Never Very Far Apart curated by Ryan Inouye Featuring Terry Chatkupt, Michelle Dizon and Camilo Ontiveros, Jennifer Hayashida and Benj Gerdes, Adriana Lara, Elana Mann, RJ Messineo April 29 – June 27, 2010

631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, California USA 90012 Visit www.redcat.org or call +1 213 237 2800 for more information Gallery Hours: noon-6pm or intermission, closed Mondays Never Very Far Apart

The exhibition Never Very Far Apart brings together Pre-dating the multi-national conglomerates and behind- structured as a duet—an orderly back and forth between sparsely populated landscapes, the artist’s adds voiceover six projects that cross the poetic and political ground the-scene maneuverings of the current economic crisis, Mack’s recollections and Mann’s performance— narrative, contemplating how his own personal recol- between the individual and the group, the local and the Kreuger transformed his family’s matchstick business ultimately excavates the compounded physical and lections may resonate with other’s memories, walking a global, this moment in time and that place in history. by establishing large-scale production and distribution psychological terrain that stretches between the two. line between the familiar and the foreign. The intimate Proceeding from the particular conditions in which they facilities and raising capital to merge with or acquire register of these videos explore what it means to be at live and work, these artists explore distance as both competing companies and those in related industries. Although working through a different vocabulary, home, moving through the internal mechanisms that border and bridge—considering how a position may also Between 1917–1932, Kreuger borrowed money at low Adriana Lara’s practice also proceeds from a simple underlie notions of belonging. parallel or intersect with disparate places or distant rates on U.S. markets and loaned these funds to national though sincere desire to create conditions for dialogue. times. The exhibition’s title acknowledges a responsibility governments to leverage market control. At the height Often with a playful touch, the artist challenges notions RJ Messineo’s practice as a painter stems from quiet and to our immediate surroundings while suggesting that of his power, Kreuger stood at the helm of over 200 of authorship and originality in art. These interests are continual acknowledgment of her immediate surround- the parameters, defining these relationships extend companies and setup matchstick monopolies in at least foregrounded in her involvement with Mexico City-based ings. As of late, the artist has worked with materials farther than we can presently see, experience or articu- 34 countries. art office Perros Negros, which she co-founded with likely to be found around the house, in the back of a late. As a constellation of works in performance, moving Agustina Ferreyra and Fernando Mesta. In addition to garage or a neglected yard. By using mirror, window image, painting and printed matter, the exhibition Through contemporary footage shot in two Swedish working with the office to organize a number of large- screen and wooden lattice in recent works, Messineo considers what material ground emerges when moments Match factories in operation since the 19th century, scale residency and exhibition projects, Lara also serves throws into relief the contingency of the painting’s are thought together that usually stand apart. Populus Tremula follows the manufacturing process, as editor of its publication Pazmaker—a free, Spanish/ surface and the limits of its frame. Working in and which beyond the conversion to a fully-automated English, tri-fold poster/zine that gathers authors across against the potentials and problems of painting, the artist The exhibition includes two collaborative projects, both system, has changed little over the past hundred years. various places, times and disciplines. explores a method of working that raises fundamental of which contemplate the possibility of revisioning the “In the film loop, a superimposed sequence of text questions about looking and legibility. As Messineo relationship between the present and the past. As runs parallel to the moving image in time, though In keeping with the office’s mission and Lara’s own pen- explains: “I have been thinking about the construction individual artists and collaborators, Michelle Dizon and disrupts the ideology of progress as asserted by narra- chant for idiosyncratic exchange, Pazmaker adapts its of a resemblance as way to make a painting, because Camilo Ontiveros opens questions of migration, citizen- tives of industrialization, capitalism and the modern physical and conceptual format from Pacemaker, a publi- it points to the impossibility of representation and the ship and political resistance to a dialogue with history. day nation state. cation organized by the like-minded curatorial collective, inherent loss within every attempt, without giving up on The artists’ video installation Westlake Theater (2008) Toasting Agency, based in Paris. Conceived as both a the act of trying to communicate some kind of truth of explores the many uses of this majestic, 1920s, cinema Through artworks and larger discursive projects, meeting point and means of distribution, the publication experience… [It] is not so much a pursuit of what it is house. Like many old theaters in Los Angeles, films were Elana Mann’s practice explores the theatrics of social facilitates ongoing exchange between cultural producers we are looking at, but how it looks and the messy models presented here for decades, before the building closed and political life through instances of interpersonal in Mexico and those working abroad. For the first time, by which we make meaning from this how.” Messineo’s for renovations, and reopened as a swap meet. exchange. Over the past few years, the artist’s perfor- Lara presents all eight Pazmakers published since 2006, new works on wooden lattice, Shield Painting (garden) mance-based works, in particular, have often explored along with a new issue produced specifically for REDCAT. (2010) and Concept of Yearning (2010), continues to In the work, a luminous view of the proscenium that once the body’s capacity to register systems of communica- With its presentation here, Lara uses Pazmaker 9 as a bridge elements of her personal life within a language presided over the early Hollywood now spans a thriving tion and control. Building upon these interests, the platform to “edit” others into the show.”. In addition to that has a public presence. swap meet on the orchestra level below. Audio samplings performance video Can’t Afford the Freeway (2007-10) a handful of recently published texts, she also calls upon from the space draw attention to activity on the ground grows out of shared conversations between the artist new contributors and enlists the skills of designer Robert Ryan Inouye level, where vendors sell clothes, toys, food, and other and Captain Dylan Alex Mack. Revolving around the Snowden for this issue. Curatorial Assistant desirables, activating alternate, though equally rich, tension of driving and being driven, the work intertwines REDCAT experiences of cultural production and exchange. In audio of Mack describing the perils of ground travel in Shifting from public dialogue to personal narrative, a move that parallels the theater’s re-ise (following modern warfare with footage of the artist’s movement- Terry Chatkupt’s trilogy of videos—Trail Memories the heels of its dis-use), the work centers a part of Los based performance in and around the architecture of (2008), Field Memories (2009) and Park Memories Angeles that isn’t usually remembered here. her station wagon. In the work, the captain describes (2010)—navigates visual and psychological passageways driving as a vulnerable maneuver, while the artist through open fields and wooded expanses just outside Benj Gerdes and Jennifer Hayashida’s 16mm film attempts to position and reposition herself in relation places the artist has called home. Within each work, loop Populus Tremula (2010) is one work in an ongoing to her car as a private space and personal freedom. Chatkupt adds layers to his original video sequences project that draws upon research on the life of Through this lens, Can’t Afford the Freeway represents a by incorporating found footage and photographs—the Ivar Kreuger (1880-1932), the industrialist, financier kind of labor in which the artist acknowledges participa- kind one might find in a family photo album or salvage and founder of the Swedish Matchstick Corporation. tion in a system that she opposes. What appears to be from the an old antique store. To the backdrop of these

Michelle Dizon and Camilo Ontiveros, Westlake Theater (still), 2008, video installation, sound, Terry Chatkupt, Field Memories (still), 2009-10, single-channel HD video with sound, 21 min., courtesy the artist. 4:55 min., narrated by Jane Pickett, courtesy the artist. Jennifer Hayashida and Benj Gerdes, Populus Tremula (still), 2010, Laser subtitled Elana Mann, Can’t Afford the Freeway (still), 2007–10, HD video projection and 2002 16mm film, 9 min., courtesy the artists. Subaru Legacy Outback seats, sound, 15 min. Kristen Smiarowski, Choreographer Laura Bouza, Director of Photography, courtesy the artist. Pazmaker Issues 2–4, text, 23-1/2 x 16-1/2 in. (60 x 42 cm.) poster, edited by Adriana Lara / Perros Negros, ongoing project since 2006, courtesy the artist. RJ Messineo, Concept of Yearning (detail), 2010, 48 x 97-1/2 x 3 in., paint on wooden lattice, courtesy the artist. Memories Trilogy Can’t Afford the Freeway Voiceover transcript from Field Memories (2007) by Terry Chatkupt Text by Elana Mann with Dylan Alexander Mack

Trail Memories (2007) After moving to Los Angeles I was interested in connecting and disrupting my experience as a Southern Californian NARRATOR driver with the site of modern physical warfare: the road. In It’s a funny place here where I grew up. All of the flat land, 2007 I began seeking out individuals with whom I farms, and big clouds. Lots of space and that’s probably could explore the topic of war and driving which included why I’ve always felt lonely living here. I had friends though. a soldier in Iraq, two Iraqi artists and various commuters in We had a little gang of our own. There were mainly four Los Angeles. Through my search I also met Captain Dylan of us. We all lived in different parts of town, but there was Alexander Mack (Alex), an Iraq war veteran, who was this main trail that we could walk on get to each other’s able to articulate his own experience of driving as a soldier houses. During the summer we would walk on it a lot, you and a veteran in a remarkable way. The recorded discus- know, without a destination but just for something to do sions I had with Alex allowed me to encounter a political and somewhere to go. and emotional space that was foreign to me and still Back in junior high, the trail seemed like it went forever remains unimaginable. but it was probably only a mile or two tops. It’s a funny I worked with the initial recordings I made with Alex place here. Not much to do but mess around with your for a number of years—listening and re-listening to friends and try not to get into trouble. Sometimes we would them—and last fall I returned to interview him a few more trespass on other people’s property and see if there was times. Eventually I decided to structure a video around anything worth stealing. Other times we would follow the desire to understand my conversations with Alex and the trail to the power lines and just sit there listening to how the objects and locations of my everyday life are their buzzing sound. But one time we were walking along acutely implicated in what he talks about. In Can’t Afford the trail and someone thought it was a good idea to light the Freeway, I fold and unfold my conversation with Alex something on fire. We didn’t have any matches or a lighter. into other conversations I am having with my Subaru In fact, we didn’t start smoking until high school. Anyway, Legacy Outback, my video camera and the cities of Los one of us had a magnifying glass, you know those little ones Angeles, Valencia and Irwindale. Throughout the video I that can fit in your pocket? Well, we were out on the trail am constantly shifting physical and psychological positions, one day using the magnifying glass with the sun to burn locations, and the camera lens. These movements mirror my up insects. It wasn’t before too long that a pile of leaves attempts to deeply listen, absorb and connect my conversa- or sticks begin burning and, of course, we let it get out of tions with Alex to myself and my surroundings. hand. Miraculously, we managed to put the fire out because the lake was nearby. In fact, the trail leads down to another When I first approached Alex to make recordings with trail that goes around the lake and it was fun to walk on me about war and driving he was interested in the project at night. Every Halloween we would go out there and as a way to work out his own thoughts about the subject walk the thing without flashlights just to see if we can do for a novel based on his war experience. While serving as it without pissing our pants. It was scary as hell though. I an infantry officer in Mosul, Iraq, Alex started writing remember walking the entire trail with the hair on my neck emails to a small list of family and friends about what he sticking straight up. I swear we weren’t alone out there at was experiencing. The emails profoundly connected with night. Something was following us or watching us and till people and were eventually mass distributed around the this day I sometimes get scared thinking about it. country. After he returned home, Alex decided to transform his email dairy into a fictional novel. Having never formally In the wintertime, the lake would freeze over and man, was studied writing Alex enrolled as a Master of Fine Arts it beautiful. Dead trees and gray skies, you couldn’t get candidate in the Critical Studies program at California more dramatic than that. And like that little forest fire we Institute of the Arts (CalArts). He was a student at CalArts created, we were pretty dumb when it came to the frozen when we first met. lake. One of us had the great idea of seeing how far out we could walk on the ice before getting scared and turning That began our symbiotic relationship. Through our back. So all of us crunched on the snow on top of the lake interactions, Alex and I were both able to grow in our own and walked slowly out in different directions. It only took individual direction and use our conversations to spurn a couple steps until we heard that terrifying sound and ran different yet intertwined creative output. back. The following excerpt from one of the discussions in 2009 The time I can remember the most about the trail is when that is not included in the video, but one that shifted we followed it to this little creek. Someone said that you the paradigm for me in regards to how a veteran might can find crawdads there and we wanted to catch a bunch continue to experiences the emotional effects of war long to torture and then eat. We were looking for a long time, after s/he returns home. and we didn’t find any so we decided to give up. We did, Alex: OK, if you want my opinion on why this happens. Elana: OK however, find a great porno magazine. One of the first ones I’ve ever seen. After flipping through it and being grossed Elana: Yeah. Alex: It could be a beautiful day and they could be feeling out, one of us took a match - this time we had matches - like crap because they hear about violence. So when you Alex: I have sort of a decent opinion on it. So you go to war, and started to burn the magazine up. It didn’t burn that get home, you have hidden resentment. Your family secretly you lose people, you lose people and you see things. And long before I started stomping it out with my foot. After I resents you, but they don’t admit it, they don’t know that that wears on you. But you don’t let it wear on you. You’re put the fire out, my friends got pissed off and asked why I they resent you for the last year of worry that you put harboring all this, but you don’t realize you are harboring a did that. I told them it was because I didn’t want to start them through. You have resentment towards them because lot of pain. In my case probably about twenty guys I knew another forest fire, but actually my plan was to go back they’re supposed to be the ones closest to you, they’re died. I don’t know that I am dealing with the loss of twenty for the magazine by myself and take it home to enjoy. That supposed to be understanding what you are feeling, and guys. When you come home you’re looking for your family, never happened though. I went back a few days later and it they’re not. And when death is your currency you don’t or those closest to you, to console you. But you don’t know was already gone. I guess somebody else had the same idea. really know how to express yourself in other ways, you that that’s what you are looking for cause you haven’t get pissed off and things compound on you and things get One of the last memories I have of walking that trail was figured it out yet. You have these huge expectations for your contorted in your head. Those closest to you, and it’s truly when one of us had a birthday party. It was a sleepover family when you get home. On the flip side, your family, the ones that are closest to you get turned into the enemy, and we went out and did our thing on the trail and then or whoever’s closest to you, they have hidden resentment because they are causing you all this pain, because they are came back to my friend’s house to watch scary movies and towards you but they don’t realize that they resent you and not providing you the comfort that you want. shit. We fell asleep in front of the TV and when I woke the reason why is– up everybody was already awake. I opened my eyes and Elana: Because you’ve been gone. everyone was looking at me—kind of staring at my face and I didn’t know why. Finally, someone started cracking Alex: Because they care about you and because they could up laughing and so I ran to the bathroom and saw that they be having, you know, Southern California it could be a had drawn all over my face with a permanent marker. I got beautiful day… so upset that I grabbed my things and ran out of my friend’s house and walked the trail early in the morning by myself all the way back to my place. Like I said, I’ve always felt lonely here. But I still like to call it home.cal spherical tanks external to the pressure vessel and in two pairs shielded by insulated covers.

top/left to bottom Terry Chatkupt, Trail Memories (still), 2007, single-channel digital video with sound, 5:26 min., narrated by John Harding, courtesy the artist. Terry Chatkupt, Field Memories (still), 2009-10, single-channel HD video with sound, 4:55 min., narrated by Jane Pickett, courtesy the artist. Terry Chatkupt, Park Memories (still), 2010, single-channel HD video with sound, 7 min., narrated by Grendal Hanks and Tina Vardanyan, courtesy the artist. Terry Chatkupt, Park Memories (still), 2010, single-channel HD video with sound, 7 min., narrated by Grendal Hanks and Tina Vardanyan, courtesy the artist. Terry Chatkupt, Park Memories (still), 2010, single-channel HD video with sound, 7 min., narrated by Grendal Hanks and Tina Vardanyan, courtesy the artist. Elana Mann, Can’t Afford the Freeway (still), 2007–10, HD video projection and 2002 Terry Chatkupt, Field Memories (still), 2009-10, single-channel HD video with sound, Subaru Legacy Outback seats, sound, 15 min. Kristen Smiarowski, Choreographer 4:55 min., narrated by Jane Pickett, courtesy the artist. Laura Bouza, Director of Photography, courtesy the artist. Westlake Theater Text by Michelle Dizon and Camilo Ontiveros

In Westlake Theater (2008) the scene is viewed from the theater’s projection booth. The view is unmoving and shows both the painted procenium and the marketplace below. Mexican and Salvadoran flags hang prominently in the foreground and strains of Recuerdo and different Spanish language radio stations of Los Angeles echo in the space. The affect of this sound foreshadows the erasure of this scene. In 2008, the Westlake Theater was bought by the Com- munity Redevelopment Agency, an entity financed through the property taxes of the city of Los Angeles. Their plan is to create an entertainment center in which the Westlake theater would be “restored” to its original state along with the development of “affordable housing units” and a parking garage. The Community Redevelopment Agency operates under a discourse of development and community renewal whose intertwining with the processes of capitalism, immigration, and racialization must be pressed if the political implications of this transition are to be understood. The Westlake Theater was built in 1926 and showed first-run movies for the affluent neighborhoods that once surrounded this area of Los Angeles. With the influx of Central American immigrants to the area in the 1980’s, the Westlake Theater began showing Spanish language movies. At this same time, Mac Arthur Park was becoming notorious for both its gang and police violence with the two caught in struggle for power and with those living in the community shuttled in between. The Westlake Theater closed in 1991. Concrete was poured on top of the orchestra pit and a swap meet opened on this newly created floor soon after. The vestiges of Spanish Rococo architecture became layered with the wares of the marketplace—the coiled columns, painted cherubs, and ornate fixtures of the theater became the backdrop for the particle board stalls and the Spanish speaking immigrant community that would buy and sell there. The co-existence of these historical and political layers at the Westlake Theater illuminate the global processes have produced the transformation of this space. The migration of popula- tions from Central America to Mac Arthur Park is bound with US intervention in the region. Such interventions started wars, supported military regimes, trained paramilitary operatives, encouraged the drug trade, crippled democracy, and have made life impossible for people who come from these countries. When thought alongside the economic liberalization made pos- sible through the North American Free Trade Agreement, it becomes clear that the influx of immigrants to the United States from Latin America is linked with the political and economic policies engineered by the United States. Given the active role the United States has taken in creating such violence, and given the dependence of this country on a vulnerable immigrant labor force, how is it possible for the criminalization of immigrants to continue? The question of immigration policy and immigrant rights is inseparable from any discussion of Mac Arthur Park. Directly in front of the Westlake Theater is the park itself, where some of the most visible displays of solidarity among immigrant communities have taken place. In 2006, approximately 500,000 people marched in the streets of Los Angeles and gathered in Mac Arthur Park to protest H.R. 4437 and the criminalization of immigrants in the United States. Such shows of solidarity and political agency would be quelled one year later when at the same site an immigrant rights protest was violently repressed as police shot rubber bullets at thousands of peaceful protesters. Our interest in the Westlake Theater lies not in a restoration of its architecture, but rather in its ruins. The theater’s repurposing by the immigrant community provides a glimpse of a palimp- sest in which the co-existence of past and present reveals culture as historically dynamic. In the Westlake stood a rare instance in which this transformation was not erased but rather shown for what it is—as the ruins of one space and the life of another. As we pass into an era of the rapid development of this area, we have to ask for whom and on whose terms such develop- ment is being realized. The discourse of development is one that applies not only to processes of local gentrification but also to global discourses of the World Bank andimf . On the margins of all these discourses of development lie the people who inhabit these formerly colonized locales, shuttled in the impossibility of contemporary globalization. Westlake Theater suspends a moment of transition and is an invitation to consider the affect that fills its process of erasure.

Michelle Dizon and Camilo Ontiveros, production documentation for Westlake Theater, 2008, video installation, sound, 21 min., courtesy the artist. Populus Tremula Contributions by Jennifer Hayashida and Benj Gerdes Jennifer Hayashida The more one learns about Radetzki, the more unsettled REPLY one is. Born 1936 in Warsaw, Poland, he is Professor of “It Is the Hungry Who Hunt the Best”: MY TWO arguments, here addressed by stab, are based on Economics at Luleå University of Technology. His work information found in Klas Markensten’s scientific paper on The Language of a Neocolonial Welfare State focuses primarily on the economics of raw materials, in Swedish corporate activity in India. I have found no reason particular minerals, metals, and energy, and he has worked A few years ago, I attended a translation conference in to question either these or other facts that Markensten uses as a consultant for a number of multinationals, foreign Stockholm. The theme of the conference was so-called to support his analysis. “Third World” literatures and the event was intended to governments, and the World Bank and undp. Some of emphasize the value of translation in relation to global his notable, but not unusual, opinions concern national No one wants to deny that stab and the other Swedish human rights. Clitoridectomies, Burkhas, and the methods identity and economics, such as his desire to see English companies’ production in India has replaced earlier of the Egyptian secret police were problems to be addressed be the national language of Sweden, and his belief that importation. The argument that Swedish corporate activity in the halls of the City Conference Centre, and eventually organized labor is the primary obstacle to the nation’s failed to introduce any substantial new products or tech- through a conference resolution. social or economic progress. nologies is based on the fact that similar production was already taking place in India when the Swedish companies However, what has made him a lightning rod for the During the opening session, one of the organizers stated established themselves there. The Swedish business enabled Swedish Left is that he advocates cutting low-wage that Sweden was an ideal site for such a conference, given a (possibly more rapid) expansion of such production, but workers’ salaries in half in order to incentivize individual that nation’s absence of a history of colonization or empire. did not really bring anything new to India. Upon hearing her words, I looked around the room to uplift and self-suffiency, thereby combating high rates of see if anyone else appeared to find this statement not only unemployment and chronic dependence on social welfare. 10,000 employed by stab signifies an important source problematic, but simply fallacious; however, I spotted no In Radetzki’s words, “It is the hungry who hunt the best,” of income for perhaps 75,000 Indians. But it is necessary looks of dismay or disagreement. No one, it seemed, cared and he points to the United States as a generative model for to also look to the alternative increase in labor activity to remember “stormaktstiden” and Sweden’s 17th century this type of bootstrapping national ideology. For a riveting that the currently self-supporting and competitive manual rule over Finland, parts of Norway, or Poland, nor did interview with Radetzki (and if you speak Swedish) please manufacturing of matches could offer several hundreds of they care to recall short-lived (but indisputably Swedish) watch “Increase the Gaps to Decrease Unemployment,” thousands of workers, if only mechanized manufacturing, colonies in Tobago, Guadeloupe, or the so-called Swedish available online through Sveriges Television, the public underwritten by powerful international capital interests, Gold Coast in Africa. For the next three days, I repeatedly national broadcasting system: svt.se. was contained or discontinued. From this perspective, it is in my opinion entirely correct to see stab:s matchstick overheard and witnessed similarly self-congratulatory At the time of the publication of this exchange in Dagens language and gestures. manufacturing as a brake on India’s employment rates. Nyheter, one of Sweden’s two large daily newspapers, Image from STAB Corporate Archive, Landsarkivet, Vadstena, Sweden I knew that the Swedish state’s sense of “First World” Radetzki had only recently completed his Doctorate at the In my article, I write that the Swedish companies have responsibility to the global subaltern was alive and Stockholm School of Economics and was employed as chief behaved as exemplary Indian legal entities. In cooperation well – welfare imperialism – yet I had not heard or seen economics at cipec, the international copper cartel. The with the host country’s government they have contributed Populus Tremula is a 16mm film loop originating from it interpreted so aggressively as to be transformed into a translation is my own. to an impressive expansion of the country’s modern sector. artistic research into Swedish “Match King” Ivar Kreuger kind of national tabula rasa, wherein a history of cowardly The problem is just that this development has essentially (1880­–1932), whom The Economist in 2007 called “the political rubber-necking (wwii) and neocolonial projects STAB in India only benefited the elite minority of the country’s population. world’s greatest financial swindler” and who was the were suddenly characterized as ethical and/or nonexistent. Dagens Nyheter, September 9, 1972 Large sectors of the population among India’s poor have during the 60’s seen an absolute decrease in their standards founder of Svenska Tändsticksaktiebolaget (the Swedish The Swedish Matchstick Corporations polemicizes against My frustration with the discussions at the conference of consumption. Matchstick Corporation), today called Swedish Match. dovetailed neatly with the materials that my partner and I Marian Radetzki’s statement that their companies in India Between 1917 and 1932, Kreuger capitalized on shifts in discovered during that summer in Stockholm, when we first did not introduce new products or jobs to the country. I do not believe that continued development according to global financial markets to control over200 companies and initiated our archival research into the “Match King” Ivar Radetzki, who based his statement on a paper by Klas this pattern will remain politically sustainable much longer establish matchstick monopolies in at least 34 countries; he Kreuger and Svenska Tändsticksaktiebolaget (stab or the Markensten , replies. in India, Pakistan, Brazil, or the other developing nations borrowed money at low rates on U.S. markets and in turn which host Swedish investments. Soon enough the develop- Swedish Matchstick Corporation). In addition to our work IN MARIAN RADETZKI’S interesting article, published loaned these funds to countries that granted him market ment strategy will demand public and private contributions around Kreuger and national mythmaking, we became in DN 8/26, titled “Swedish Corporations Abroad,” two monopolies, thereby initiating, according to some scholars, which in a completely different manner than now benefit increasingly interested in the global mechanics of Kreuger’s statements are made which from the very beginning are practices currently enacted by the imf and wto. Populus larger segments of the population. Foreign investors will vertical manufacturing and Swedish neocolonialism. plainly incorrect and therefore misleading for readers. He Tremula consists of contemporary footage shot in two undoubtedly experience considerable difficulty, if they states: extant Swedish Match factories in Vetlanda and Tidaholm, We found photographs of Swedish aspen trees being before then have not reconsidered and developed tech- 1) “The Swedish companies in India do not appear to Sweden. Both factory locations have been active since the unloaded near factories in Calcutta, having been shipped nologies and products that to a greater degree than today have brought with them any new products or technology, 19th century, and while the manufacturing process is now halfway around the world due to the belief that the Swedish increase employment, consumption, and welfare also for rather they have hampered any domestic expansion.” almost fully automated, beyond the removal of human timber was superior to any other, as well as Kreuger’s that majority which is currently largely excluded from the 2) “And the old Swedish matchstick imperialism instead labor, it has changed little since the early 20th century. ownership of Sweden’s largest timber and pulp corpora- modern sector’s excesses. tion. We found a leather-bound and gold-trimmed photo appears to have prevented rather than created new employ- While the film follows the linear progression of match album, given to Kreuger on his 50th birthday by stab:s ment opportunities…” MARIAN RADETZKI manufacture from timber to shrink-wrapped package ready Indian employees, filled with a carefully curated selection The actual conditions are such that aside from stab:s for export, a series of superimposed textual interventions of photographs depicting the Indian employees efficiently co-ownership (the other half is owned by a large number of point to the ability of both capital and the nation-state to at work or enjoying the tidy living conditions of stab Indian investors) in matchstick factories, stab has contrib- legislate and assert the monopoly capitalist’s desire, as in employee housing. The photographs were taken in the mid- uted the following new import-substituting industries: the case of Kreuger, to not only exploit natural resources 1920s, a time marked by Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership 1) Papermill (Calcutta) but to appear to surpass the power of nature through myth. of the Indian National Congress and movements towards 2) Chlorate and glue factory (Ambarnath) The conjoining of text and image is here intended to posit national independence—none of this is mentioned in the 3) Extraction of common salt from seawater (on the east conflicting historical and ideological conjectures in an effort stab archive, of course. coast south of Madras) to indicate ideological fissures which in turn may spark, or tremble, present-day possibilities for contestation. As with many colonial, neocolonial, and/or neoliberal 4) Manufacturing industry (matchstick machinery and narratives, the welfare of the subaltern is frequently char- processing equipment to the food industry, etc.) in Poona. acterized as what is at stake for the intervening national or All in all, we currently employ approximately 10,000 corporate interest, and what we found in the stab archives workers and salaried employees, six of whom are was no different. Corporate efficiency or expense is hidden Scandinavian. behind concern for foreign national economies and subjects. All these projects have been developed in close consultation The article below, from 1972, was retrieved from Sigtu- with the Indian government. The Swedish Matchstick nastiftelsen, a Christian foundation that operates one of Corporation has for many years reinvested profits in new Sweden’s largest press archives, and the text’s significance manufacturing tailored to the country’s needs. In short: the lies in the ideological paradoxes of the two parties profits fromstab :s Indian operations essentially stay in that involved. Sven Wallgren, representing stab, claims that the country. corporation’s actions are imbued with mindful benevolence wherein the corporation, in close consultation with the The extremely important question of if a country like India Indian state, attends to the needs of the national economy should create additional manual manufacturing or a more and its subjects. Marian Radetzki, apparently representing mechanized industry is one that we have lived with for a scholarly perspective, writes that only the elite benefits decades. stab:s politics regarding new development follows from such interventions, and that the people of India the Indian government’s demands for modern produc- (typically characterized as innumerable) would be better tion technology. One must not forget that alongside the off if encouraged to develop their own domestic—and uneducated millions who today do not have any occupation manual—production of matchsticks. and who naturally make up the main problem for the Indian government, are also demands that the country’s Radetzki’s insistence on manual production as a social and own educated industrial intelligentsia shall be employed in economic curative is fascinating: at odds with the desired leading positions, and themselves contribute to the coun- trajectory for first world nations’ industrialization, wherein try’s development. This is the case for all of the Swedish automation, efficiency, and the removal of the human Matchstick Corporation’s enterprises in India. Only when are seen as ideal outcomes, his perspective is that, for the domestic expertise is missing does stab send employees “underdeveloped” nation, manual production can lead from other countries. This policy is one that the company to a thin layer of employment for many, as opposed to a itself has actively participated in during past decades, and if concentration of employment for the few. Efficiency is for possible, it is one that we intend to continue. colder regions, it seems, whereas the handmade remains suitable for warmer climes. SVEN WALLGREN Director, Matchstick Division

1 Jennifer Hayashida and Benj Gerdes, Populus Tremula (still), 2010, Laser subtitled Markensten is currently Senior Advisor to the Director 16mm film, 9 min., courtesy the artists. General at sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, www.sida.org. His professional life appears to be rooted in international development and aid. Pazmaker Shield Painting (garden) & Concept of Yearning Interview with Adriana Lara Text by RJ Messineo As part of her involvement with the Mexico City-based al ri Being More art office Perros Negros, Adriana Lara serves as editor of It was a very spontaneous and rather personal selection Pazmaker 7 takes a different format. Can you talk about Pazmaker, a free, self-distributed, quarterly poster/zine of people. As much as I try to respond to my locality with how it came about and how this change affected the content These works have a great deal to do with my being in with texts published in Spanish and English. The exhibition each issue, it is not in the interest of Perros Negros for that was contributed? St. Louis for a while now and and sensing, incorporating marks the first presentation of all eight issues printed since Pazmaker to represent its locality. What I mean is, we want and responding to an energetics of the place. Since moving al 2006 in addition to the latest edition produced specifically to move away from a direct engagement with national from Los Angeles, it has taken time to start making Pazmaker 7 was also called Pazmaker Audiozine. I wanted for redcat. On this occasion, Lara discusses the publica- identity and instead explore a shared desire to live and work that relates to this place. I am interested in what to do an audio version of PM. I really enjoy audio books, tion’s beginnings and the ideas that inform and propel this work from a self-created position. Sometimes this involves happens when I look at the same places and structures and especially in boring moments like when I’m at the gym. So still evolving project. collaborating or making associations among authors/texts details on a daily basis. What happens when something I thought of making a Pazmaker: with no design involved, even though they might be located at opposite ends of the goes from being new to being familiar. no fonts, much more space, spoken language, and perhaps Ryan Inouye world. It is through this subjective process that I collected a cheaper format (which was not the case!). As with every These lattice paintings began with this gazebo located in a Let’s set the stage. The Pazmaker story begins in Paris. Can the contributions for Issue 1. I should also mention that issue, there was no predetermined subject. I just invited neighbor’s yard. In winter, especially, it stands in front of the you describe the circumstances that led to the publication? with this issue also began my research on artists that had artists whom I thought would be interested in recording house with a certain starkness. A number of wind chimes a writing practice—whether they be essays, manifestos, Adriana Lara readings of their texts. What happened, instead, was that and wooden birds are in various stages of aging and decay. dialogues, scripts, cartoons or signs. I think of these works The decision to start a new publication had a great deal to the people I invited sent ready made material that somehow Green moss and mold inhabits the grain of the lattice’s as philosophical or anecdotic writings in process, as a kind do with how I empathized with the original Paris-based included text. They became contributing editors: Carolina wooden slats, which I often admire from the sidewalk. I of “thinking out-loud” that can be linked to known or Toasting Agency project called Pacemaker. I remember Caycedo sent a playlist of songs with lyrics about Exile have wanted to work with lattice for a while because it unknown texts, or that might continue conversations with accidentally encountering a stack of them in some Paris (salsa, hip hop, folk); Cristian Manzutto, an audio producer, functions as a screen that masks from view some quiet of a work I see around me. gallery, and I began thinking about how Mexico needed sent me remixed material he had sampled from past domestic space. It provides protection if however flimsy. something like it (or not). What I liked about Pacemaker, ri projects like a recording made with Hans Ulrich Obrist and I find it hard to identify the proper tone in which to write the original version of Pazmaker, was that it focused on Pazmaker seems to provide a platform for conversation Sylver Lotringer as well as a selection of Godard trailers to you about this work. Or rather it is hard to find the text. In (2002) there were few art magazines like it. Most in much the same way that the Perros Negros project that were mostly text; Angel Nevarez and Valerie Tevere right tone of voice to address an (imagined) audience to were working in a general style that conceived of artwork Localismos (2004) brought together artists based in Mexico were working on this music project Another protest song, these pieces. Much of my process in making paintings as an image or object. I was interested in publishing texts and abroad for a month long residency and workshop. Can so I asked them to send me 2 tracks. The format opened a is about finding the “right” tone. It’s a fine line between, that were works themselves—and not texts that were about you talk about how this larger project has informed your host of other opportunities. I also thought this issue could a process of calibration. artworks or exhibitions. My interest in “pirating” the ongoing work with the publication? be a place to present audio tracks from artist films. Some Pacemaker format explored the possibility of arranging artists and writers did submit recordings specifically made al texts like collage, working with a combination of authors for the issue but not many. In the end, I also included Localismos (the first in a series of large-scale projects and formats—commissioned essays, reprints of old texts, audio recordings without texts, akin to the complementary along with Otra de vaqueros and La Galeria Sentimental) artist writings, as well as paper text-based artworks— images typically included in the printed version, selected by assembled 20 artists that came to live and use the city as which together could be more than a journalistic platform. Allora & Calzadilla. a center for production. Almost half of the artists created The Pacemaker format was great, because it provided space publications like posters, flyers, newspapers, stickers, etc. ri to show art—not reproduce or review it. Even though the projects were presented in different spaces, What do you have planned for the latest issue of Pazmaker Abstractly speaking, I conceived of Pazmaker as an imagi- we had a house that served as a presentation center, in which that you are working on for the exhibition at redcat? nary exhibition space, where works could be put together we displayed the documentation from all the projects and al with no particular order, hierarchy or pre-established performances. Localismos generated an idiosyncratic mix of Last year I worked on an issue focused on Latin American theme—creating a snapshot/document of what was happen- aesthetics and subjects of interest around art and other things artists, as an exercise of language more than geography. The ing at the moment in different countries, in Mexico City, that seemed to fit well together. We were criticized for the result was a hybrid like the rest of the issues (still a lot of within Perros Negros and between contributing artists and lack of clear selection criteria, but the fact was, we only felt English), but this focus on Spanish texts took the magazine writers. But as Toasting Agency used to say, it has mostly comfortable inviting artists whose practice we could engage into a completely different style that was more prose-based. functioned as a passageway into each contributor’s worlds. in a collective conversation, which in turn, made us think There were a lot more essays and pieces of fiction. Not all the they would want to work with each other as well. ri artists where Latin—some just happened to be living here. The very first issue edited and printed by Perros Negros With Pazmaker, I keep working like this, imagining the For a number of reasons, I was unable to print it, and so I was titled Pazmaker 0. Why and how was it distinguished possibility of shared conversation among a group of put the project on pause. When I was presented with the from Pazmaker 1? contributors, without any set criteria. I think of a range of opportunity to make a new issue, I thought it was a good associations that can take place among them for different time to survey all the past issues in order to think about new al reasons. I look at most issues, and think that in no other content, methods and objectives for future publications. Once I decided to pirate the model of my favorite magazine, publication would these names be brought together in the Issue #9 is called The Best Of (y lo peor), which does not I decided it could be fun as a statement to pirate it properly, same list. It’s like making a party. necessarily include my favorite texts, but rather those that meaning to Xerox it or copy it the way movies are pirated I most closely identify with today. I have also added new in Mexico. Here you can finddvd s that sell in the streets ri contributions from people I’ve encountered in these past for 300% less than the original price. I made my own pirate So it sounds like you have used Pazmaker as an opportunity few months, who in my mind, somehow can picture where editors’ version by selecting texts from the 11 Pacemaker to reach out or make contact with people you haven’t met Perros Negros is mentally or physically at the moment. issues and pasting these texts together in one place, only in person? leaving room for a couple new contributions and transla- al tions. That was number 0, the “first”Pazmaker . I think There is the intention to start a dialogue with the people of the issues that followed, Pazmakers 1–8, as region 4 whose work we like. For Perros Negros, the idea of Pacemakers, referring to the dvd region code that is used migrating or traveling to where the art world “happens” for videos sold in Mexico. Playfully speaking, it’s a cheap, wasn’t as exciting as staying in Mexico Shitty and “third world” version of the sophisticated original. bringing people to us. Pazmaker was one way of inviting ri people “here.” But whereas region codes are used to control aspects of a ri film’s distribution—including its content, release date and In many issues, you work with artists the art world might price—based on geographic location, Pazmaker seems to call “emerging.” Is part of your interest in Pazmaker to facilitate the flow and exchange of ideas. The publication facilitate dialogue amongst artists of a generation? features contributions in Spanish and English, is self- distributed through personal and professional networks al and is offered free to the public. Even though you assemble I think Pazmaker provides a great excuse for artists to each issue from the Perros Negros office in Mexico City, the promote specific projects or just be themselves without publication strives to be accessible to many different people a particular goal or agenda. It’s important for artists to and places. How did these concerns play into the creation be able to read about other artists and ideas without an of Pazmaker 1, the first issue that was edited “in house?” intermediary like a curator or an art critic.

Pazmaker Issues 0–8, text, 23-1/2 x 16-1/2 in. (60 x 42 cm.) poster, edited by RJ Messineo, Shield Painting (garden), 2010, 70-1/2 x 62 x 1-1/4 in., RJ Messineo, Fine, gold lamé and wood, 18 x 12 in., courtesy the artist. Adriana Lara / Perros Negros, ongoing project since 2006, courtesy the artist. paint on wooden lattice, courtesy the artist. RJ Messineo, Concept of Yearning (detail), 2010, 48 x 97-1/2 x 3 in., Adriana Lara, Pazmaker Live Logo, 2010, clock, metal, plastic, acrylic paint, 10-1/2 x RJ Messineo, Concept of Yearning, 2010, 48 x 97-1/2 x 3 in., paint on wooden lattice, courtesy the artist. 10-1/2 (27 x 27 cm), courtesy the artist. paint on wooden lattice, courtesy the artist. Exhibition Checklist About the Artists

Terry Chatkupt Terry Chatkupt Benj Gerdes Trail Memories, 2007 (b. 1977, Excelsior Springs, Missouri) (b. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, 1978) single-channel digital video with sound, 5:26 min. Terry Chatkupt primarily works in film/video and photography. He Benji Gerdes is an artist and activist working in film, video, and a narrated by John Harding number of other public formats. He frequently works in collaboration Courtesy the artist has presented work in exhibitions at Seattle Art Museum, Seattle; Harris Lieberman, New York, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, with other artists, activists, and theorists, including as a member of 16 Field Memories, 2009-10 Los Angeles and the Sweeney Art Gallery, University of California, Beaver Group. His work has been included in film festivals and exhibi- single-channel HD video with sound, 4:55 min. Riverside in addition to participating in screenings at The Museum tions internationally, including the 3rd Guangzhou Triennial; Musuem narrated by Jane Pickett of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki; Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Courtesy the artist of Modern Art, New York; Portland Documentary & experimental Film Festival 2008 and Art Basel Miami Beach, Video Lounge, 2007. Vienna; Luleå Biennial, Luleå, Sweden; Moscow International Film Park Memories, 2010 Chatkupt received both his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from California Institute Festival; and Art in General, New York, among others. He is the single-channel HD video with sound, 7 min. of the Arts, Valencia and holds a B.S. from Skidmore College, Sara- recipient of grants from the Jerome Foundation, NYSCA, and the narrated by Grendal Hanks and Tina Vardanyan Courtesy the artist toga Springs, New York. In 2003, he attended the artist in residency Experimental Television Center. Gerdes holds an M.F.A. in Integrated program at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Chatkupt Media Arts from Hunter College, City University of New York, a currently lives and works in Los Angeles. terrychatkupt.com B.A. in History of Technology/Film and Digital Studies from Brown Michelle Dizon and Camilo Ontiveros University and has attended the Visual Arts Program at M.I.T. and the Westlake Theater, 2008 Whitney Independent Study Program. He teaches at The Cooper Union HD video, sound, min. Courtesy the artists Michelle Dizon School of Art. Gerdes lives and works in New York. clnswp.org (b. 1977, Los Angeles)

Jennifer Hayashida and Benj Gerdes Michelle Dizon is an artist, filmmaker, and writer. Her work focuses on questions of postcoloniality, migration, human rights and historical Adriana Lara Populus Tremula, 2010 (b. 1978, Mexico City) Laser subtitled 16mm film, 9 min. memory. Dizon has presented solo exhibitions at the CUE Art Founda- Courtesy the artists tion, New York and the Art Gallery at the University of Texas, Arling- Adriana Lara’s practice employs a variety of forms and strategies that ton in addition to collaborating with Camilo Ontiveros on a project for expand the possibilities of art production and presentation. She has Adriana Lara the Vargas Museum in Manila. Her work has been presented in group presented solo exhibitions at Air de Paris, Paris and most recently as at Artpace, San Antonio. She has participated in group exhibitions Pazmaker Issues 0–8, 2006–09 exhibitions and screenings at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San text, paper, 23-1/2 x 16-1/2 in., 60 x 42 cm., poster Francisco; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles and the at California College of the Arts, Wattis Institute for Contemporary edited by Adriana Lara / Perros Negros Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, among others. Dizon holds a B.A. in Arts, San Francisco; Triennal Poli-gráfica de San Juan, Puerto Rico; ongoing project since 2006 English and History of Art from the University of California, Berkeley New Museum, New York; Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie, Berlin; Gaga Courtesy the artist and an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Studio from the Department of Art Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; Colección Jumex, Ecatepec and Pazmaker Live Logo, 2010 at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is completing a Ph.D. Palais de Tokyo, Paris, among others. With Fernando Mesta and clock, metal, plastic, acrylic paint in the Department of Rhetoric with designated emphases in Film and Agustina Ferreyra, Lara co-founded the Mexico City-based art office 10-1/2 x 10-1/2 in., 27 x 27 cm. Women, Gender and Sexuality at the University of California, Berkeley. Perros Negros, which has organized a series of large-scale residency, Courtesy the artist Dizon works between Los Angeles and Manila. michelledizon.com workshop and exhibition projects, including Localismos, Mexico City Pazmaker 9–The best of, 2010 (May 1–June 3, 2004), Otra de vaqueros, Mexico City (March–April, text, newsprint paper, 4-color, 34 x 22-3/4 in., poster 2006 ) and Galeria Sentimental, San Juan (January 1–December Adriana Lara / Perros Negros Camilo Ontiveros 31, 2007). She has served as editor in chief of the office’s quarterly Contributing editors: Robert Snowden, John Menick (b. Rosario, Mexico, 1978) publication Pazmaker since its inception in 2006. Lara lives and works Design by Robert Snowden Contributors: Keith Arnatt, Kingsley Amis, Artemio, Fia Backström, Camilo Ontiveros works primarily in sculpture, installation and in Mexico City. perrosnegros.info Marie de Bregerolle, Mariana Castillo Deball, Nathan Carter & Jonathan video. He recently presented a project developed in collaboration with T.D. Neil, Guy de Cointet, Chris Fitzpatrick, Claire Fontaine, Chris Kraus, Michelle Dizon at the Vargas Museum in Manila and has presented Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer, Raimundas Malasauskas & Michael Portnoy, work at Steven Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles; Armory Center Elana Mann Emily Mast, John Menick, Post Brothers, Jordi Tovilla, Danna Vajda, (b. 1980, Boston) Heriberto Yepez for the Arts, Pasadena; Gallery 727, Los Angeles; and Los Angeles Courtesy the artist Contemporary Exhibitions. In addition, he is Co-Founder of NOMART, Elana Mann’s practice encompasses performance, video and installa- a performance art space on wheels; a member of the DoEAT Collective; tion in addition to larger discursive and collaborative projects. She has Elana Mann and Co-Founder of Lui Velazquez, an alternative art space in Tijuana, presented work at Apex Art, New York; Galerie Califia, Horazdovice, Czech Republic; A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro; WILDNESS, Los Can’t Afford the Freeway, 2007-10 which supports cross-disciplinary discussion, art practice and events by HD Video projection and 2002 Subaru Legacy Outback seats inviting artists to participate in short-term residencies. The artist is the Angeles and Outpost for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Mann has sound, 15 min. recipient of the 2010 illy Prize at ARCOmadrid art fair. He received his organized Performing Economies, an exhibition and month long Kristen Smiarowski, Choreographer M.F.A. from University of California, Los Angeles and his B.F.A. from program of performances at the Fellows of Contemporary Art and Laura Bouza, Director of Photography University of California, San Diego. Ontiveros lives and works in Los Exchange Rate: 2008, an international performance exchange created Courtesy the artist Angeles. camiloontiveros.com in response to the 2008 U.S. presidential election—both of which were presented in Los Angeles. She is a recipient of California Community RJ Messineo Foundation’s 2009 Visual Arts Fellowship and has published two books, Shield Painting (garden), 2010 Jennifer Hayashida Exchange Rate: 2008 (2009) and GIVE IT TO ME, DO IT TO ME, 70-1/2 x 62 x 1-1/4 in. (b. 1973, Oakland) MAKE ME… (2007). Mann received her B.F.A. from Washington Paint on wooden lattice University, St. Louis and her M.F.A from California Institute of the Courtesy the artist Jennifer Hayashida works as a poet, translator and visual artist. She is the translator of Fredrik Nyberg’s A Different Practice (Ugly Arts, Valencia. She lives and works in Los Angeles. elanamann.com Concept of Yearning, 2010 48 x 97-1/2 x 3 in. Duckling Presse, 2007), and Eva Sjödin’s Inner China (Litmus Press, Paint on wooden lattice 2005). Hayashida has presented work at the Luleå Biennial, Luleå, Courtesy the artist Sweden; Artist Space, New York and The Vera List Center for Art & RJ Messineo Politics at The New School, New York. She is presently a NYFA (b. 1980, Hartford) Fellow in Poetry and works as the Acting Director of the Asian RJ Messineo is an artist working primarily in painting. Messineo American Studies Program at Hunter College. She is the recipient of received a B.F.A. from Cornell University, Ithaca and an M.F.A. from a PEN Translation Fund Grant, a Witter Bynner Poetry Translator University of California, Los Angeles. In Fall 2009, the artist presented Residency, a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, and has been a solo project at the alternative art space Imprenta in Los Angeles and a MacDowell Colony Fellow. She holds an M.F.A. in creative writing has participated in group exhibitions at Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles from Bard College and a B.A. in American Studies from University of and Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles. Messineo currently lives California, Berkeley. Her recent work has been published in Salt Hill, and works in St. Louis, Missouri. rjmessineo.com Chicago Review, and Harp & Altar. Hayashida lives and works in New York. jenniferhayashida.info