PRESS RELEASE:

Closing the circle––completing the exchange––between studio and gallery, art making and curating, presence and absence…

 

Cathouse Proper opens an addendum to our current exhibition, 'Alex Brown: Presence Chamber', adding two new works to the already existing installation. The two added works were made earlier this year by Cathouse FUNeral / Proper’s founding director, David Dixon, while in residence in Alex Brown’s former studio in Des Moines, Iowa. Each of the two works is taken from a larger series that reflect on the art, life, and this exhibition of Alex Brown. The pieces were conceived and executed while researching and organizing the current exhibition, and contain materials and references derived from Dixon’s time in Brown’s studio. 

 

This addendum stretches the usual protocol of the gallerist’s relationship to exhibited work; in this regard, we appreciate the understanding and consent of the Alex Brown Foundation. In this final season of the Cathouse FUNeral / Proper program, we are considering notions of ending. It seems fitting then to end a show that directly addresses mortality and the extension of self through the art object by reflexively multiplying that absent presence by adding more art. From the earliest days of the Cathouse program in 2013 we have been “harvesting” relevant material consequences of the staged exhibitions, not as relics, but as art objects. The two additions to 'Alex Brown: Presence Chamber' participate in this harvesting tradition by being artworks that are derived from the conditions of the curated exhibition.