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JONAH FREEMAN + JUSTIN LOWE
The Octopus
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe The Octopus
May 12- June 23, 2012
Opening Reception
Saturday, May 12, 2012, 4 - 7pm
Country Club is pleased to announce the forthcoming
exhibition The Octopus by Jonah Freeman and Justin
Lowe. This will be their first exhibition in Chicago and
is presented in collaboration with Andrew Rafacz
Gallery. Freeman and Lowe present new work from
their evolving constellation of narratives surrounding
The San San Metroplex and its hypertrophic urban
conditions. Cactus/crystal assemblages, mirror
paintings of smashed sheetrock walls, custom
wallpaper designs and collages from the counter
culture periodical Artichoke Underground illustrate
a fragmented view of 20th century technocratic
civilization. The Octopus and the accompanying
exhibition Pale Hotel will focus on three specific and
tangentially connected historical events:
1966: Neuroscientist Louisa Cohen and biochemist
Herbert Boyer successfully create the first Plant/
Mineral hybrid. In a southern California laboratory,
sodium chloride from a halite crystal and the
genome of a night-blooming cereus cactus are
spliced together to create a new species known
as the Arthrocereus-Halide or Athuride. This
now legendary event yields literally thousands of
genetically engineered biological and non-biological
hybrids that are used in everything from lithium
batteries and microchips to breakfast cereals and
organic wine. Although heralded as one of the
major achievements of modern science, this now
widespread practice is not without its detractors. In
the late twentieth century, criticisms of genetically
modified organisms (GMO) and their potential adverse
effects on the naturally occurring ecosystem lead to
intense regulation of the production of plant/mineral
hybrids. As a result, an independent black market of
genetically engineered hybrids begins to emerge as a
veritable shadow economy.
2004: The Pale Hotel takes formation in a warren
of derelict Victorian high rise buildings. It is to be
another fashionable renovation of urban decay aiming
to attract the youth migrating to urban centers in
hopes of joining the burgeoning creative class. The
development was to be on the forefront of technology
with doors that talk, lights that adjust brightness
in relation to noise levels and an omnipresent
concierge service comprised partly of artificial
intelligence. In the summer of 2008, as the project
is still under construction, the subprime mortgage
crisis hits North America, completely stalling the real
estate development market. The Pale Hotel halts
construction and sits empty waiting for an injection of
capital to continue. Within six months, squatters and
transients reclaim the building. The would-be luxury
dwellings are carved up and reconfigured into mazes
of interconnected cells and corridors. The computer
system that was to power the "smart structure" is
hacked and reworked into an open source network
that connects to other abandoned smart structures.
Over the next three years, the real estate market
remains dormant and the smart structures of the
San San become home to a black market economy
dealing in everything from pirated software and
designer drugs, to genetically modified pets and
organic foods.
1923: The Artichoke Underground forms as a
nonsensical periodical aimed at, in the words of
co-founders Raoul Arcade and Amanda Winter,
"Destroying the techno-structure." The first issues
of the magazine are literally a random selection of
images that have no discernible connection. This
is said to be an articulation of the collapse of the
narrative universe into an endless, monotonous
media stream. Despite a general sense of rebellion,
it is unclear as to whether Artichoke Underground
is actually being critical, or just simply representing
the stated condition. The organization continues
for seven years with sporadic publications, events
and media pranks. The onset of World War Two
dissipates the group and all activities are suspended.
AU resurfaces in the mid-1950s presumably with
the same members but with a different purpose.
This time around the group advocates an odd mix
of technologically augmented mind exploration that
involves a drug-computer synthesis known as "The
Octopus". This is mostly theoretical, but its pages
contain premonitions of the forthcoming computer
dominated consciousness. In the 1960s, AU becomes
the center of the counter cultural rebellion on college
campuses and urban centers. It hosts a series of now
famous media pranks during the 1968 democratic
convention that are considered the birth of modern
political theater. The Artichoke Underground fades
into obscurity in late 1970's.
Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe create large scale
installations of historical and social environments
that explore themes of narrative histories and
dimensional universes. Themes central to their work
include alchemy in modern context and examinations
of counter cultural history. A wide range of works
exists within these sprawling installations ranging
from sculpture, photography, collage, painting,
sound, film, and performance. The Octopus takes an
archaeological-like approach, extracting objects from
the site and presenting them as artifacts from these
explorations.
For additional information please contact:
info@countryclubprojects.com
t +1 312 404 9188
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