NO BINGO FOR FELONS Arcadia University Art Gallery Exhibition Checklist August 28 – November 3, 2013 Height precedes width precedes depth.
Frank Bender
Anna Duval 1977 fiberglass, clay, paint, wig 12” x 8" x 10” Courtesy of Frank Bender Forensics, LLC
World-renowned forensic artist Frank Bender began his career without any formal training in forensics. As a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy and an artist interested in anatomy, he had the opportunity to see the remains of an unidentified crime victim presented to him by a medical examiner. Studying the victim, he believed he could render a reliable sculptural likeness solely from the remains. His attempt, included in this exhibition—Bender’s first reconstruction— eventually led to the successful identification of murder victim Anna Duval by a New Jersey State Police detective. It is one of dozens of busts by Bender that proved instrumental in solving crimes, demonstrating his uncanny instincts both with rendering the body as well as the psychology of the subjects with which he worked.
Jennifer Bolande The Porn Series 1982/83 black and white photography 16” x 20" framed Courtesy of the artist
Bloande's Porn Series is described by the artist as "cropped stills from 50s retro porn films by Irving Klaw. Watching them really fast, I noticed these moments of calm at the beginning or the end, with all of this ‘activity’ in between. It was this kind of aporia, with just an empty set, before that particular kind of narrative ride takes place." In these noir-ish images we see the spaces between transgression. Nothing in the images is alarming or shocking, still—there is something off about the lighting, something seedy about the space. In spite of the ubiquity of pornography in contemporary culture, at the time the images Bolande re-photographs were first made, pornography operated in a legal gray-area. In many parts of the U.S. pornography production is still illegal. (Quote taken from an interview with Jennifer Bolande by J. Louise Makary for Incite, August 21, 2012.)
Mel Chin HOME y SEW 9 1994 External: Glock 9mm handgun, steel, polycarbine plastic, brass, enamel on silver Internal: Ace bandage, micro electronic locator, normal saline (100ml of 0.9% Sodium Chloride), narcotic analgestic (4.88 mg oxycodone hydrochloride, 500 mg acetaminophen), intramuscular Epinephrin (0.3 mg), angiocathether (14 gugage), IV needle and short polyethylene tubing 5 7/16” x 7 5/16” x 1 3/16" each Courtesy of the artist
Mel Chin’s HOME y SEW 9 consists of a Glock 9mm handgun that has had its interior gutted and replaced with a fully functioning “emergency gunshot trauma treatment kit.” Reversing the utility of the Glock to heal rather than harm, Chin places emphasis on solution over destruction in communities with high crime rates.
Honoré Daumier Les Gens de Justice c. 1873 lithograph 15” x 18 ½” framed Courtesy of Julian Hoeber
French artist Honoré Daumier (1808 -1879) created numerous courtroom drawings and caricatures which th provide insightful political and social commentary about 19 - century France. Additionally of note, he himself spent six months in prison for a satirical drawing he did of Louis Phillippe imposing heavy taxation.
John Divola 75V10 (from the series Vandalism) 1975 silver gelatin print 25” x 24” framed Courtesy of the artist & Gallery Luisotti
75V09 (from the series Vandalism) 1975 silver gelatin print 25” x 24” framed Courtesy of the artist & Gallery Luisotti
In the 70s Divola broke into abandoned buildings and marked them with spray paint to augment the already damaged spaces. Divola would then photograph the altered space. The resulting images hover between being documents of broken architecture marred by graffiti and elegant abstractions and visual puns.
Alyse Emdur Backdrop Painted by Darrell Van Mastrigt in State Correctional Institution - Graterford, Pennsylvania 2010 color photograph 41” x 52" Courtesy of the artist
Anonymous Backdrop Painted in Shawangunk Correctional Facility 2010 color photograph 41” x 52" Courtesy of the artist
Alyse Emdur’s photographs of visiting room backdrops in prisons are part of her book Prison Landscapes (2012). The artist explains the images by stating, “Such backdrops, often painted by talented inmates, are used within the prisons as portrait studios. As inmates and their visitors pose for photos in front of these idealized landscapes they pretend, for a brief moment, that they are someplace else. The photographs are given to these visitors as gifts to take home and remember the faces of their loved ones while they are incarcerated.”
Gregory Green Nuc Dev Ed 2000/2001 mixed media 45” x 27” x 32” Courtesy of the artist and Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium, Kinz Tillow Fine Arts, New York, NY, Anna Kustera, New York, NY, Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, Florida
In this work, Gregory Green demonstrates how a layman can construct a perfectly working nuclear bomb. Green’s bomb is a completely accurate, potentially useable bomb, only by replacing a baseball for the plutonium, has Green kept this bomb safe. While, on first consideration a nuclear bomb is not specific to urban crime, Green has said the intent behind his work is to show “the real potential for chaos that is out there - the more we ignore the disenfranchised, the more the possibility of horror exists." Real life illustrations of this sentiment have been born out in school shootings across the country where students have acquired or constructed weapons from Internet instruction.
Vic Henderson My Crimes Number IV, with Bulb 1975 graphite on paper 30 1/8” x 35 1/16” Courtesy of the artist
Henderson’s drawing My Crime Number IV, with Bulb is one of a series of carefully rendered graphite drawings of smashed and destroyed home furnishings. Framed like a crime scene photograph, Henderson’s drawing doesn’t reveal the motive or action of the crime, only the remaining scene. One is forced to wonder if the artist has rendered a real or imaginary scene and if it’s a serious violent episode or merely a tantrum.
Suzanne Lacy No Blood, No Foul 1997 performance documented via dvd 13 minutes, 15 seconds Courtesy of the artist
Suzanne Lacy worked alongside youth activists in Oakland, California, city council members, and the Mayor’s office to draft a Youth Policy Initiative that would create a dedicated stream of funding to serve youth needs. No Blood/No Foul was performed on the eve of a vote on the initiative by the Oakland City Council with the Mayor, council members, and a large audience in attendance. The event pitted youth against police officers in a tough, competitive, and fast-paced "basketball as performance" artwork. The video, with its live action footage, pre-recorded interviews of players, half-time teenage dance presentation, street hip sound track, and real sports commentators, mixed up the rules of the normal basketball game. The audience participated as referees, voting calls up or down. The work received extensive local and national television coverage and was widely acknowledged as an example of the Oakland Youth Policy Initiative in action. (Based on entry from Video Data Bank website.)
Damon Locks The Public Transport 2010 digital print 22.5” x 36” Courtesy of the artist
According to Locks, his work “often revolves around people and their landscape; the narrative themes of protest, unrest, and tension are woven throughout. " The addition of Locks’ print to an exhibition that focuses on the traces of criminal acts as opposed to depicting criminal action, adds to the exploration of how a place might embody what has happened there.
Kori Newkirk Long Division (V.I) 2013 newsprint, ink, steel 9” x 145” Courtesy of the artist
Made up of years of collected newspaper clippings, Long Division turns photographs of police cordoning off crime scenes into a drawing in space. Newkirk collapses the way police mark off space from the public into the way drawing or sculpture can illuminate spatial relationships within the gallery. The piece, whose title is a play on words, imagines a nearly endless group of officers, as well as a vast divide between the viewer and the police.
Yoshua Okón Poli I 1999 single channel video 4 minutes, 14 seconds Courtesy of the artist
Poli III 1999 single channel video 7 minutes, 2 seconds Courtesy of the artist
Poli I and Poli III are part of a larger six-channel video installation entitled Oríllese a la Orilla. In Poli I Okón arranges a confrontation with a Mexico City policeman causing an absurd fight that starts with an argument about whether he is allowed to point the camera at the policeman and escalates into an array of violent yet playful insults that highlight many of the social conflicts common in the city. For Poli III, Okón joins a policeman in his private booth and engages in a bizarre conversation which becomes increasingly threatening.
Yoko Ono/John Lennon Rape 1969 16 mm film transferred to video 75 minutes, 15 seconds Courtesy of YouTube.com
Yoko Ono’s website imaginepeace.com describes Rape as, “The implacable, continuous and brutal harassment of a girl by a male camera crew.” Ono hired a camera crew to follow a random girl through the city until she was trapped and falling down. John Lennon later defended the film saying, "We are showing how all of us are exposed and under pressure in our contemporary world. This isn't just about the Beatles. What is happening to this girl on the screen is happening in Biafra, Vietnam, everywhere." Especially in our contemporary culture of NSA monitoring, this film underscores how surveillance becomes a crime against the surveilled.
Yoko Ono Season of Glass 1981 cover for LP 12 ¾” x 12 ¾” Courtesy of Julian Hoeber
The cover of Ono’s album Season of Glass (1981) her first solo album recorded after the assassination of John Lennon, is a photograph she took of Lennon’s glasses covered in blood, behind which can be seen, New York City’s Central Park. She has consistently used this image over the years to th not only express grief, but to illustrate her activism, most recently on what would have been their 44 wedding anniversary, in support of gun control.
Kelly Poe Incendiary Device 2011 cast porcelain 13” x 6” x 9” Courtesy of the artist
Incendiary Device is a sculptural recreation of the device used by Rod Coronado, an environmental and animal rights activist. A member of ALF (Animal Liberation Front) – Coronado used this device to fight the fur trade. Poe’s longtime correspondence with imprisoned activists, often being held as domestic terrorists, is at the heart of her work. Exploring our own culpability in the destruction of the environment, Poe illustrates the direct link between urban industrialism and prison systems and the rapid loss of untouched natural resources. Although, on the surface, Poe’s work focuses on
non-urban environments, it brings attention to the impact of urban “progress” on increased environmental damage. Additionally, she asks the questions: What constitutes a crime? When is it justified? Whose transgression is worse?
Tom Sachs Murder/Suicide 2010 wood, metal 36” x 4” x 7” Courtesy of Chris Bundy
Murder/Suicide originated as a gift from Sachs to a friend. One of a number of handmade fully functioning shotguns (now disabled with a welded firing pin), this piece includes bullets labeled for each family member of the recipient of the gift. Known for remaking industrially engineered products by hand, Sachs has made dozens of guns. An urban legend has floated around for many years that this project originated when Sachs, at the time an unknown artist, made the guns specifically to sell to NYPD firearms buyback programs.
Dread Scott Burning the US Constitution 2011 pigment prints 26” x 20" each Courtesy of the artist
This work documents a performance in which the artist’s sole action was the burning of a facsimile of the Constitution. It was performed February 2011 as an act of protest that reflects the tenuousness of laws applied with prejudice. The artwork directly references and is in part inspired by Ai Weiwei’s Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995), a photo-triptych that depicts the Chinese dissident artist dropping a 2000-year old vase. Scott takes his name from the 1857 Dred Scott Case, a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court held that African Americans, whether slave or free, could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court, and that the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the federal territories acquired after the creation of the United States.
Dirk Skreber Suspicious Package 2 2010 hand-painted bronze 5.25” x 11.5” x 9" Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
Skreber’s painted bronze cast of a simple cardboard box is designed to startle. A trompe l’oeil sculpture of a package someone left behind, suggesting a bomb, the piece asks viewers to be more aware of their surroundings and wonder what trouble the work of art might have in store for them.
Zoe Strauss Police Car 2011 ink jet print 20” x 30” Courtesy of the artist
Strauss's photograph demonstrates her fascination with forms of minimalist abstraction that nonetheless serve as candid documents of her south Philadelphia neighborhood. The anonymity of the LED lights on the police vehicle suggest the antithesis of friendly, neighborhood cops on the beat and the imperative "to project and serve". The act of taking this photograph, in and of itself, amounts to a quiet form of retaliation that bears affinities to other transgressions included in the exhibition.
Arne Svenson Unspeaking Likeness #5 2005 silver gelatin print 50” x 40” Courtesy of the artist and Julie Saul Gallery
When Svenson was employed at the Mutter Museum he discovered the forensic heads sculpted by Frank Bender and became interested in photographing them. Svenson wanted to “further humanize” what Bender had already very much infused with humanity, and chose large scale, black and white photography to do so. His portrait of Anna Duval, Unspeaking Likeness #5, is exhibited along with with the original Bender sculpture, illustrating different approaches to breathing new life into a victim of violent crime.
Unknown Crime Scene 1930s black and white photographs 13.5” x 15.5" framed
Courtesy of the collection of Luc Sante
Four evidence photographs taken by anonymous crime scene photographers for the NYPD and selected from the collection of Luc Sante from his forthcoming project entitled Further Evidence.