NANCY POPP
Klowden Mann, Culver City CA
June 28th- August 9th 2014
This solo exhibition will include large-scale photographic prints of a selection of performance sites in the main gallery space, one adhered as a mural to a wall built specifically for the exhibition, and others mounted on plexiglass, perforated, and strung through with orange mason line that is then interwoven into the existing gallery architecture.
http://klowdenmann.com/nancypopp
Artist Statement
Although I have had an active practice in Los Angeles for close to 15 years, I rarely show in commercial gallery settings. It was a challenge to translate my common forms of performance, intervention and public action into two-dimensional representational works. I find representation (of any kind) inherently problematic, which is why my work takes the route of direct action.
Whatever contexts I present within I try to keep a slightly antagonistic stance towards, because a critical stance is crucial to maintaining some sense of perspective on a wider view. This includes the context of the gallery you find yourself standing within. Most recently I’ve taken this stance in relation to re-development or architectural markers.
The scale of resources and capital poured into such enormous projects begs the question, “Who benefits?” This applies to the re-gentrification of the downtown Los Angeles historic core, the transformation of San Francisco, and the investment of public monies into stadium construction for the World Cup in Brazil. Architecture houses bodies, but it also directly embodies capital, power and political agendas.
A singular body, particularly a female body, in relation to these sites, particularly while they are still forming, still permeable, still able to be entered and examined, and the transformative use of the Mason Line upend the established ‘grid’ and dominant structure of architecture. This is the critical stance, the outside-the-dialectic “third space”, the possibility, however small or individualized, of change.
Closing Performance, August 9th
In showcasing Popp’s engagement and actions in architectural constructions and spaces, a large wall has been constructed in the gallery; left unfinished from the back, it is the ground for a photo mural of a potential performance site in Dallas, TX. During the opening performance Popp perforated the wall to create a concept sketch for a physical intervention using Mason Line.
For the closing performance, Popp will deconstruct the wall using hand tools. Pieces of the mural will be cut out of the wall, eventually breaking it apart where it can no longer function as a barrier or physical plane in the space.
Popp’s physical performance interventions in white-walled spaces address the deconstruction of such spaces and the creation of alternative paths or channels of movement. In Corner (2007) she built and deconstructed a confined exhibition space with construction materials and seamless photo paper, perforating, re-constructing, and re-perforating the planes, conflating interior and exterior spaces. Her intervention at the Armory Northwest in 2008 included the ripping apart of a building slated for demolition. Later works using seamless paper (Wall Space-Three Women, Artist Curated Projects, 2009; Cut Performance-LACE, 2010; Aperture-Venice Arts, 2013) have also reconfigured and altered existing gallery spaces using seamless photo paper to create temporary architectural structures that are then demolished.
Drawing from the vein of Gordon Matta-Clark and Henrique Oliveira, Popp’s performance actions continue the dialogue between exteriority and interiority. Her closing performance at Klowden Mann continues this exploration of creating new openings within gallery and architectural spaces, using the body as the vehicle for movement and change.
Special Thanks:
Paul Cheng, Heyward Hart, Joseph Hill, Adrian Rivas
Rebecca Ripple, Gina Osterloh, Bill Brunell, Lindsay Buchman, Annie Shaw, Calvin Lee, Dane Johnson, and the staff at Klowden Mann Gallery