In the waiting room, we wait for something to happen.
In the gallery, we also wait for something to happen.
The objective of waiting in any particular waiting room is usually clear. It is less certain why we spend our time lingering in an art gallery.
Waiting rooms suspend our particular temporality for the sake of worldly obligations— the dentist’s office, the legal clinic, the DMV. These places are common and inescapable. While we aren't forced to be there (an involuntary waiting room is a prison) there is an element of coercion. We feel trapped between ambiguity and anticipation. Do we find the opposite in the quiet air of the white cube? Or in it’s sibling, the luxury storefront where ostensibly liberated consumers exult in their freedom of choice?
We can argue, supported by the last few decades of art criticism, that construction of a gallery space is a rule-driven, occult process designed to preserve a set of aesthetic, economic, and cultural values derived from various hegemonic ideologies. This process mandates effacing, appropriating or re-articulating the material and social traces of what existed before. Sometimes this is a violent and complete erasure. Sometimes traces of the past coexist and, in a few cases, are animated and re-inscribed into a new discursive record. However, regardless of the intent or scope of the transformation into art-space, the resulting "blanked" space is haunted by its prehistory.
We may not know what the previous visitors to this space were waiting for, but neither do we know exactly what to anticipate while we wait here among objects made by friends.
Featured artists
Jueqian Fang is an artist from Jinhua, China. She is now working and living in Seattle.
John Knight received his MFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art. Exhibitions include presentations at Tela.Real, Seattle, WA; Private Places, Portland, OR; American Institute of Thoughts and Feelings, Tucson, AZ; Julius Caesar, Chicago, IL; and Muscle Beach, Portland, OR. Curatorial projects include: Williamson | Knight, Cherry & Lucic, and H.Klum Fine Art, Portland, OR.
Kimberly Lyle is an interdisciplinary artist utilizing sound, sculpture, interactive electronics, and installation. Her current practice explores our complex relationship to systems of language, learning, and technology. She received an MFA in Intermedia from Arizona State University and a BA in both Psychology and Art from Stetson University.
Nicolas G. Miller is an artist and writer living in Los Angeles, CA. Recent exhibitions include Full Haus: The Seeld Library at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; A Real Pleasure at INCA Seattle; and Spring / Summer at the University Art Gallery at UC Irvine. He persistently writes essays on sculpture and fashion for Effects magazine in London. For nearly a decade he has he has co-hosted The Talking Show with the inimitable Steve Kado, a radio program dedicated to talking in/as/for visual art on KCHUNG Radio in Los Angeles.
Cydnei Mallory is an interdisciplinary artist based in Phoenix, Arizona. Interested in materiality, Mallory uses everything from cast metals, rope, and basic fabrics to hairnets, silicone, and hair. Combining traditional and non-traditional practices in her work, Mallory uses the body as a reference to explore issues surrounding stereotyped ideas of gender, sexuality, and class.
Kenzie Wells lives and works in Tucson, AZ where she is currently pursuing her MFA at the University of Arizona. She is originally from Knoxville, TN and received her BFA in 2015 from the University of Tennessee. Current and upcoming residencies and exhibitions include the Wassaic Project Artist Residency in Wassaic, NY, From Here to Eternity, MOCA Tucson, and A New Unity: The Life and Afterlife of the Bauhaus, The University of Arizona Museum of Art. Wells uses materials found in the urban and domestic landscape to discuss the gullible nature of human perception and its relationship to consumer culture.
Jueqian Fang, Untitled (White Closet), 2014. Single-channel video, 3 minutes, 58 seconds.
Jueqian Fang, Still from Untitled (White Closet), 2014. Single-channel video, 3 minutes, 58 seconds.
John Knight, Untitled (famine foods), 2019. Wheat-pasted posters on weathered plywood. 50 x 140 in.
John Knight, Untitled (famine foods), 2019. Wheat-pasted posters on weathered plywood. 50 x 140 in.
Kenzie Wells, Softeners, 2019. Foam, rubber ball, spray paint, cement. 40 x 30 x 6 in.
Kenzie Wells, Softeners, 2019. Foam, rubber ball, spray paint, cement. 40 x 30 x 6 in.
Cydnei Mallory, Untitled, 2019. Wood, paracord, steel. Dimensions variable.
Cydnei Mallory, Untitled, 2019. Wood, paracord, steel. Dimensions variable.
Cydnei Mallory, Untitled, 2019. Wood, paracord, steel. Dimensions variable.
Cydnei Mallory, Untitled, 2019. Wood, paracord, steel. Dimensions variable.
Cydnei Mallory, Untitled, 2019. Wood, paracord, steel. Dimensions variable.
Nicolas G. Miller, Flash, Bam, Alakazam (Sculpture), 2019. Metal filing cabinet, resin, paint. 35 x 36 x 19.5 in.
(l to r) Nicolas G. Miller, Outfit for No Weather, 2019. Garments, artist's hangers, steel, aircraft wire. Dimensions variable.
Nicolas G. Miller, Flash, Bam, Alakazam (Pictures), 2019. Archival pigment prints, aluminium picture frames. 24.5 x 20 x 1.5 in. each.
Nicolas G. Miller, Flash, Bam, Alakazam (Sculpture), 2019. Metal filing cabinet, resin, paint. 35 x 36 x 19.5 in.
Nicolas G. Miller, Flash, Bam, Alakazam (Sculpture), 2019. Metal filing cabinet, resin, paint. 35 x 36 x 19.5 in.
Nicolas G. Miller, Flash, Bam, Alakazam (Pictures), 2019. Archival pigment prints, aluminium picture frames. 24.5 x 20 x 1.5 in. each.
Nicolas G. Miller, Flash, Bam, Alakazam (Pictures), 2019. Archival pigment prints, aluminium picture frames. 24.5 x 20 x 1.5 in. each.
Kimberly Lyle, After Words, 2018-19. Birch, copper, plastic tubing, acrylic, Arduino Uno, MP3 shield, sound sensor, audio files, 3D printed models. Dimensions variable.
Kimberly Lyle, After Words, 2018-19. Birch, copper, plastic tubing, acrylic, Arduino Uno, MP3 shield, sound sensor, audio files, 3D printed models. Dimensions variable.
Kimberly Lyle, After Words, 2018-19. Birch, copper, plastic tubing, acrylic, Arduino Uno, MP3 shield, sound sensor, audio files, 3D printed models. Dimensions variable.