Press Release: Jeremy Deller

New Works: 03.3
11.13.03

New Works: 03.3

November 13, 2003 ?nuary 25, 2004

Jeremy Deller London, England

Kim Jones New York, New York

Robyn O'Neil Houston, Texas

Selected by Laura Hoptman

About the Artist

Although based in London, England, Jeremy Deller is a constant traveler.
Defying attempts at easy categorization, his work combines performance,
video, sound, ephemera, and photographs into projects that excavate the
history of a particular region. Deller's process involves physically exploring a
place and talking to the people who live there. The results of his research are
woven into multi-media pieces that use people and their stories to depict the
fabric of their land.

Deller's last several projects have been investigations of the United States.
After the Gold Rush (2002), created during a residency in California, is a
tour book turned treasure hunt. The book and CD that comprise the project
lead the reader/listener on a linguistic, sonic, and pictorial journey through
northern California. Like the folk singers he admires, in this work, Deller spins
a tale of the Golden State by celebrating its unknowns.

For This is us (2003), Deller explored upstate New York?area,
like San Francisco, with strong ties to folk culture. Working only with sound,
Deller created an audio portrait of the area. He produced a CD and
orchestrated a concert, bringing together various contributors to the region's
aural landscape?m a punk band and cheerleaders to birds of prey and a
bluegrass group. In this and other works Deller unites diverse elements from
an area, with the aim of offering a rich, albeit unconventional, version of
place.

Jeremy Deller was born in 1966 in London, England. He studied art history
at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, England, and later at University of
Sussex, Brighton, England. Deller is the co-initiator of the Folk Archive, online
at www.folkarchive.co.uk. Individual projects include This is us, Center
for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (2003);
After the Gold Rush, Capp Street Projects, San Francisco, CA (2002);
The Battle of Orgreave (2001); and Karl Marx at Christmas, Fig. 1,
London, England (2000). He has been included in group exhibitions at the
50th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2003) the Dundee Contemporary Arts,
Scotland (2003); and the Tate Modern, London, England (2001).

About the Project

For his residency at ArtPace Jeremy Deller has tackled Texas? just
the mythical American state described in newspapers, but also the reality he
discovered while living in San Antonio for two months. With ArtPace as home
base, Deller has visited bat caves and other local haunts, traveled to the now-
famed town of Crawford, and spoken with a survivor of the Branch Davidian
disaster in Waco. Deller's Memory Bucket mixes and re-mixes the Texas
paraphernalia, live interviews, sound samples and photographs he has
gathered along the way. The resulting installation features a video,
photographic prints, souvenir t-shirts, beer koozies, and bumper stickers that
allude to the social, political, and natural elements he has uncovered.

Upon visiting Texas Deller was taken with the physical proximity of two of
its most infamous spots. Put on the map by the presidential Bush family,
Crawford is a small ranching town that represents Texas, if not America, at its
most patriotic. Yet just minutes away lies another site of international
repute?o. Nearby Mount Carmel is the location of the Branch Davidian
compound, the site of a widely critiqued 1993 government siege which
resulted in a deadly fire.

Memory Bucket's main component is a video. The work
features interviews with people from Crawford and Waco interspersed with
footage that folds in other aspects of Texas. The garbled speech of an Alamo
representative tells the "heroic story of the last stand" and segues from one
town to another. Anti-Bush protestors in San Antonio are followed by
sequences of the president's hometown.

In the closing moments of the video, Deller shifts emphasis from
humankind to the natural world, from the individuals who make up the state to
the creatures who depend on its unique topography. Perhaps this is a telling
conclusion to Memory Bucket?roject that, by chance and choice,
brings people together to tell a story about Texas.

Exhibition Dates

November 13, 2003 ?nuary 25, 2004

Opening Reception

Thursday, November 13, 6:30-8:30 PM

Artists' Dialogue

Friday, November 14, 6:30-8:00 PM

Featuring Jeremy Deller, Kim Jones, and Robyn O'Neil. Moderated by Laura
Hoptman, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania.

Brown Bag Lunch

Wednesday, December 17, 2003, 12:00-1:00 PM

Join us for a tour of New Works: 03.3 and a brown bag lunch provided by
Pecan Street Deli. Please call ArtPace to make reservations.

Associated Event

Thursday, January 15, 2003, 6:30 PM

Please join us for a conversation contextualizing Jeremy Deller's project,
between Branch Davidian survivor, Clive Doyle and local author and activist,
Dick Reavis.

Event Locations

All events held at Artpace, 445 N. Main Avenue. Free parking at Flores Street
and Savings. Artpace is open to the public Wednesday thru Sunday, 12-5pm,
Thursday until 8pm and by appointment. There is no charge for
admission.

About ArtPace

ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art | San Antonio serves as an
advocate for contemporary art and as a catalyst for the creation of significant
art projects. We seek to nurture emerging and established artists and to
provide opportunities for inspiration, experimentation and education. Through
our International Artist-in-Residence Program, we invite nine artists annually
to participate in a two-month residency which supports the evolution of new
ideas in art. Our broad range of panels, lectures, artist talks and studio visits
cultivates diverse audiences for contemporary art and provides a forum for
ongoing dialogue.

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org