The Swiss Institute in New York presents Heart to Hand Zoe Leonard, Klara Liden, Adam Pendleton, Oscar Tuazon/Elias Hansen, on view March 7, 2012– April 15, 2012.
Acclaimed for the collaborative series Evas Arche und der Feminist, Pati Hertling’s curatorial efforts focus on engaging individuals and fostering community. For this exhibition, Swiss Institute has offered the curator carte blanche in the main gallery. The exhibition will include a selection of works by contributing artists Zoe Leonard, Klara Liden, Adam Pendleton and Oscar Tuazon/Elias Hansen. Conceived in the wake of Occupy Wall Street and the Republican primaries, Hertling’s exhibition addresses the relationship between aesthetics and social conscience. At first sight, the selected artworks are formally abstract, yet upon further meditation, their conceptual disobedience is revealed. The works in this exhibition suggest and provoke political themes yet leave the response and action to the public. Taken as a whole, the exhibition questions the role of art in times of heightened political consciousness. Problematizing the contingencies of a social contract, it points to an intuitive overarching process. Albeit visceral and rare, Heart to Hand emphasizes the exchange between artist, artwork, and audience, namely the moment at which a piece of heart is offered into the hands of the public. – www.swissinstitute.net