Alexis Blake The hole is greater than the sum of its parts. 2009. Two holes in floor, rational choicetheory equations, print on board, sound.
A cut above the rest. 2009. Print on board.
Sol LeWitt’s Map of Amsterdam. 2009. Print on board.
One of the main questions Alexis Blake investigates in her work is about the mechanisms of subjectivization and identity creation within a collective or a group. She conceives her films, installations, sculptures and performances as spaces in which it becomes possible to expose and elude the power structures in relationships between the individuals and the collective. As a resident artist of RED A.i.R., a project attached to the new city cultural policy expressed by the slogan "I Amsterdam", the artist felt that her position was heavily framed by the logic of this branding, a logic that - as we read in the “I Amsterdam Manifesto” - tends to include all cultural production happening in the city as an expression of the city. In her investigation into the contradictory position in which an artist is expected to show creativity she focused on the concept of choice. At the end of July the artist organized a series of focus groups entitled Perceptions of Choice at 'de Bouwkeet' of the Stedelijk Museum to which she invited professionals involved in the creation of new images for the city of Amsterdam. The participants – media professionals, politicians, intellectuals, artists and curators – were shown a series of images, video-clips and texts as examples of how the rhetoric of choice is used to communicate either personal or collective values and ideals. In the final presentation, Blake will present a selection of material from the focus groups alongside The hole is greater than the sum of its parts, a new installation based on recent conversations she had with the philosopher Michael Franke, who used rational choice and game theory to theorize Blake’s position in this residency. As part of the public talks, Blake will present both parts of this research under the title IN/OUT/EITHER/NEITHER, Reflections of a Choice.
Special thanks to the Fonds BKVB.
Biography: Alexis Blake (b.1981, Pittsburgh, PA, USA) lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She received her BA from St. Olaf College in the US in 2004 and her MA in Fine Art from the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, NL in 2007.
Her solo/group exhibitions include:
Truth and Other Tales. CBK Zuid Oost Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2008.
Entertaining the Modernists. Zwaanshals, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2008
Knowing Nothing of Agility. TENT., Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2007.
A Game for Today’s Heroes. 20Eventi, Toffia, Italy, 2007. |
