SOUTHFIRST
60 N6th
Street Brooklyn, NY 11211 www.southfirst.org ph 718 599 4884
Hilary Harnischfeger and
Fabienne Lasserre
19
September – 26 October, 2008
SOUTHFIRST
is proud to present THE SPLIT WALL, a two-person exhibition of new works by
HILARY HARNISCHFEGER and FABIENNE LASSERRE. The exhibition will be on view at
the gallery from September 19th through October 26th.
There will be a reception held for the artists on September 19th at
7 PM.
LasserreÕs
felt- and linen-based sculptures and HarnischfegerÕs carved paper, ink-stained,
plastic- and mineral- encrusted tableaux share an unconventional set of
influences which incorporate both the legacy of the body-conscious post-minimal
work of the 1970s and the thought experiments in classic science fiction.
Feminist thought flourished in both post-minimal American art and American
science fiction: artists Eva Hesse, Lee Bontecou and authors Ursula LeGuin and
Octavia Butler might be the matriarchs of this exhibition. The works in ÒThe
Split WallÓ explore propositions through material experiments. Lasserre asks,
Òwhat if sight was not of primary importance to an artwork?Ó and the ensuing
series of tactile sculptures emerge from this question. They occupy the gallery
floor, walls and ceiling and hang pendulous or pustulate from an armature which
cites-to-pervert the traditional painted square. HarnischfegerÕs works are
carved out of layer upon layer of stained watercolor paper. They evoke
landscapes from another world replete with valleys laden with minerals and
glass. With an almost scale-shifting attention to detail, HarnischfegerÕs
constructions are a far cry from Robert SmithsonÕs explorations of geology or
minerals-as-material, yet they retain a kinship to his terms of interest and
through the cool, unearthly quality evoked by her use of materials. Her
techniques are based on the often gendered actions of ÒstainingÓ and Òcutting.Ó
Lasserre and Harnischfeger remind us that there is pleasure and play in
material experimentation, but also remind us of the utopian possibility of
critique and subversion inherent in the romance of feminist science fiction.
HILARY
HARNISCHFEGER and FABIENNE LASSERRE both live and work in Brooklyn, NY.
Harnischfeger was born in Melbourne, Australia and graduated with an MFA from
Columbia in 2003. Most recently her work was on view at Neverwork gallery,
where it received notice from both The New York Times and from New York
Magazine. Lasserre was born in Ottowa, Canada. An assistant professor at the
Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and a recent recipient of the Special
Editions Residency Program at the Lower East Side Printshop, she will be
travelling on fellowship to La Curtidur“a, Oaxaca, Mexico beginning in
December.
SOUTHFIRST is
located on 60 N6th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Gallery hours are Friday,
Saturday and Sunday from 1-6 PM and by appointment. Subway: L train to Bedford
Avenue. For more information,
please contact Carolyn Park at 718 599 4884 or info@southfirst.org.