White Columns Online #1:

Full House

curated by Elizaveta Shneyderman

January 14–March 4, 2017 Online
A tightly cropped photograph of a person wearing an orange skirt suit, pictured from behind with a dog to their left. The dog wears a pink hood or head covering.

Dolly Faibyshev
Orange Lady and Boxer, 2010
Photography
20 × 40 in.
Courtesy of the artist

A geometric, abstract painting. The left half is light green with a pill shaped field of negative space filled with vertical stripes of color. The left side is dark green with pill shaped objects that blend into the background.

Dustin London
One Year, 2016
Oil on canvas
42 × 35 in.
Courtesy of the artist

A painting composed of squiggly line drawings of hands making various gestures, superimposed over a dark landscape. The work is framed only at the bottom and left edges.

Paul Rouphail
Rondo, 2016
Oil on linen
35.25 × 49 in.
Courtesy of the artist

A small abstract drawing on white paper composed of two concentric ovals and some squiggly lines, resembling perhaps a person’s face and hair.

Toru Hayashi
Equivocal Landscape Vol. 63-45/8.12.2014
Micro pigment ink on paper
5.9 × 8.25 in.
Courtesy of the artist

5 Paul Rouphail

Paul Rouphail
Schematic (1, 2, 3, 4), 2016
Gouache on paper in artist’s frame
22.5 × 22.5 in.
Courtesy of the artist and Smart Objects, Los Angeles

6 Tatyana Gubash

Tatyana Gubash
“The Great Indoors”, 2016
Oil on linen
12 × 12 in.
Courtesy of the artist

A painted collage depicting a dog playing with a pink object, perhaps a bow or a piece of meat, seemingly placed on the lower back of a prostrated figure in a leotard or swimsuit.

Grant Foster
Porc, 2016
Collage, glue, pigment on canvas
80x70cm
Courtesy of the artist

A mannequin laid out in a sand-filled recess in the center of a large black and silver table partially covered with glass panels. Several metal rods stick out of the mannequin. Various rocks and shoots of tall grass are arranged on the table.

Alex Ito
I’ve Only Ever Known Evil, 2016
Mechanical mannequin, glass, wood, aluminum, resin
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist

An amorphous computer-generated mass of humanoid figures inside a dark grotto or cave. Light shines through an opening to the left.

Jonathan Ehrenberg
Still from ‘Bad Tools’, 2016
HD video
2:37 minutes
Courtesy of the artist

A narrow white pyramid with a rounded top. It is plain except for a small embroidered element depicting a claw and three gashes, as if something is tearing its way out from within the object.

Gary Preston Schmitt
You Are Out There All Alone, 2016
Wood, vinyl, embroidery
90 in. × 43 in. × 18.5 in.
Courtesy of the artist

Close-up view of an embroidered depiction of three sharp animal claws, perhaps feline, tearing through a surface from the side opposite to the viewer.

Gary Preston Schmitt
You Are Out There All Alone (detail), 2016
Wood, vinyl, embroidery
90 in. × 43 in. × 18.5 in.
Courtesy of the artist

Children’s wallpaper patterned with illustrations of alligators, monkeys, lions and rhinos, set in a wide cardboard frame beside a photograph of a person holding up a leopard carcass.

Christian Weidner
LION Killer !, 2016
Mixed media collage
25 × 38 cm
Courtesy of the artist

A collage composed of a photograph of a woman in a tight leather outfit posing as if pointing a gun. The photograph bears residue from black paint, and is affixed to a long, slightly distressed paper surface that is also painted black.

Christian Weidner
contemporary girl power, 2014
Oil / Paper on canvas
37 × 18 cm
Courtesy of the artist

Participating Artists

Jonathan Ehrenberg
Dolly Faibyshev
Grant Foster
Tatyana Gubash
Toru Hayashi
Alex Ito
Dustin London
Paul Rouphail
Gary Preston Schmitt
Christian Weidner

Exhibition Description

Full House is an amalgam of mangled forms, an online inventory concerned with “Thingification”. To quote feminist-informed theorist Karen Barad:

Thingification—the turning of relations into “things,” “entities,” “relata”—infects much of the way we understand the world and our relationship to it. Why do we think that the existence of relations requires relata? Does the persistent distrust of nature, materiality, and the body that pervades much of contemporary theorizing and a sizable amount of the history of Western thought feed off of this cultural proclivity? (Barad, Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter, pg. 130)

Trend forecasters correctly predicted the era of post-postmodern symbolic relata to end in 2042. That year, the Westminster Kennel Club released a new set of breed standards accounting for the seventeen new American Pit Bull Terrier-based breeds. The unanticipated difficulty of phenotype mapping in domestic dogs has led to an increase in genetic activism; protestors with signs that read “BREEDING IS RUFF, MY MUTT IS PAWFECT” and “EUGENICS IS MUTILATING OUR BEST FRIENDS” gather around kennel clubs across the continent to spurn pedigree. Pro-Mix party manifestos begin: Given that language historically configures human subjectivity in the legacy of the West, nonhuman agency emerges out of irony! Historical evidence suggests the activists are barking up the wrong tree.

Still, the Pro-Mix manifesto sounds more infatuated with jargon than concerned about pup-goodwill:
Discernment consistently renders a subject, a subject.
Any apparatus for seeing deserves scrutiny.
The apparatus of seeing has the potential to refute theoretical exclusivity if being empathic is conflated with making assumptions!
An empathy infrastructure may henceforth consider this componentry: assumptions all over the place bodies in space.

Others are not actors. Dogs are not surrogates.  To be especially concerned at the precise intersection of language and signification is to consider exchange in its symbolic processes, to do due diligence to arbitrary factors. Still, it’s not quite right.

– Elizaveta Shneyderman

Elizaveta Shneyderman is an independent curator, artist, writer living in New York.

This exhibition is the first in a series of online exhibitions; this exhibition was curated exclusively from White Columns’ Artists Registry.

For more information: registry.whitecolumns.org

A tightly cropped photograph of a person wearing an orange skirt suit, pictured from behind with a dog to their left. The dog wears a pink hood or head covering.
A geometric, abstract painting. The left half is light green with a pill shaped field of negative space filled with vertical stripes of color. The left side is dark green with pill shaped objects that blend into the background.
A painting composed of squiggly line drawings of hands making various gestures, superimposed over a dark landscape. The work is framed only at the bottom and left edges.
A small abstract drawing on white paper composed of two concentric ovals and some squiggly lines, resembling perhaps a person’s face and hair.
5 Paul Rouphail
6 Tatyana Gubash
A painted collage depicting a dog playing with a pink object, perhaps a bow or a piece of meat, seemingly placed on the lower back of a prostrated figure in a leotard or swimsuit.
A mannequin laid out in a sand-filled recess in the center of a large black and silver table partially covered with glass panels. Several metal rods stick out of the mannequin. Various rocks and shoots of tall grass are arranged on the table.
An amorphous computer-generated mass of humanoid figures inside a dark grotto or cave. Light shines through an opening to the left.
A narrow white pyramid with a rounded top. It is plain except for a small embroidered element depicting a claw and three gashes, as if something is tearing its way out from within the object.
Close-up view of an embroidered depiction of three sharp animal claws, perhaps feline, tearing through a surface from the side opposite to the viewer.
Children’s wallpaper patterned with illustrations of alligators, monkeys, lions and rhinos, set in a wide cardboard frame beside a photograph of a person holding up a leopard carcass.
A collage composed of a photograph of a woman in a tight leather outfit posing as if pointing a gun. The photograph bears residue from black paint, and is affixed to a long, slightly distressed paper surface that is also painted black.

Dolly Faibyshev Orange Lady and Boxer, 2010 Photography 20 × 40 in. Courtesy of the artist (A tightly cropped photograph of a person wearing an orange skirt suit, pictured from behind with a dog to their left. The dog wears a pink hood or head covering.)

Dustin London One Year, 2016 Oil on canvas 42 × 35 in. Courtesy of the artist (A geometric, abstract painting. The left half is light green with a pill shaped field of negative space filled with vertical stripes of color. The left side is dark green with pill shaped objects that blend into the background.)

Paul Rouphail Rondo, 2016 Oil on linen 35.25 × 49 in. Courtesy of the artist (A painting composed of squiggly line drawings of hands making various gestures, superimposed over a dark landscape. The work is framed only at the bottom and left edges.)

Toru Hayashi Equivocal Landscape Vol. 63-45/8.12.2014 Micro pigment ink on paper 5.9 × 8.25 in. Courtesy of the artist (A small abstract drawing on white paper composed of two concentric ovals and some squiggly lines, resembling perhaps a person’s face and hair.)

Paul Rouphail Schematic (1, 2, 3, 4), 2016 Gouache on paper in artist’s frame 22.5 × 22.5 in. Courtesy of the artist and Smart Objects, Los Angeles (A small square painting depicting four framed blue panels with linework resembling geometric diagrams superimposed over a landscape. The painting sits in the center of a significantly larger frame, and the numbers 1 through 4 are written beside each corner in squiggly gold lines.)

Tatyana Gubash “The Great Indoors”, 2016 Oil on linen 12 × 12 in. Courtesy of the artist (An abstract painting composed of thick, layered swirls of light blue and pink paint, rendered with visible brushstrokes. A dark red swirl in the shape of the letter “e” sticks out at the center of the composition.)

Grant Foster Porc, 2016 Collage, glue, pigment on canvas 80x70cm Courtesy of the artist (A painted collage depicting a dog playing with a pink object, perhaps a bow or a piece of meat, seemingly placed on the lower back of a prostrated figure in a leotard or swimsuit.)

Alex Ito I’ve Only Ever Known Evil, 2016 Mechanical mannequin, glass, wood, aluminum, resin Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist (A mannequin laid out in a sand-filled recess in the center of a large black and silver table partially covered with glass panels. Several metal rods stick out of the mannequin. Various rocks and shoots of tall grass are arranged on the table.)

Jonathan Ehrenberg Still from ‘Bad Tools’, 2016 HD video 2:37 minutes Courtesy of the artist (An amorphous computer-generated mass of humanoid figures inside a dark grotto or cave. Light shines through an opening to the left.)

Gary Preston Schmitt You Are Out There All Alone, 2016 Wood, vinyl, embroidery 90 in. × 43 in. × 18.5 in. Courtesy of the artist (A narrow white pyramid with a rounded top. It is plain except for a small embroidered element depicting a claw and three gashes, as if something is tearing its way out from within the object.)

Gary Preston Schmitt You Are Out There All Alone (detail), 2016 Wood, vinyl, embroidery 90 in. × 43 in. × 18.5 in. Courtesy of the artist (Close-up view of an embroidered depiction of three sharp animal claws, perhaps feline, tearing through a surface from the side opposite to the viewer.)

Christian Weidner LION Killer !, 2016 Mixed media collage 25 × 38 cm Courtesy of the artist (Children’s wallpaper patterned with illustrations of alligators, monkeys, lions and rhinos, set in a wide cardboard frame beside a photograph of a person holding up a leopard carcass.)

Christian Weidner contemporary girl power, 2014 Oil / Paper on canvas 37 × 18 cm Courtesy of the artist (A collage composed of a photograph of a woman in a tight leather outfit posing as if pointing a gun. The photograph bears residue from black paint, and is affixed to a long, slightly distressed paper surface that is also painted black.)