And, Apollo: A Laboratory

Dean Erdmann 2 If Art Is Politics Carin Kuoni

3 Dean Erdmann. And, Apollo: A Laboratory Christiane Paul

4 Notes Dean Erdmann

6 Floorplan

8 Installation Views

26 Cultivating Weeds: sinica, , Pinellia ternata and Marisa Prefer

29 From the Desert to the Sky: Ways of Being and Looking Eriola Pira And, Apollo: A Laboratory

Dean Erdmann If Art Is Politics Dean Erdmann. And, Apollo: A Laboratory

As authoritarian regimes continue to different scales of impact from mind-alter- And, Apollo: A Laboratory by artist and Vera of glass casting as a source object is passed emerge in unexpected parts of the world, ing substances to geological forces, might List Center Fellow Dean Erdmann is an back and forth between molds. Glass has yet we seek radical gestures to counter such provide important pointers on how to move exhibition combining experimental docu- another connotation, being a nickname for developments. What if we look to recent forward on this planet. mentary, video, and sculpture to connect or crystal meth, devel- modes of art-making and declare art itself The Vera List Center Fellowships autobiography to historical pasts that have oped by Japanese chemists in Berlin in 1893 a political practice? What if we take this support exceptional artists at a critical produced current moments of social and and used in pill form by German and Japa- proposition quite literally, and follow artists moment of their career, who undertake political crisis. The narrative of And, Apollo nese militaries as a unleashing ‘super- as they create spaces where individuals and ambitious projects that advance art as a is anchored in the Mojave Desert, the place human’ abilities. In the exhibition, crystal communities, but also archives and ances- vital tool for social and political agency. where the artist grew up and the background meth is embodied in Ephedra sinica plants, tors, soil, plants and air come together as Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Andrea Geyer, for their exploration of Americana, the which contain and pseudoephed- political subjects? In Fall 2018, we launched Bouchra Khalili, Kobena Mercer, Lorraine body, and queerness. rine—used by amateurs to illegally manu- If Art Is Politics as the Vera List Center’s O’Grady, and Walid Raad are but a few Using artifacts and storytelling Erdmann facture crystal meth—as active constituents. two-year focus theme generating a constel- of our more than thirty fellowship alumni turns the Californian desert into a landscape The video Glass weaves voice and screen lation of research clusters. Among them whose bold projects are locating the liminal reverberating with connections between the logs from Apollo’s Space Command with are the open campus-style VLC Seminar spaces where aesthetic practices translate Cold War space race, militarization, tech- descriptions of meth use by German World Freedom of Speech: A Curriculum for Studies into political realities. We’re proud to nological acceleration, All Terrain Vehicle War II soldiers and German writer Hein- into Darkness with performances, lectures, add Erdmann to this roster of artists and (ATV) culture, class, and meth addiction. rich Böll, as well as conversations Erdmann and a forthcoming publication; a series of thank them for sharing so generously their What might seem to be unrelated histories had with their family about meth use. In panels on institutional accountability and transformative work. Thanks also go to the and cultural expressions, rituals, or diseas- the exhibition, Glass is represented both philanthropy; an international convening Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, to Urban es is distilled into a complex narrative that as video and as prints of stills from the around the legacy of Pan-African solidarity Glass, as well as to my colleagues at and crystallizes intersections between the deeply video work. The artist raises the question for the Jane Lombard Prize for Art and the board of the Vera List Center. personal and the geopolitical. of whether the technologies of the Apollo Social Justice; and as culmination this Riding ATVs, descendants of the lunar era, premised upon acceleration and speed exhibition, And, Apollo: A Laboratory. Carin Kuoni landing vehicle, has a rich culture in the (another name for one of the forms of crys- Dean Erdmann is a 2018–2020 Vera Senior Director/Chief Curator desert. NASA’s Saturn V rocket, which tal meth), contributed to generating social List Center Fellow whose fellowship Vera List Center for Art and Politics enabled the Apollo missions to land humans conditions that set up the use of . project, And, Apollo, positions the political and the original vehicle on the moon, was Together the works on view become a at the confluence of material and social developed with the help of Werner von multifaceted and open-ended reflection history, autobiography, and notions of Braun, who had overseen the design of the of the artist’s intimate knowledge of the progress. Each element of the installation German V2 missile during WW II and was desert’s physical force, its potential for radi- at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center is one of the top Nazi scientists and engineers cal openings and different forms of being, anchored by a historical moment, and from brought to the U.S. by the military during as well as its geopolitical complexities. there spins out and contributes to a dynamic the Cold War. Local ATV riders often build In the desert landscapes of And, Apollo, landscape, a force field of interdependent giant bonfires in the desert, which litter the Dean Erdmann discovers materialities and agents. Accommodating different tempo- terrain with translucent glass detritus. Glass their transformation, queer fragmentation, ralities as the exhibition does with glass as also materially connects to the desert in that and cosmic exploration. ancient sand, one-off, sun-melted relicts it is the end product of heating sand at very or kiln-blown casts; considering a range of high temperatures. The glass objects on Christiane Paul subjectivities, here for instance, the artist’s view in the exhibition reference the bonfires Director/Chief Curator hand, the roaring sound of wind, budding of ATV culture and also capture a process Sheila C. Johnson Design Center plants; and acknowledging, even reconciling of imprint and transfer that becomes part

2 3 Notes or lifeless shucks, but consist of tensions, History, Benjamin told us, is a pile of rubble. Dean Erdmann forces, hidden powers, all being constantly Only we are not staring at it any longer from exchanged. 1 the point of view of Benjamin’s shell-shocked angel. We are not the angel. We are the rubble. We are already time traveling – We are this pile of scrap. so many latent relationships within us. I am also trying to understand modernity’s arc towards progress and the future, and Tumb nongue the depletion of resources that figures the future into a place that is nearly impossible Why would a thing be called a tire, because to live. it never stops? How to figure the fold of the present? In the room that is not windowless, but does not really have a window either, Doug and I Put all the images in language in a place of The force of my touch is asymmetrical to sit and talk about politics and family. safety and make use of them, for they are the amount of force required to slow. When I read, I’m in communication with in the desert, and it’s in the desert we must someone who wrote 100 years ago, 50 years Dear James, go and look for them. Fossil fuel is life that went dead and then ago, 200 years ago, and I am connecting To dusty mouths – Jean Genet came back around again. In transforming, with them in their future, which is my And sore hands did it become undead? Alive? present. Surface burns What about things that have not been And We place each glass object on an 11 × 17 Tongue numb in my spinal cord and bones digested, that linger here and inform the Adrenaline exhaust paper on a kind of lazy Susan. Doug says it’s ringing in my cells. present? Violences or pain inherited, not It was a great ride to help the scanner orient itself. Are you ever afraid? dealt with. The law of the conservation of matter. Energy cannot be created or love, dean Sometimes I have to do a body check several destroyed; it simply changes shape. Rather Grill, tire, time, filter, dust times a day like when I was deployed. Then the than addressing the pain of guilt, respon- adrenaline takes over and I usually don’t think sibility, and shame following the disgraces of it again. moto_dave. and mass criminality of the Nazi period, Tire, tire, handlebars, holding, fossil the Mitscherlichs describe that post-war I sometimes say I’m gonna hang it up…which Germans focused their energies on tech- Frame, Time tire time, ignition lasts for three months. But, that feeling fades nology, with charitable progress and gains.2 and the itch comes back and I’m back out The moon landing, inhabitinga different there. What can you do…its as much fun as place in American history, also holds a We wait. it is dangerous. mark_s. will towards a particular mark and value of progress (technology), global dominance, I don’t race anymore I just head out to the and an unwillingness towards other forms A point cloud emerges. desert. of progress (social equity, justice, national Dots in space will triangulate further. rehabilitation). Its byproduct produces a mirror or opportunity for reorientation. Apollo lands. The potency of jet fuel: how did something so new and fast come from The simultaneity of disparate stories in Raimund, the gay archivist, is a satellite. something so old and slow? my body. Hitchhiking toward his own horizon, I think about the colors that envelop him as he speeds High Country News: the “poor man’s towards it, as it perpetually recedes: hot pink, For him, modest and even abject objects are ” (meth) delivers a similar euphoric cyan, orange. hieroglyphs in whose dark prism social rela- high. Tony was incarcerated for meth use 1. Walter Benjamin described by Hito Steyerl, “A Thing Like You and Me,” eflux 15 (April 2010):http:// tions lay congealed and in fragments. They after using for years to get through grueling www.e-flux. com/journal/a-thing-like-you-and-me. His description feels like an invitation. are understood as nodes, in which tensions 12-hour days of oil and gas drilling. of a historical moment materialize in a flash 2. Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich, The Inability There are a handful of places the bike of awareness or twist grotesquely into the Either you’re wired, or you’re fired, he says. to Mourn (New York: Grove Press, 1984). touches me, and I touch the bike. Thumb commodity fetish. In this perspective, a thing 3. Aldous Huxley, “Wanted, a New Pleasure,” (1931) throttle, palm steer. Thighs hot, foot is never just an object, but a fossil in which in Music at Night and Other Essays (Harmondsworth: balance. Handlebars: what is the spread of a constellation of force is petrified. Things Speed provides the one genuinely modern Penguin, 1950), 162–8. my arms? The prosthesis reverberates. are never just inert objects, passive items, pleasure. 4. Hito Steyerl, “A Thing Like You and Me.”

4 5 , 2020 9 8 13 12 11 10 Hallway Untitled (43) Untitled (37) , 2020 Untitled (2) , 2020 Untitled (3) , 2020 Untitled (40) , 2020 , 2008 Donut Hallway

8 9 10 11 13 Scan of unique glass object. Giclée print, 36 × 52 in. Scan of unique glass object. Giclée print, 24 × 36 in. Scan of unique glass object. Giclée print, 24 × 36 in. Scan of unique glass object. Giclée print, 24 × 36 in. 12 sound, 7 min. Video, Scan of unique glass object. Giclée print, 24 × 36 in. 7 6 Gallery 2020 Untitled, Untitled (Phytochemicals), 2020 Untitled (Dig), 2020 Untitled (37), 2020 4

4 5 6 7 Unique glass amassed by fire, dimensions variable. fire, Unique glass amassed by Ephedrine Installation: Modified glass vessels,Ephedra Sida cordifolia sinica (Ma Huang), Ephedra distachya, (Bala), Pinellia ternata (Ban Xia), soil, desert sand, rock. min. sound, 1:33 Video, Scan of unique glass object. Giclée print, 48 × 65 in. 3

Ignition Switch. Glass, Glass, Ignition Switch. 6 in. × kiln 2.5 cast, × 4 Handlebars. Glass, kiln cast, flameworked, 31 × 9 × 4 in. × 9 4 in. 31 Glass, kiln Air Filter (1). cast, 6 × 4 in. Air Filter (2). Glass, kiln cast, 6 × 4 in. 1 5

2020 2 Untitled (Sand) , 2020 Glass, Parts, 2020

1 2 3 Video, sound, 7 min. Video, Tire (Right). Glass, Front mold, hot blow in. diameter × 9 21 high. Tire (Left). Glass, Front in. mold, 21 hot blow diameter × 9 in. high. Glass, hollow- Battery. core kiln cast, 5 × 3.5 in. Grill. Glass, slump cast, × 3.5 in. × 13.5 10 Video, sound, 28 min. Video,

6 7 8 Untitled (Sand), 2020 Video, sound, 7 min.

Untitled (37), 2020 Scan of unique glass object. Giclée print, 48 × 65 in.

Glass, 2020 Video, sound, 28 min.

Cultivating Weeds: Ephedra sinica, Ephedra distachya, Pinellia ternata and Sida cordifolia southwestern Bakwa province of Afghan- (strength in Sanskrit) which has been valued Marisa Prefer istan until recently. Since the widespread in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of bombings by the U.S. military in 2018 that years for its aphrodisiac properties, in the destroyed opium labs throughout the region, treatment of asthma, to boost physical and the plant, here known as oman, has been cognitive abilities, and for weight loss.12 The harvested and gathered to produce crystal plant was a component of Herbal Ecstacy, a methamphetamine or “‘sheesha’—a name popular supplement in the 1990s, “designed given due to denote its ‘glass’-like shards to expand people’s consciousness by giving that are crushed and smoked or injected.”7 them access to another dimension,” accord- According to one of the plant gatherers, “It ing to Iranian-American filmmaker and has grown in the mountains for a very long herbalist Shaahin Cheyene. Cheyene ran time… No one cares for it, people just go to a multimillion-dollar company producing the mountains during harvest time… In one Herbal Ecstacy until 2004 when the United I am sweating so I open the window. The plants ical uses. These -rich plants have season I can collect up to 99 lbs in one day.”8 States Food and Drug Administration on the radiator near the windowsill quiver been captured, cultivated, commodified, In recent American history, outdoor labs banned all products containing ephedrine.13 in the breeze. They like it warm and dusty, and traded throughout the world for centu- where people “cook” Plants that grow like weeds have queer and would be happiest near a footpath in the ries. Crops like Coffea arabica (coffee) and appear in the Mojave National Preserve, tendencies: they are strange, out of place, desert, but they survive in my apartment where Erythroxylum coca (cocaine) are some of the along dusty hillside trails littered with spoiling or ruining pristine landscapes. These the heat has only one setting: on. They have most highly valued plants with . trash including empty containers of drugs plants hold spaces in-between brownfields and journeyed from warmer climates, and are First isolated from the Ephedra sinica containing .9 These sites farms, cultivated lawns and asphalt streets- preparing to settle into their next habitat, as plant in 1885 by Japanese chemist Nagai are categorized by what is left behind; capes, accumulating knowledge of resilience participants in Dean Erdmann’s And, Apollo: Nagayoshi, ephedrine would later be toxic chemicals are accumulated and and regeneration amidst a changing climate. A Laboratory. synthesized with pseudoephedrine to create abandoned in the landscape, polluting soil Weeds travel by any means necessary to gather Ephedra sinica is a spindly, pine-scented methamphetamine, a highly addictive and contaminating groundwater. Global in new enclaves—wherever they find the shrub that grows along faces of mountains, central-nervous-system . Nagay- desertification or the loss of fertile soil due conditions to live. spreading on the edges of desert landscapes oshi and fellow researchers found that the to poor land management, overfarming, and Pinellia ternata, also known as herbal from East Asia to Northern China. It orig- “crystalline material recognizable to the deforestation, constitutes a major threat supplement ban xia, originates in China, inates in these regions, and is also known naked eye coexisting in the blackish brown to life on earth—according to the United Japan, Korea, and now grows in parts of as a popular traditional Chinese medicinal essence extracted from wild ma huang 4 … Nations, “every year, 75 billion tons of Europe, California, and North America supplement, Ma Huang; some believe that was too toxic to the body’s circulation to fertile soil is lost to land degradation.”10 where it is considered invasive. It can be it has been cultivated longer than any other be used…”5 For thirty years after these As a growing number of regions experience found along roadsides, growing in disturbed herbaceous plant in the world.1 Pollen from experiments, this research lie dormant. desert-like conditions,11 we might benefit soil, and in New York City, it thrives near an Ephedra plant was found in the Shanidar In the United States in 2006, the Combat from acknowledging the plants thriving in the untended edges of gardens alongside cave of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, where Methamphetamine Epidemic Act restricted these harsh conditions—amidst lifeless soil fellow volunteer plants. Its roots are tubers the remains of Neanderthals over 60,000 purchases of more than 3.6 grams per day and detritus produced by humans. that are toxic when raw, containing high years old were discovered to have been of substances containing ephedrine and Sida cordifolia arrives in January. Each levels of ephedrine and calcium oxalate, buried alongside other long-valued medici- pseudoephedrine, which included over-the- pot is wrapped in plastic bags, with drops of which upon consuming, “make the mouth nal plants.2 counter decongestants Claritin D, Zyrtec D condensation and miniature yellow flowers and digestive tract feel as though hundreds Ephedra sinica has been used medic- and Sudafed, also requiring photo identifi- emerging on the plants inside. I rinse each one of needles are being stuck into it.”14 When inally for the treatment of asthma, lung cation and a signature in a log book for the in the kitchen sink. Caring for plants that are prepared properly, the root is a powerful disorders, fevers, colds, and , purchase of these household drugs.6 weeds—and would grow easily if left in the remedy with warming, drying properties, and contains phytochemicals that include I am drinking coffee. It is Monday, and right habitat—feels akin to encouraging an used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to significant amounts of ephedrine, a stim- the light beams through the open window. I invasive plant revolution. These plants have treat nausea, vomiting, coughs and mucus. ulant. It is prepared by boiling the stems water the plants, watching as the liquid drains. migrated from their places of origin, and bring Along with its activating and warming in water, and is consumed as a tea.3 Upon There is a patch of uncultivated dormant new life to our shifting ecological networks. properties, it is also a sedative, calming the consuming Ephedra, the body reacts simi- Jimson weed (Datura stramonium) that once Perhaps they can contribute a mutually nervous system. Several studies cite ban xia larly to when it is pumped with adrenaline; thrived in a tree pit just outside the window. affective glow within the murky spectrum as a synergistic element in herbal antide- increased and constricted There are no living trees in the patch, but there of co-mingling that emerges as “nature” is pressant formulas.15 blood vessels resulting in , are several dead trees piled, where residents recognized as “culture”. I am handling the stem of Pinellia ternata, enhanced cognitive abilities or awakening, also dump their household trash. The places A pervasive shrub that originates in as it reaches for the last bits of sun and begins and weight loss. Ephedrine is an alkaloid, a where wild plants thrive in New York City tend India, Sida cordifolia grows in sandy soils to flower. I insert a small wooden stick into term derived from the Arabic “al-qalw ” or to also be where trash collects. near agricultural disturbances, and is an the soil, and gently the stem of the plant “ashes of plants.” Plants high in alkaloids Ephedra sinica has been an “ignored and invasive weed in the United States. Sida is against it. Interactions that involve humans are powerful substances with pharmacolog- nearly worthless mountain shrub” in the used as an herbal supplement called bala touching living plants produce calming

26 27 Cultivating Weeds: Ephedra sinica, Ephedra distachya, Pinellia ternata and Sida cordifolia Marisa Prefer

effects on human physiology.16 Plants high 1. Blumenthal, Mark, and Penny King. “Ma Huang: 9. Stringfellow, Kim. “Holes in the Desert: A Mojave Ancient Herb, Modern Medicine,, Regulatory Dilemma; Crime Compendium.” KCET, 25 June 2016, www.kcet. in alkaloids contain a power that startlingly A Review of the Botany, Chemistry, Medicinal Uses, org/shows/artbound/holes-in-the-desert-a-mojave- juxtaposes these effects when ingested in Safety, Concerns and Legal Status of Ephedra and Its crime-compendium. the human body. This disambiguation may Alkaloids.” HerbalGram, 1995, cms.herbalgram.org/ herbalgram/issue34/article955.html. 10. The United Nations Decade for Deserts (2010-2020) be likened to the difference between how and the fight against Desertification, https://www.unccd. one might experience living plants, and the 2. Lietava, Jan. “ in a Middle Paleo- int/actions/united-nations-decade-deserts-2010-2020- effects upon consumption of plant-based lithic Grave Shanidar IV?” Journal of Ethnopharma- and-fight-against-desertification. cology, Elsevier, 8 Nov. 2002, www.sciencedirect.com/ extractions without contextual understanding science/article/pii/037887419290023K?via%3Dihub. 11. McSweeny, Robert. “Explainer: Desertification and of their origins. the Role of Climate Change.” Carbon Brief, 20 Aug. 2019, 3. Ratsch, Christian, The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-desertification-and-the- Plants: Ethnopharmacology and its Applications. Roches- role-of-climate-change. Marisa Prefer helps to facilitate rela- ter: Park Street Press, 1998. tionships between plants and people and 12. Galal, Ahmed & Raman, Vijayasankar & Khan, helped to grow the flora for And, Apollo: 4. Laskow, Sarah. “Brewing Bad: The All-Natural Ikhlas. (2015). Sida cordifolia, a Traditional Herb in Origins of Meth.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, Modern Perspective – A Review. Current Traditional A Laboratory. 3 Oct. 2014, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ Medicine. 1. 5-17. 10.2174/2215083801666141226215639. archive/2014/10/brewing-bad-the-all-natural-origins-of- meth/381045/. 13. Jolly, Mark. “King of the Thrill Pill Cult.”; Details (Conde Nast), 1996, issuu.com/herbalecstacy/docs/ 5. Lee, M R. “The History of Ephedra (Ma-Huang).” herbal_ecstacy_details_1996_optimized. The Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Mar. 14. “Pinellia Ternata.” Pfaf Plant Search, pfaf.org/user/ 2011, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21365072. Plant.aspx?LatinName=Pinellia%2Bternata.

6. Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Legal 15. Luo, Lan, et al. “Antidepressant Effects of Banxia Requirements for the Sale and Purchase of Drug Houpu Decoction, a Traditional Chinese Medicinal Products.” U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA, Empirical Formula.” Journal of Ethnopharmacology, https://www.fda. gov/drugs/information-drug-class/ Elsevier, 6 Oct. 2000, www.sciencedirect.com/science/ legal-requirements-sale-and-purchase-drug-products- article/pii/S0378874100002427. containing-pseudoephedrine-ephedrine-and. 16. Koga, Kazuko, and Yutaka Iwasaki. “Psychological 7. Mansfield, David, and Alexander Soderholm. and Physiological Effect in Humans of Touching Plant “Long Read: The Unknown Unknowns of Afghanistan’s Foliage - Using the Semantic Differential Method and New Wave of Methamphetamine Production.” Cerebral Activity as Indicators.” Journal of Physiological USAPP–American Politics and Policy, The London Anthropology, BioMed Central, 15 Apr. 2013, https:// School of Economics, 7 Oct. 2019, https://blogs. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3660240/. lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2019/09/30/long-read-the- unknown-unknowns-of-afghanistans-new-wave-of- methamphetamine-production/.

8. Power, Mike. “Plant-Based Meth Is the Next Frontier of Afghanistan’s Drug Trade.” Vice, 2 Oct. 2019, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xwv83/drug- lords-have-figured-out-how-to-make-meth-from-plants.

28 29 From the Desert to the Sky: Ways of Being and Looking up and down the West Coast by the Hells Although reactionary and rural sub-cul- Eriola Pira Angels, a motorcycle club started by WWII tures are often thought to be isolated and war veterans, likely named after Howard inward-looking, politically conservative Hughes’ Hell’s Angels movie about WWI working-class communities have always fighter pilots. The first chapter of the Hells been global in their networks. Erdmann Angels motorcycle club, the Berdoo chap- draws out connections between them ter, started in San Bernardino, California, through a shared pursuit of speed, be it in in 1948, the same county where the artist the shape of (space) travel velocity or that grew up. Here meth was nicknamed Bikers of cheap stimulant use, legacies of war Coffee. When used recreationally, meth is and imperial conquest, or both. Looking known as “speed” or “ice.” The subcultural at the highs of nationalism and techno- thrill of speed, of riding motorcycles and logical advancement of the last century ATV’s—the sound of which punctuates and the highs of hallucinatory substances, Towards the end of Untitled (Sand) (2020), which new objects can be built, “capable Untitled (Sand), together with its material Erdmann asks us to consider if our current a meditative, almost hallucinatory video, of strategically retrieving both reactionary remnants—is also manifest in the gallery moment of social and political crises isn’t bodies appear, three of them, defined by the horrors and fleetingly queer ephemerality through glass cast sculptures of parts of the comedown or crash. What comes after— very dust their feet kick up as they franti- from the otherwise sequestered terrain of an ATV, a technological descendant of Erdmann’s project includes work with cally move across the screen. Conjured by the working-class desert.”1 the moon buggy. Glass tires, battery, grill, the archive and archivists of the Magnus sand, wind, and sound, these figures mate- Glass is derived from heating at ex- ignition switch, handlebars, air filters and Hirschfeld Society in Berlin, who are active- rialize on screen as sculptural images. The tremely high temperatures the chemical so on occupy the center of the gallery. ly recuperating the history (and oppres- desert where Dean Erdmann grew up is the compound silica (silicon dioxide, or According to their method of casting, they sion) of sexuality and sexual science—is a backdrop for this video, and it underscores quartz), the primary constituent of sand. have varying surfaces or qualities, from commitment to reparative histories and the the exploration of speed, technology, and In the deserts of the American Southwest, the translucent and reflective to the more construction of alternative repositories for time in their first New York solo exhibi- where nuclear testing was carried out during opaque and frosty. This echoes the afore- histories and reorientation for the future. tion, And, Apollo: A Laboratory. The desert WWII, the blast heat transformed sand into mentioned “ice” and “crystal.” It also refers Taking a long view of our current political is also characterized by both constant atomic glass. A preferred site of military to the different states of water, from clear landscape and rising illiberalism, Erdmann change at the surface level and a static, deep testing, war, and planetary violence, the glass-like liquid to frosted ice, which for the generates new materialities, images, and time quality. The possibility of being able desert is also connected to the military’s artist also connects to the idea of deep time: meditative and queer experiences that allow to experience self and body as governed invention and use of crystal meth, also the California desert was formerly oceans for the kind of transformative, recuperative by this geological time/space stands in known as “glass,” which today ravages many and may well return to that condition as and sensorial responses we may be lacking contrast to the sociocultural time/space American poor and white communities. the acceleration of speed and technological in facing such fast-coming urgencies. that governs the desert and its subcultures. Alongside voice and screen logs from Apol- production impacts the planet’s climate and In the expanse of the desert, gender, class, lo’s space command and the history of the the ice caps’ melt. Eriola Pira is Curator at the Vera List and identity become less determined. They military’s development and use of metham- Under the glow of grow lights, plants Center for Art and Politics. are replaced by a shared temporary pres- phetamines, Glass (2020) recounts a family containing ephedrine grow in glass recepta- ence and sensory experience, while limitless member’s experience with meth and other cles in the gallery. Most significant among narratives of being emerge, as does a terrain drug addictions and recovery. First devel- them is Ephedra sinica or Ma Huang, a of queered bodies. oped by Japanese chemists in Berlin in 1893 bushy, evergreen plant that grows in Central In a second video, Untitled (Dig) (2020), and later refined in 1919, meth was used Asia, as well as North America, first used a woman softly digs around a mound of in pill form by German and Japanese mili- to synthesize methamphetamine from the rocks in the desert until a molten mass of taries during WWII. Sold as Pervitin and ephedrine found in it. The recipe for how to glass appears. Detritus from beer bottles nicknamed Tank Chocolate or Pilot’s Salt make meth, listing lab equipment and chem- thrown into bonfires after recreational ATV by German soldiers, while Japanese soldiers ical ingredients, is audible throughout the (all-terrain vehicle) rides across California’s called it Hiropon, which is roughly trans- space. “A laboratory” in the title refers both Anza-Borrego Desert; the colored glass has lated as “love of work,” the miracle drug to the suggested meth-lab and Erdmann’s lost its translucency to become condensed could keep tired pilots alert and an entire in-progress research project, of which this cultural sediment from working-class, rural military euphoric. It was the ideal war drug. exhibition is only a part. The larger project white American communities. Exhibited in Glass includes German World War II soldier probes wartime cultures, the space race, the gallery as artifacts, these glass objects and writer Heinrich Böll’s letters home speed, technology, and xenophobia. Taking recall the social aspects and space of these asking for more Pervitin as he grew cold and an archival approach to the artist’s white, desert bonfires—a space that is replicated in apathetic to the war. working-class family history, it also encom- the seating arrangement of a third video in After its military use, crystal meth passes a trove of family letters sympathetic the gallery, Glass. For Erdmann, these and found a consumer market in the postwar to the Nazi regime that was sent to relatives 1. Dean Erdmann, Parsons Fine Arts Visiting Artists other “sculptural images” are parts from period. Beginning in the 1960s, it was sold in Germany and recently foundby Erdmann. Lecture, The New School, New York, September 11, 2019.

30 31 Dean Erdmann Vera List Center for Art and Politics Thank You Credit 2018–2020 Vera List Center Fellow Established at The New School in 1992, the Dean Erdmann’s And, Apollo: A Laboratory is a Dean Erdmann. And, Apollo: A Laboratory Dean Erdmann completed their MFA at Vera List Center for Art and Politics is a 2018–2020 Vera List Center Fellowship proj- January 16–February 11, 2020 UC San Diego (2008). They received a CCI research center and a public forum for art, ect and has been supported by funds, research The New School Completion Grant (2012), CCF Emerging culture and politics. Through public programs, assistance, and residencies in New York and Sheila C. Johnson Design Center Artist Fellowship (Los Angeles, 2013), Vera List classes, prizes, fellowships, publications, and Berlin provided by the Vera List Center for Art Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries Center for Art and Politics Fellowship (2018– exhibitions focusing on a biennial research and Politics. 66 Fifth Avenue 2020), Urban Glass Artist Fellowship (2019). theme, the Vera List Center champions the arts New York Erdmann’s work has been exhibited at ONE as expressions of the political moments from The exhibition, documented here, was orga- Archive (Los Angeles), 21st Century Museum which they emerge, considers the intersection nized by Christiane Paul, Director/Chief The exhibition is accompanied by the following of Contemporary Art (Kanazawa, Japan), between art and politics as a space where new Curator, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, and program: REDCAT (Los Angeles), Hammer Museum forms of civic engagement must be developed, Eriola Pira, Curator, Vera List Center for Art (Los Angeles), the Images Festival (Toronto), and fosters a vibrant and diverse community of and Politics. It has been supported by the Vera Queer Archives: and the MexiCali Biennial (San Bernardino) artists, scholars, and policy makers who take List Center for Art and Politics, the Sheila C. Between the Individual and the Institutional among many other locations.Their Los Angeles creative, intellectual, and political risks to bring Johnson Design Center and Urban Glass. January 27, 2020 Metro artwork commissioned for Crenshaw/ about positive change. Theresa Lang Community and Student Center LAX Line project opens later in 2020. A We would like to thank the Sheila C. Johnson The New School genderqueer artist who grew up in a small Vera List Center Staff Design Center staff: Daniel Chou, Kristina desert town, Dean Erdmann currently lives and Kaufman, Christiane Paul, and Daisy Wong; A conversation with artists Dean Erdmann, works between Los Angeles and New York. Carin Kuoni Noah Beckwith, Gary Fogelson, and Ryan Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Carlos Motta, Senior Director/Chief Curator Waller at Other Means; Philip Farra; Marisa and scholar Shannon Mattern, moderated Vera List Center Fellowship Prefer; Tabor Banquer, Senior Director of by Christiane Paul. Eriola Pira Development, The New School; and the The Vera List Center Fellowships support Curator members of the Board the Vera List Center, Vera List Center for Art and Politics exceptional artists at a critical moment of their especially Susan Meiselas, Megan Noh and The New School career, who undertake ambitious projects that Adrienne Umeh Silvia Rocciolo. Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall advance art as a vital tool for social and polit- Assistant Director of Operations 66 West 12th Street, 6th floor ical agency. The appointments provide the The artist thanks: Abigail Raphael Collins, Ais New York, NY 10011 opportunity to develop a project drawing from Vera List Center Board McNamara, Amanda Parmer, Amy Lemaire, (212) 229-2436 the resources of The New School, to expand on Brian Kibler, Carin Kuoni, Catherine Lord, [email protected] it in collaboration with students and faculty, James Keith (JK) Brown, Chair Devin Mathis, Christiane Paul, Dorie Guthrie, veralistcenter.org and to bring it to the public through the Vera Megan E. Noh, Vice Chair Eriola Pira, Genevieve Yue, James Corporan, List Center’s interdisciplinary public programs. Norman L. Kleeblatt, Secretary Marisa Prefer, Magnus Hirschfeld Society Design The Vera List Center Fellows are part of Mariana Amatullo and Raimund Wolfert, Merve Kayan, Monica Other Means the intellectual foundation of the Center. With Frances Beatty Duncan, and James Krone, and all who have their fellowship projects, they advance the Ronald Feldman been in dialogue as this project unfolds. With Editors understanding of the intersection between art Marilyn Greene a special thanks to their family for sharing Carin Kuoni and Eriola Pira and politics, in relation to the Center’s biennial Susan Hapgood their stories. focus theme. Elizabeth R. Hilpman Photography Past fellows include Lawrence Abu Carin Kuoni Dario Lasagni Hamdan,Maurice Berger, Wendy T. Ewald, Jane Lombard Andrea Geyer, Casey Gollan, Margarita Susan Meiselas Copyright Gutman, Susan Hapgood, Sharon Hayes, Mendi and Keith Obadike The authors for individual contributions; Danny Hoch, Ashley Hunt, Bouchra Khalili, Nancy Delman Portnoy the compilation: ©Vera List Center 2020 Lin + Lam, Jill Magid, Kobena Mercer, Silvia Rocciolo Lorraine O’Grady, Olu Oguibe, Silvana Mary Watson Paternostro, Wendy Perron, Marjetica Potrc, Leslie Prosterman, Alexander Provan, Walid Raad, Sarah Rothenberg, Edward Rothstein, Katya Sander, Robert Sember, Joshua Simon,Victoria Sobel, Elisabeth Sussman, David Thorne, and Jonathan Weinberg. The 2018–2020 Vera List Center Fellows are Dean Erdmann and Helene Kazan. Dean Erdmann. And, Apollo: A Laboratory 2018–2020 Vera List Center Fellowship project. is a

ISBN 978-1-7341511-1-4