Geoffrey Hendricks | About Earth and Sky Exhibition Catalogue

CURATED BY SUR RODNEY (SUR)

31 MARCH - 21 APRIL 2013

GEOFFREY HENDRICKS | About Earth and Sky

GEOFFREY HENDRICKS | ABOUT EARTH AND SKY A solo exhibition of new work created by Hendricks at the Nirox Foundation residency at the Cradle of Humankind during a residency in early 2011 and more recently in early 2013 will be presented in March 2013 at NIROXprojects, Arts on Main, MABONENG PRECINCT, Johannesburg.

This cumulative exhibition of the two residencies will feature a comprehensive look at Hendricks’ work as a whole but with a focus of work that has been created during his stay in South Africa.

Hendricks will also be redoing a 1969 happening/performance piece, discussed in full in his book, Critical Mass.

Also this fall he will be recreating his 1969 Happening The Sky is the Limit at the Princeton Art Museum in conjunction with their exhibition New Jersey as Non-Site.

The exhibition opens on Sunday 31 March and will continue until the 21st of April 2013.

Detail and installation views of the installation process | About Earth and Sky | NIROXprojects | 2013

Detail and installation views of Three Ladders & Corrugated Metal | Installation of three ladders with attached watercolors, roots, rocks, twine, feathers, enamel pitcher, rusted corrugated roofing, and wooden beams | Dimensions Variable | Geoffrey Hendricks | 2013

Installation views of Cut Chair with Roots | Cut chair with two double sided watercolors, twine and roots | 164 x 37 x 4cm | Geoffrey Hendricks | 2011

Detail and installation views of Slate & Watercolor Wall #8 (Nirox) | 55 slates and 53 watercolors | 196 x 433cm | Geoffrey Hendricks | 2013

BIOGRAPHY (2013) Geoffrey Hendricks, most renowned for his artwork with clouds, headstands, and cooking delicious macrobiotic meals, was born in Littleton, New Hampshire in 1931. He attended Amherst College, Cooper Union Art School and Columbia University, where he got his masters degree in 1962. Since the mid-60s he has been active with Fluxus, and when Happenings, Fluxus and Pop Art were just getting underway, he had the idea of “painting sky on everything.” His first show of sky work was at Bianchini Gallery, New York in 1966, followed by Tokyo Gallery (1968). He is sometimes referred to as “Cloudsmith.”

Solo exhibitions of his work have been presented at the Egon Schiele Art Centrum in Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic; Galerie Esplanade, Bad Ischl, Austria; UC Santa Cruz Art Gallery in California; and the Pavel Zoubok Gallery in New York City all in 2006; and at UnimediaModern, Genoa, Italy and Galerie Etage, Münster, Germany in 2008. A Canadian retrospective, Between Earth & Sky (in knowing one, one will know the other) organized by the Confederation Art Centre, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in 2003 traveled to the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 2004 and the Art Gallery of Windsor (Ontario) in 2006. His earlier retrospective, Day into Night, went to museums in Scandinavia and Poland in 1993 and 1994.

He has participated in numerous group shows and performances in Europe, Asia and North America, including the most important Fluxus exhibitions and festivals from Happenings & Fluxus, Kunstverein, Cologne (1970), and 1962 Wiesbaden FLUXUS 1982, Wiesbaden, Germany (1982), on to the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Fluxus at the Museum in Wiesbaden, Germany in Sepember 2012, and at m.a.x. Museo in Chiasso, Switzerland earlier in 2012. As well as Fluxus Continue 1963-2003 in Nice, France, and Fluxus East that opened in Berlin in 2007 traveling through Eastern Europe and on to Scandinavia in 2010. July 2010 he participated in Fluxus Banquet II in Lodz, Poland, and March 2011 he has a residency at the Nirox Foundation in South Africa. In 2003 Hendricks curated Critical Mass, Happenings, Fluxus, Performance, Intermedia and Rutgers University, 1958-1972 at the Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA, and the Mason Gross Art Galleries, New Brunswick, NJ, together with a restaging of George Maciunas’ Flux-Mass.

His catalogue for this exhibition, C. Carr has called “an invaluable addition to avant-garde history.” He is Professor Emeritus of Visual Art at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he taught from1956 to 2004. In addition to this exhibition at the NIROXprojects he will have a solo exhibition at Galerie Etage, Münster, Germany in September 2013. He lives and works in New York City and Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada together with his partner and sometimes collaborator, Sur Rodney (Sur).

(l-r) Installation view of AutoTube / Full Moon I | AutoTube / Full Moon II | AutoTube / Full Moon III | Rubber inner tube with two watercolors and twine | 92 x 62 x 15cm | Geoffrey Hendricks | 2013

(l-r) Installation view of TR78A / Full Moon I | TR78A / Full Moon II | TR78A / Full Moon III | Rubber inner tube with watecolor and twine | 90 x 90 x 25cm | Geoffrey Hendricks | 2013

(l-r) Installation view of 7•50R16 Journey of the Full Moon I | 7•50R16 Journey of the Full Moon II | Rubber inner tube with four watercolors and twine | 140 x 70 x 16cm | Geoffrey Hendricks | 2013

Detail and installation views of Dream Ladder | Makeshift ladder with three watercolors and artists graphite inscriptions on wood | 260 x 60 x 8cm | Geoffrey Hendricks | 2013

(l-r with Installation view at the end) of 7•50R16 Journey of the Full Moon III | 7•50R16 Journey of the Full Moon IV | 7•50R16 Journey of the Full Moon V | Rubber inner tube with four watercolors and twine 140 x 70 x 16cm | Geoffrey Hendricks | 2013

(l-r) Installation view of Small Tire I | Night/Day/Night | Small Tire II | Rubber inner tube with two watercolors | Faggots, twine, three watercolors | 72 x 50 x 11cm | 27 x 75cm | Geoffrey Hendricks | 2013

Installation view Night/Day/Night | Faggots, twine, three watercolors | 27 x 75cm | Geoffrey Hendricks | 2013

Detail and installation views of Complimentary Chairs | Two cut chairs, twine, faggots, four double sided watercolors | 220 x 112 x 80cm | Geoffrey Hendricks | 2013

Detail and installation views of South African Chair | Chair, glass, laser printed text, twine, three double sided watercolors, rocks | 73 x 42 x 40cm | Geoffrey Hendricks | 2011

Detail and installation views of HEADSTAND ROW | Digital point mounted on Museum Board | each 44 x 28cm | Geoffrey Hendricks | 2011

(l-r) Headstand (South Africa/National Gallery Cape Town) | Headstand (South Africa/Studio) | Headstand (South Africa/Headstand with Bush) | Digital point mounted on Museum Board | each 44 x 28cm Geoffrey Hendricks | 2011

(l-r) Headstand (South Africa/Head in Grass) | Headstand (South Africa/Circle of Rocks) | Headstand (South Africa/Hammetjie Beach) | Digital point mounted on Museum Board | each 44 x 28cm Geoffrey Hendricks | 2011

(l-r) Headstand (South Africa/Among Cape Rocks) | Headstand (South Africa/Studio Court Yard) | Headstand (South Africa/Nirox Pavillion) | Digital point mounted on Museum Board | each 44 x 28cm Geoffrey Hendricks | 2011

(l-r) Headstand (South Africa/Grass/Nirox) | Headstand (South Africa/Lilies) | Headstand (South Africa/Phone call to MoMA) | Digital point mounted on Museum Board | each 44 x 28cm Geoffrey Hendricks | 2011

WITH T HANK S TO SU R RO D N EY ( SU R) AN D G EO F F REY H EN D RICKS For further information please contact NIROXprojects curator: Neil Nieuwoudt at +27 72 350 4326 or via email at neil.nieuwoudt@gmail.com NIROXprojects | ARTS ON MAIN | MABONENG PRECINCT | JOHANNESBURG 249 Fox Street, cnr Main Rd, Arts On Main +27 72 350 4326 www.niroxarts.com Catalogue Layout and Design: Neil Nieuwoudt