13′. Never odd or even Steffani Jemison, Talon Gustafson A collaboration with Good Weather at Syndicate, Cologne 3 to 17 June (opening Monday 12 June, 6-9 PM)
Images / Text
For Never odd or even, Syndicate invites Good Weather (Arkansas, USA) – in its first European venture – to loop their programmes together. Steffani Jemison and Talon Gustafson gently merge into the prior exhibition’s framework, folding over both galleries' time-space to reveal a parallel existence.
Over the first week the project gradually replaces the previous exhibition, leading toward the ‘opening’ in the middle of its duration, then fading away in the following days.
Jemison highlights ways the foundations of progress are inextricably built upon a compromised socio-political system, ‘[a] fantasy of a free and open exchange of ideas among equal, liberal subjects.’ Through her work, she identifies the restrictions enacted by the structures of privilege that prohibit non-white bodies from full participation in the public discourse, then proposes alternatives to defy these conventions.
Gustafson riffs on the temporal transition through tattered remnants of denim trousers and commercial water and cola packaging. These works point to the changing states of time--age, body, mind, agency--even as the facts repeat. His top ten lists reflect on the distance between people and their knowledge, that in order to be quantified these references must be past ones experienced by a different person, in a former capacity.
The chronological rupture proposed by Gustafson and Jemison, and initiated by both galleries, identifies that the hegemonic (cis male, white, western) power base is no more enlightened or liberal today than previously. Present injustices and marginalization were always so, and regularly pass through recurring, interwoven cycles of renewal. No matter the number of attempts or institutional memory deficit, as long as the fundamentals of society don’t change, neither will the result.
Steffani Jemison (b. 1981 Berkeley, California USA) is based in Brooklyn. She studied at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA, 2009) and Columbia University (BA, 2003). Jemison recently participated in residencies including the Rauschenberg Residency (2016), the Smack Mellon Artist Studio Program (2014–2015), and the Studio Museum in Harlem (2012-2013). In 2015, she presented Promise Machine, commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art. She has recently exhibited at institutions including the Brooklyn Museum and the New Museum, New York; LAXART, Los Angeles; the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen; Mass MoCA, Massachusetts; and the festival steirischer herbst, Graz. Forthcoming solo exhibitions include Jeu de Paume, Paris; Western Front, Vancouver; and CAPC Bordeaux. Jemison has also contributed to recent gallery shows at Laurel Gitlen, Bridget Donahue, and Sprüth Magers Los Angeles.
Talon Gustafson (b. 1977 Mokena, Illinois USA) was raised in Centennial, Wyoming and is based in Brooklyn. He studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art (MFA, 2010), Rhode Island School of Design, and Minneapolis College of Art and Design (BFA, 2000). He recently exhibited with Good Weather at NADA New York 2016 and in Country Husband (Eat M) in North Little Rock; and participated in shows at Sadie Halie Projects, Brooklyn; COOP, Nashville; The Bedfellow's Club, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; Forum Gallery, Bloomfield Hills, MI; and The Waiting Room Gallery, Tokyo. He is co-founder of online arts publication WOW HUH and operates the apartment gallery Culture Room with Ashley Zangle.
Good Weather is a contemporary art gallery based in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Founded in 2011 by Haynes Riley, it is housed within a suburban one-car garage. Its programming focuses on solo exhibitions by emerging artists as well as publishing works that extend from the content and concepts of these shows. The gallery participates in art fairs internationally, including Material Art Fair, Mexico City; NADA New York; NADA Miami Beach; and ARTBandini, Los Angeles. In promoting the relationship between artist and audience, it seeks to provoke a community conversation about diversity in contemporary art in order to encourage greater understanding, challenging local and national values.