KAREN AZOULAY CUE Art Foundation March 15 - April 21. 2007 Curated by Glenn Ligon
Foreword
We are honored to present this exh1b1t1on generously curated by Glenn Ligon. For the CUE solo exh1b1tion series. Mr Ligon has chosen Karen Azoulay. an artist born 1n Toronto who currently resides 1n New York. Azoulay has long been recognized by her peers as having forged a unique artistic voice. Ligon·s appreciation of Azoulay·s work demonstrates Just such adm1rat1on. CUE is pleased to recognize that this 1s Ms. Azoulay·s first solo exhibition in the United States. Mr. Ligon and we. together. celebrate this effort and wish her a future of fulfillment and success.
THIS EXHIBITION IS SUPPORTED IN PART BY PETER NORTON FAMILY FOUNDATION AND AGNES GUND & DANIEL SHAPIRO
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KYESUNG PAPER CO., LTO NAMHAN PAPER CO., LTD
LFAD SPONSOR OF 2006 07 SFASON OF E-XHIAITION CATAl OGUf-S KYESUNG PAPER GROUP (SOUTH KOREA) ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY ELIZABETH FIRESTONE GRAHAM FOUNDATION
Artist's Statement
Karen Azoulay
Fleetingness and fluidity are two aspects of nature that lure me to the subJect matter 1n my landscape 1nstallat1ons A winter flurry can suddenly transport me to the interior of a snow globe. but such a moment can never be captured...1t melts and disappears. Although sunsets and windy vistas enchant me. I bu Id landscapes 1n direct contradiction to the natural phenomena that 1nsp1re them. By restag1ng transitory atmospheric events in a heavily theatrical. static. and almost flat way. I am attempting to seize the unse1zable In my earlier performance piece Windy Forest. I represent the wind with small props that are hand held. Such simplifications bring us away from the physical properties that we experience 1n the world. and closer to the realm of icons and symbols that we read about or 1mag1ne I have always envisioned parallels between weather and gestures of human emotion. As spectacles of JOY and celebration, fireworks are the perfect hybrid of prec1p1tat1on and confetti. Particles of colored fire fill the sky and shower us from above. Reflecting our own moods on to the landscape that we inhabit 1n a moment of great pride and excitement. we play Mother Nature and make the skies rain down on us with explosions of our own emotion. The body of work included 1n the CUE Art Foundation exh1b1t on features sculpture and 1nstallat1on as well as photography that incorporates these three d1mens1onal obJects These staged scenarios are rem1n1scent of the trad t1on of tab1eaux v1vant The photo graph Catching the Star explores another kind of fire that moves through the night What can be seen as an abstraction of a shooting star 1s someth,ng I created using the fabric of a battered umbrella What once was used as protection from blustering storms now has a new destiny to fly through the skies without limitation. The character perform,ng as a swimmer in the image 1s reaching for those qualities and perhaps 1s going to grasp on to them and be pulled up from her familiar waters into the expectant unknown.
Curator's Statement
Glenn Ligon
In a passage on Ovid 1n the book Six Memos for the Next Millennium ltalo Calvino writes: Ovid's world is made up of the qualities. attnbutes and forms that define the variety of things. whether plants. ammals. or persons. But these are only the outward appearances of a smgle common substance that-if stirred by profound emotion-may be changed mto what most differs from it. 1 The mutability of substances 1s a subJect to which Ovid's Metamorphoses returns again and again When pursued by an ardent suitor Daphne transforms into a tree. The weaver Arachne is turned into a spider by a Jealous god. Placed by Perseus on the edge of the sea. the Gorgon's head turns plants into coral. The belief that runs through Metamorphoses that all things are connected because all things can be transformed-is at the heart of Karen Azoulay's project. In sculptural tableaus. performance pieces and digital images. she creates worlds 1n which the line between body and obJect. material fact and representation: and the perceptible and the imperceptible 1s blurred. For instance. she has created a photo of a woman being dragged from sea to sky by a comet-like form. fireworks frozen at the moment of their explosion. and an image of a breath blown into a sculpture of a gust of wind Suffused with humor and melancholy her work reveals an interest in mythology. literature and alchemy as well as Las Vegas spectacles. the work of Yayo1 Kusama. opera. and Renaissance painting The largest piece in the exh1b1tion has images of fireworks 1n the night sky with yards and yards of fabric representing the sea 1n front of 1t. Like a 19th century panorama. 1t fills up the visual field and suggests the occurrence of multiple narratives and points-of-entry. D1g1tal images record performers reacting to the fireworks and immersed in the turbulent blue-green water represented 1n the piece. But for all its darkness-literal and metaphoric-Azoulay·s work retains a sense of play. wonder. abandon and, ultimately, lightness. It 1s this lightness. 1n all its various manifestations. that brings Azoulay·s work 1n line with this notion from Calvino: l lt -.110 C<.1lv1no. tr.Jns
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Whenever humanity seems condemned to heavmess. I think I should fly hke Perseus mto a different space. I don't mean escapmg mto dreams or into the irrational. I mean that I have to change my approach. look at the world from a different perspective. with a different logic and with fresh methods of cognition and venficat1on.
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Azoulay also proposes that 1n the face of the heaviness of the world we retain our ab1l1ty to 1mag1ne alternative ways of seeing If art has any task 1t 1s to keep this potential 1n us to transform our vision and ourselves alive
TOP Detail from the installation In The Snow. 2005 Poly-netting. vinyl. poly-fill. Dimensions variable
BOTTOM In The Snow (1). 2005 D191tal print. 7 1/2" x 10". Edition of 3
TOP lnstallat,on view of Windy Forest. 2005 Satin. hand dyed sat,n ribbon. coat racks. o,mens,ons variable
BOTTOM Documentation from the performance Windy Forest. 2005
Detail from the ,nstallat,on Fountain, 2006 Paper m�che, acrylic, cardboard, D1mens1ons variable
Documentation from the performance Fountain, 2006
Detail from the installation Fireworks. 2007 Steel. wooden parasols, paper mache, mixed media. Dimensions variable
In The Water. (1). 2006-2007
Pigment print on watercolor paper, 7 1/2" x 6 1/2" Edition of 5
In The Water, (2), 2006-2007
Pigment pnnt on watercolor paper. 6 1/2" x 7 1/2" Ed1t1on of 5
In The Water. (3). 2006-2007 Pigment print on watercolor paper. 7 1/2" x 7 1/2" Edition of 5
Wading Under a Crackling Sky, 2007 Pigment print on watercolor paper. 19"x 12 3/4" Edition of 3
Untitled study, 2006 Watercolor on paper. 19 3/4" X 15"
LEFT
Untitled study, 2006 Watercolor on paper.
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lS"x 7"
Acknowledgements Thanks go to the friends who appear in these pages as performers or models: Mauricio Limon. Guus Kusters. Sarah Holland. Pamela Hong, Samara Liu. Erika Somogyi. and Jessica Stults. T hanks to Scott Treleaven and Terna Stauffer for helping with the documentation. For always being avail able when I need feedback and giving me a true sense of support. thanks to Daniel Barrow. Kevin Burke. Michael Cobb. Jonah Corne. Paul P.. Erika Somogyi. Scott Treleaven. and Joe Wolin. Thanks to everyone at CUE for all of their great work and assistance. Many thanks to Glenn Ligon .. I am so grateful for all of the thoughtful advice and encouragement. Karen Azoulay
Biographies
Karen Azoulay
Karen Azoulay was born 1n Toronto. Canada in 1977. She received her BFA from York Un1vers1ty in 2000. Recent exhibitions include the solo show The Evening Canopy and the Sunset Hour at Mercer Union in Toronto. Her 1nstallat1ons and performances include commissions for 1nstitut1ons such as The Art Gallery of Ontario. Canadian Art Magazine and T he Power Plant. Her work has been included 1n group shows including: Landescapism. Islip Art Museum. East Islip, NY: Menseltjke Analyse, Stichting. Eindhoven. Netherlands: Delicate Kinship, Hanna Gallery. Tokyo: You & Me & Art & Idea. Art & Idea. Mexico City: and The Cave and the Island. which showed at both Galerie Kunst buero. Vienna and White Columns. New York This is her first solo show 1n the United States. She 1s currently based 1n New York City.
Glenn Ligon
Glenn Ligon was born in the Bronx. New York. He received a BA from Wesleyan University 1n 1982. In 1985. he participated 1n the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program Combining painting. photography. and conceptual practices. Ligon has addressed issues of racial and sexual 1dent1ty 1n his work. He has had solo shows at the H1rshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden 1n Washington. D.C. (1993). Brooklyn Museum of Art (1996). Saint Louis Art Museum (2000): the Studio Museum 1n Harlem (2001): and the Power Plant. Toronto (2005). He has part1c1pated in grouQ shows including the Whitney Biennial (1991 and 1993). B1ennale of Sydney (1996). Venice 81ennale (1997). Kwang;u B1ennale (2000). Dokumenta (Kassel. Germany. 2002). Moving Pictures at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2002 and 2003). and Drawing from the Modern. 7975 - 2005. Museum of Modern Art. New York (2005). He has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1982. 1989. and 1991): Art Matters (1990): the Joan Mitchell Foundation (1997): and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2003) He lives and works 1n New York.
IVl'ssion Statement
CUE Art Foundation
CUE Art Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit arts organization, is dedicated
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
to prov ding a comprehensive creative forum for contemporary art by
Gregory Amenoff
supporting under-recognized artists via a multi-faceted m1ss1on spanning the
Theodore S. Berger
realms of gallery exhibitions, public programming, profess·onal development programs and arts-in-education. The Foundation was established in June of 2002 with the aim of prov1d1ng educational programs for young artists and aspiring art professionals in New York and from around the country T hese programs draw on the unique community of art sts, critics, and educators brought together by the Foundation's season of exh1b1t1ons, public lectures, workshops, and its studio residency program. all are designed to be of lasting practical benefit to aspiring and under-recognized artists. The entire
Patricia Caesar Thomas G. Devine Thomas K. Y. Hsu Brian D. Starer ADVISORY COUNCIL Gregory Amenoff
CUE 1dent1ty 1s character zed by art1st1c quality, independent Judgment and
W II am Corbett
the discovery of genuine talent, and prov des long-term benefits both for
Vernon Fisher
creat ve 1nd1v duals associated with CUE and the larger art marketplace.
Mahk Gaines
Located 1n New York's Chelsea gallery d strict. CUE's 4.500 square feet of
Deborah Kass
gal ery, studio.and office space serves as the nexus for educational programs and exh1b1t1ons conducted by CUE
Kris Kuram1tsu Jonathan Lethem Irving Sandler
Karen Azou ay's exh1b t1on received additional support from The Latner Family. Spec·a thanks to Materials for the Arts, New York City Department of Cu tural Affairs. Photo credits· Scott Tre eaven: pg #6, 7 (bottom image); Terna Stauffer: pg #11, 12, 18 All artwork© Karen Azou ay Catalog designed by Elizabeth Ellis Printed on TriP ne paper of KyeSung Paper Group (South Korea)
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Jeremy Adams DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT Elaine Bowen PROGRAMS COORDINATOR Beatrice Wolert-Weese
Cover· TriPine Art Nouveau 209gsm (781b), Text. TriP1ne Silk 157gsm (106 b) Printer: Yon Art Printing (South Korea) ISBN-13: 978-0-9791843·1·4 ISBN-10: 0-9791843-1·2
PROGRAMS ASSISTANT Kara Smith
2006-2007
CUE ART
FOUNDATION
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