Installation
Tuesday, 11 Jul 2006 to Saturday, 15 Jul 2006

Guest curator — Matthew Higgs

Dodie Bellamy

Kathy Acker, the novelist and theorist, died from breast cancer in 1998. Her papers are at Duke, but her clothes and accessories remain in the possession of her executor, Matias Viegener. Dodie Bellamy will display a selection of Kathy Acker's clothes during her residency at New Langton Arts, and on Wednesday, July 12 she will give a presentation, “Digging Through Kathy Acker's Stuff.” Last February while visiting Viegener in Los Angeles, Bellamy rummaged through Acker's extravagant designer wardrobe and wheedled one of her Gautier dresses, and a couple pieces of jewelry from him. Possessing such intimate effects of a woman she wasn't so much friends with as in awe of, Bellamy felt compelled to write it all out. Bellamy meditates upon relics, ghosts, compulsive shopping, archives, make-up, our drive to mythologize the dead, Acker's own self-mythologizing, the struggle among followers to define Acker, bitch fights, and the numina of DNA.

Dodie Bellamy's reading
Wednesday July 12th, 7pm

Dodie Bellamy, Inside Box, color photograph, 2006.
Image courtesy of the artist

Chris Cobb

During his one-week residency at Langton, Chris Cobb creates a lounge area to listen to the music of Devendra Banhart and the Hairy Fairy Band. Cobb, a big fan of Devendra's “freak funk” music, proposes a space that welcomes visitors to listen to the band's albums. It also includes a large number of photographs of them—both in concert and back stage—taken by Cobb.

Chris Cobb, Devendra Banhart and the Hairy Fairy Band, b/w photograph, 2005.
Image courtesy of the artist.

Alexis Georgopoulos

Musician, composer and artist Alexis Georgopoulos presents ARP: CLOUD, occupying the smallest space Kyu Che designed for the exhibition. As such, Georgopoulos has chosen a small idea: to interpret the idea of "Taking a load off" literally. Inviting the gallery visitor to engage in the least demanding way possible, Georgopoulos has placed a feather bed and two speakers in the space to encourage one to remove one's shoes and enter the space for a brief or lengthy respite. Even a nap, if one needs it.

The "Thought Space" can fit up to 3 people lying down. In this soft, almost cocoon-like setting, the music Georgopoulos has composed as ARP will play as a backdrop. The music itself is minimal in its use of Drone, Repetition, Inertia, Tranquility/Tension and is informed by a wide variety of composers, among them Charlemagne Palestine, Ralf Hutter & Florian Schneider-Esleben, Terry Riley, and Franco Battiatio.

Alexis Georgopoulos, Found Alps, collage, 2005.
Image courtesy of the artist.

Kevin Killian

San Francisco writer Kevin Killian re-stages an exhibition presented earlier this Spring at White Columns, New York, Other People's Projects: Dodie Bellamy and Kevin Killian. At White Columns Killian and Bellamy presented a complete run of their pioneering literary 'zine "Mirage/Period(ical)" alongside contributions from some of the artists and writers who have appeared on its pages. At Langton Killian will display 132 issues of the zine, and artworks by a variety of local and international artists.

Dodie Bellamy and Kevin Killian, Other People's Projects: Dodie Bellamy and Kevin Killian, 2006, installation view at New Langton Arts
Image courtesy of the artists.

Mitzi Pederson

Mitzi Pederson creates a new installation that explores ideas of tension, gravity, and systems interconnectivity. Pederson uses the “subterranean space”, which is transformed into a private de-orchestrated piece, where the presence and movements of multiple bodies determines the effects on the space, ranging from calm qualities to periodic audible and visual disruptions.

Mitzi Pederson, Yellow and Orange, 2006.
Image courtesy of the artist and Ratio 3.

BIOS

Matthew Higgs has exhibited internationally since 1992. Recent exhibitions include What Goes Around Comes Around, Murray Guy, New York (2006); Small Object in Film, Video, and Slide Installation, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2005); and Rub Out The Word, D.U.M.B.O. Arts Center, New York (2005). Higgs is a widely published writer and a regular contributor to Artforum magazine: recent-and forthcoming-texts include contributions to publications for Richard Kern, Christian Marclay, John McCaraken, Marilyn Minter, Oliver Paine & Nick Relph, Elizabeth Peyton, amongst others. As a curator he has organized more than 150 exhibitions and projects in Europe, the United States, and Canada. He is the director of White Columns, New York. Higgs is currently based in New York, NY.

Dodie Bellamy's publications include Pink Stream (2004); Cunt-Ups (2001) which received the Firecracker Alternative Book Award for Poetry in 2002; The Letters of Mina Harker (1998), Real: The Letters of Mina Harker and Sam D'Allesandro (1995) and Feminine Hijinx (1990). Exhibitions include Other People's Projects: Mirage, White Columns, New York (2006) and The Backroom, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA (2006). Her writing has been included in many anthologies and catalogues such as Bay Poetics, Pills, Thrills, Chills and Heartache, Best American Erotica 2001 and High Risk. Her essays and book reviews have appeared in The Village Voice, The San Francisco Chronicle, Bookforum, as well as numerous literary journals and web sites. Currently Bellamy is an associate faculty member in the MFA creative writing program at Antioch Los Angeles and a lecturer in the Creative Writing Department of San Francisco State University. Bellamy lives and works in San Francisco, CA.

Chris Cobb's solo and group exhibitions include Everything in a Drawing and Nothing in a Drawing, Triple Base Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2006); Satellite, Manolo Garcia Gallery, Madrid, Spain (2006); Cronyism, Mission 17 Gallery, San Francisco (2006); Art Basel/Aqua, Miami Beach, Florida (2005) and There is Nothing Wrong in This Whole Wide World, Adobe Book Shop, San Francisco, CA (2004). Cobb graduated from University of California, Berkeley (2005). He currently lives and works in San Francisco, CA.

Writer/Musician/Artist Alexis Georgopoulos has been very active in the area where music and art meet. As a member of rhythmic experimentalists Tussle and Out Folk trio The Alps, Georgopoulos has toured the world and released critically acclaimed work. In addition to playing traditional music venues, he's also performed in gallery spaces such as Deitch Projects, Manhattan & Brooklyn; SFMoMA, San Francisco; Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco; Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco; Adobe Bookshop Gallery, San Francisco; as well as Frieze Art Fair, London. He has composed music for sound installations; curated art programs which have included artists such as Simon Evans and Chris Johanson; written on visual art, design and music for international Arts & Culture publications such as i-D, Tokion, The Blow Up and Vice; taken part in various avant-garde workshops; and had numerous deejay residencies. Georgopoulos lives in San Francisco, CA.

Kevin Killian is a poet, novelist, critical essayist and playwright. His recent books include Island of Lost Souls (2003); I Cry Like a Baby (2001); Often with Barbara Guest (2001) and Argento Series (2001). Artist's books include The Kink of Chris Komater, Patricia Sweetow Gallery (1999) and Brother and Sister Retold from Brothers Grimm, pictures by Brett Reichman, Jonathan Hammner Studios, San Francisco, CA (1994). Killian has written numerous plays, the most recent being The Red and Green with Karla Milosevich (2005); Total Eclipse with D-L Alvarez (2004) and The Big Keep (2003). His critical writing has been featured in, among others, SF Camerawork, San Francisco Bay Guardian, NYFA Quarterly, Lambda Book Report and Bookfourm. He edits with Dodie Bellamy the literary and art zine Mirage #4/ Period[ical]. Killian lives and works in San Francisco, CA.

Mitzi Pederson's has had exhibitions at White Columns, New York (2006), and at Ratio 3, San Francisco, CA (2005). Her work has been included in several group exhibitions including Snap, Crackle, Pop, PlaySpace Gallery, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA (2006); overundersidewaysdown, Queen's Nails Annex, San Francisco, CA (2006); Bay Area Bazaar, Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery, Portland, OR (2005); Gazing Upwards, Adobe Books, San Francisco, CA (2004); Color Wheel Oblivion, Marella Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy (2004); Land of the Free, Jack Handley Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2004). Pederson was the recipient of the 2006 SECA Art Award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She graduated with an M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from the California College of the Arts in 2004. Pederson currently lives and works in San Francisco, CA.

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