artist Carlos Andrade and Trinidad born American artist Todd Ayoung.
"What is left over," is the result of a common interest by Andrade and Ayoung in mass-media representations of natural disasters. The exhibition is built around two disturbing images of the aftereffects of an earthquake.
These images form the basis of two large installation works at North's main room and inspire a third in North Udstillingssted's second gallery. The first of these works, titled "Night of the World," is a sculptural installation combining several different elements including Columbian-manufactured reproductions of the ice bags used to cover and preserve the corpse of an earthquake victim seen in one of the two photographs. The other installation, titled "Substance is Subject," is a viewer-activated slide projection of a building "pancaked" by an earthquake. Both works invite the viewer to experience the representation of these tragedies in a more complex and more direct manner than is available in the original news reports
In North Udstillingssted's second room, Andrade and Ayoung have constructed ten relief sculptures collectively titled "Untitled Commandments." Each individual piece measures 10" X 10" X 3" and is made of plastic toys made in China and Columbia melded together with heat. These works are also inspired by the artists' interest in images of natural disasters, but with no reference to any specific situation. Each individual sculptural component was conceived of as a laboratory experiment that created a small-scale disaster in a controlled environment. The disaster theme is expanded and made more complex in these works by the inclusion of another sculptural motif: attached to each of the ten works are one or more scale reproductions of the rural Montana, USA shack lived in by the so-called "Unabomber," Theodore Kaczynski. This reference adds an element of perverse contradiction to the whole trajectory of the exhibition by prompting the viewer to question the hard distinction between natural and man-made disasters, between earthquakes and ecoterrorism.
There will be a CD catalog available featuring sounds from natural disasters compiled by sound artist Robert Gould and essays by art historian Blake Stimson and museum curator Betti-Sue Hertz.
The artists would like to thank North Udstillingssted, especially Kim Asbury for making this exhibition possible and Carsten Juhl of The Royal Academy for making it possible for us to come to Copenhagen.



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