"Montage: Unmonumental Online," Rhizome's portion of the New Museum's four part exhibition "Unmonumental," opens this week online and in the galleries. "Unmonumental" is an exploration of the various methods of disassembly in contemporary art practice, and with the installment of "Montage," the exhibition will examine the artistic appropriation of diverse materials from the web. An international group of fourteen emerging and midcareer artists were selected by Rhizome Executive Director Lauren Cornell and Rhizome Curator-at-Large Marisa Olson for the show, including Michael Bell-Smith, John Michael Boling, William Boling, Charles Broskoski, Jessica Ciocci, Petra Cortright, Chris Coy, Cao Fei, Kenneth Hung, Nina Katchadourian, Oliver Laric, Olia Lialina, Guthrie Lonergan, and Paul Slocum. Cutting and pasting, breaking apart and re-assembling, ripping and remixing, the participating artists extend the radical practice of collage to the internet, demonstrating how previously tried techniques can engender rich, new artistic practices. Their works incorporate varied formal elements: digital images, sound, video, or code. The internet is a veritable theme park for commerce, popular entertainment, and self-marketing. Rather than dismiss this creative space for these reasons, the artists in "Montage" embrace these unique conditions. The logic behind the selection of the work argues that an artist's engagement with this system and simultaneous refusal to entrench commerce is among the most powerful tactics available to them. "Montage" is available online until April 6, and runs in the New Museum's galleries until March 30th.
Join Rhizome Saturday February 16 for a talk with a selection of the artists included in "Montage." Beginning at 3pm in the New Museum's auditorium, Rhizome Curator-at-Large Marisa Olson will lead a conversation with Michael Bell-Smith, William Boling, Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung and Nina Katchadourian. Each artist will briefly present their work and join in a roundtable discussion of their diverse approaches to practices of appropriating, sampling, remixing, and otherwise responding to found material online. The event is free with Museum admission.
Image: Nina Katchadourian, The Continuum of Cute, 2007