“post-excavation”

The exhibition “post-excavation” takes on the moment following disinterment as its subject. Each of the exhibiting artists’ works concerns an uncovering—though none are quite about discovery, they are rather about display itself. For instance, Emanuele Becheri presents two series of found objects that share the title “32a Penton Place, Southwark, London SE17 3JT, 17 September 2010,” marking where and when the materials were found. One consists of eight old, crumpled issues of Frieze and the other of five worn-out vinyl records including Dolly Parton’s Greatest Hits. As artifacts of disintegration, they’re brought back to a place within culture by an attempted resuscitation.

Dick Hedlund’s crude canvases, titled Omni, 2013, Arges 2, and Arges 3, both 2014, are pushed, stretched, and pierced with needles to the point where the fabric creates illusions of structure, reminiscent of terrestrial strata, as if feigning the look of lines in Earth marked by time. Lea Porsager’s installation Celestial Body—Disrupted Nerve Fluid and Crossed Shock Waves, 2011, consists of two metal poles horizontally suspended, crossing at eye level and effectively interrupting the space, along with two framed wall-mounted texts that expound on cosmic phenomena and magnetic fields. The texts manage to be mystifying yet elucidating, mixing symbols like crossed circles with lines such as “There had to be a bigger leap, a greater chasm of estrangement, out of reach and out of bounds for the thinking, explanatory mind. There would be no subject, just object,” which echoes the poles’ imposing, objective presence. As a whole, the works in the exhibition suggest that some things resist vision, like magnetic lines, and what is uncovered must find a new form of display.