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Artspeak,

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Avigail Moss

Avigail Moss (1983, Los Angeles, CA) is a writer and artist based in Brussels. Her practice explores the relationship between the visual and the semantic. Recent projects include texts and co-organized symposia on contemporary painting and feminism. Moss holds a BA from the University of California, Los Angeles and an MFA in painting from Yale University. From 2009-10 she was a researcher in residence at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, NL, where she investigated the role of epistolary writing in art and literature.

Exhibitions

  • Poste Restante

    JASON DODGE, HADLEY + MAXWELL, ALLISON HRABLUIK, AARON FLINT JAMISON, SAM LEWITT, HEATHER AND IVAN MORISON, AVIGAIL MOSS, PAMELA ROSENKRANZ, DEXTER SINISTER, MATT SHERIDAN SMITH, OSCAR TUAZON
    April 9–May 28, 2011

    <em>Poste Restante</em>, Installation View

    <em>Poste Restante</em>, Installation View

    <em>Poste Restante</em>, Installation View

    <em>Poste Restante</em>

    <em>Poste Restante</em>

    Presenting the work of eleven artists and collaborators, this exhibition refuses to deliver. It offers artworks sent via national postal systems addressed to the gallery as “Poste Restante”. Typically relied upon by travelers and lovers, “Poste Restante” is a request for a post office to hold a letter or package until picked up by its recipient. The works are exhibited as received, in unopened envelopes or parcels, accompanied by any paperwork generated during transit, including customs forms, bills of lading, and pro forma invoices. Delivery is deferred as the packages wait, held by the gallery for a recipient whose identity is unknown.

    Objects are shaped by various encounters with systems of commerce, information, publicity and transportation. Stubbornly resistant to dematerialization, the art object remains local, specific and visible only in certain spaces, while operating in far-flung networks, both physical and immaterial. Guarantors of the exhibition as an exhibition, the art objects in Poste Restante serve as ground for exchanges of immaterial services, writings, and conversations. Through the suspension of delivery we remove the object-in-itself from scrutiny and see in clearer relief the systems the object both calls to life and circulates within.

    The exhibition will travel to further destinations, including both commercial galleries and non-profit spaces, marking out a geographical network of communication and interests analogous to those of the participating artists and organizations. Parallel events, including talks, performances, and publications, will accompany the exhibition at each location.

    Curated by Eric Fredericksen

    Postscript 42: Sophie Brodovitch on Poste Restante (PDF)