NADA Miami Beach 2016 Happened

NADA Miami Beach 2016 at the Deauville Beach Resort was a bit of a maze that required a map. Fortunately, I ran into the most interesting work by chance.

247365 (New York)

When Brian Belott’s stone objects initially appeared at Art Basel 2016, Art News began a rumor that Beloit may be making a move. The publication described, “the prominent placement of a Belott work in the middle of the Gavin Brown’s Enterprise Art Basel booth—a big table covered chockablock with his signature stone calculators, stone remote controls, and other stone doohickeys.” Art News 06/17/16 . Belott’s collection of stone calculators on a table in the center of the 247365 booth has proven this rumor to be just that.

Brian Belott, Rock Calculator, 2016, Acrylic, sand, rocks, gel medium, calculator, 6.5 x 4.5 x 2 inches

Brian Belott, Rock Calculator, 2016, Acrylic, sand, rocks, gel medium, calculator, 8 x 6 x 3 inches

Lyles & King (New York)

Phillip Birch, After the Flesh, 2016, Two channel HD video, plastic, silicone
Edition 1 of 3 plus 1 A.P., image courtesy of Lyles & King

The pod on the floor that connects the two entities on the monitors made my inner nerd squeal with delight as I identified the pod, an organic gaming device at the center of David Cronenberg’s 1999, low-tech futuristic film — eXistenZ IMDB  . Phillip Birch uses the gaming port and a launch point and takes it to the extreme. The port how the mind interpreted the world and shaped reality became one that transformed and eventually transcended the body. Birch tells a story of how we became posthuman.

“Our data ports remained on at all times. We couldn’t remember a time that the ports were shut off, disconnected. When we would disconnect from them. We were told that our bodies would be fine. We were observed, things were expected of us, a green pill was created to help us remember to take a certain blue pill. Some questioned how this simulated pill would manifest itself to our physical forms, the forms near forgotten, but most of us happily gobbled up what was offered, hardly aware of the repercussions they may have. How greedy we were with these pills and with the time we were given. Time stretched and was reshaped. The borders between now and then seemed to blend together to create one mutated whole. Time could no longer be measured in seconds. Seconds were originally developed using our heartbeat as a referent. What was the use of a heartbeat when we no longer felt its pulse? What was the use of a second when a civilization could rise and fall between its mountainous peaks?”

Phillip Birch, After the Flesh (detail), 2016, Two channel HD video, plastic, silicone, image by MC Stevens

Muscles atrophied and fell away. At first we got fat. As our muscle tissue was cannibalized our bodies ballooned. We were chubby for a while. If we waddled around our domiciles we would often fall because it had became difficult to see the ground. Our swollen obese bodies developed sores and eventually calluses. We were left with a thick textured skin that was hard to the touch. This way when we fell we bounced slightly from the ground.

Phillip Birch, Exiting Neuromorphic Space (Low Soul), 2016, Silicone 8.25 x 4.75 x 3.25 inches, image courtesy of Lyles & King

“With the discovery of the soul and its finite supply, a new economy was born within Neuromorphic space. As with any limited resource some individuals quickly learned how to hoard it and accrue more of it than others. At first this began somewhat innocently, Neuromorphic Space was originally developed as an open source project, as a labor of love among participants looking to develop a new reality. These individuals hoped that they would construct a place where an individual was freed of the class and race struggles that have plagued us since the dawn of civilization, since humanity arose from the protoplasmic goo. This was to be a space that replicated the divine, a new utopia for the masses. A new world that would abolish preconceived notions and the bonds that chained us.”

Neon Parc (Melbourne)

“Kaleidoscopic, intricate and chaotic Paul Yore’s work is carnevalesque, but with a critical edge. Themes such as Australia’s violent history and consumer excess are spliced with disparate imagery including cartoons, pornography, and slogans from global popular and Australian vernacular culture. Textile as a medium is used for practical and conceptual means: for its finesse, and subverting the craft as an historical form. His use of collage disrupts dominant narratives, and creates frictions of significance between repurposed images.”

Though the artist makes work about his ‘native’ Australia, the imagery caught my eye from a distance because I thought the works were a response to the recent political chaos in the US. Paul Yore’s work illuminates the similarities between the US and Australia’s genocidal, colonial and white supremacist past and how it has shaped the present. The US is a hot mess right now and this work resonated with me.

Paul Yore, Nothing Comes From Nothing, 2016, Mixed media tapestry, 171 x 198 cm (irreg)

Paul Yore, Nothing Comes From Nothing, 2016, (detail)

Paul Yore, Spectacular Spectacular, 2016, Mixed media tapestry, fairy lights, 241 x 183 cm

Paul Yore, Spectacular Spectacular, 2016, (detail)

Spectacular Spectacular, 2016, (detail)