Press Release: Brian Conley

New Works: 01.2
07.16.01

THE INTERNATIONAL ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM

NEW WORKS: 01.2

Exhibition: July 16 ?ptember 9, 2001

Brian Conley - New York, NY

Christian Jankowski - Berlin, Germany

Lordy Rodriguez - Houston, TX

About the Artist

Brian Conley was born in 1951 and received his BA in Psychology from the State
University of New York, Binghamton. After attending the Independent Study
Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, Conley was
awarded an MFA in Sculpture and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis. He has exhibited his work widely throughout the United
States and Europe, including solo exhibitions at Anthony Wilkinson Gallery,
London, England; Zinc Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden; and Pierogi Gallery,
Brooklyn, NY. Group exhibitions include War/Art/New Technologies,
Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR (2000); Wild/Life,
Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC (1998); and
Current/Undercurrent, Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY (1997). His radio
broadcast, War! (1999), originally a live interactive sound performance
between New York (radio WBAI) and Belgrade, Serbia (Radio B2-92), was
recently featured in BitStreams at the Whitney Museum of American Art,
New York, NY curated by Lawrence Rinder and Debra Singer. Conley currently
lives and works in New York City.

From radio performance to sculptural and sound-based installations,
Conley's artistic practice operates between the divide of science and art.
Appearing as anatomical models or artifacts from some future time, Conley uses
scientific research and political inquiry to construct new morphologies that wryly
challenge our perceptions of humanity, nature, technology, and
consciousness.

Brian Conley was selected for his ArtPace residency by Lisa Corrin, Chief
Curator at the Serpentine Gallery, London, England. She has organized a
number of significant shows for the Serpentine including solo exhibitions by Felix
Gonzalez-Torres, Chris Ofili, Jane and Louise Wilson, Bridget Riley, and an
upcoming show of Rachael Whiteread. Corrin was recently appointed Deputy
Director for Art/Jon and Mary Shirley Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at
the Seattle Art Museum, WA.

About the Project

In his work, Brian Conley complicates the natural order of things. Translating
scientific research and data into abstracted simulations with humorous subtexts,
Conley consistently renders the natural unnatural and the serious absurd. From
large-scale sculpture to live-radio broadcasts and interactive sound installations,
Conley's work presents unlikely circumstances as logical possibilities for locating
human experience within a continuum bounded by technology and nature.

Continuing an investigation into evolution and the divide between animals
and humans, Conley's project for ArtPace centers on a species of frog and its
distinct mating call. Using research from both zoology and neuroscience, Conley
has constructed a room-sized mechanical sculpture based on a frog's vocal
communication system.

In this installation, the viewer enters a dimly lit exhibition space. Emerging
from the shadows is a 15-foot tall aluminum contraption attached to a large
orange cloth draped across the floor. Inside this low-tech structure sits a row of
wooden organ pipes and a wide, funnel-like horn. Activated by the viewer's
entrance into the space, the cloth sack quickly inflates to a 10 x 24-foot balloon,
simulating an oversized vocal pouch. Voluptuous and intimidating, its
overwhelming size reverses the typical human/animal dynamic suggesting
instead a giant frog and a small human being.

As the balloon slowly deflates, it forces air through several acoustic sound-
generating devices to a funnel directed at the viewer, issuing a series of
discordant noises? frog's mating call. Because the mating call is the only
language in which the frog is able to communicate, this first moment of "contact"
between human and frog is loaded with absurd sexual innuendo. Monstrous yet
alluring, the work reorganizes the hierarchical relationship between human and
animals, albeit with a humorous twist.

Conley's investigations locate the intersection of science, philosophy, art,
technology, and the improbable. Reinterpreting information into an analogue of
its original source, Conley transforms our assumptions of the natural world into
limitless questions.

Exhibition Dates

July 16 ?ptember 9, 2001

Opening Reception

Monday, July 16, 6:30-8:30 PM

Artists' Dialogue

Tuesday, July 17, 6:30-8:30 PM

Featuring Brian Conley, Christian Jankowski,

and Lordy Rodriguez, moderated by Lisa Corrin, Chief Curator of Serpentine
Gallery, London.

Brown Bag Lunch

Wednesday, August 29, 12:00-1:00 PM

Join us for a tour of New Works: 01.2 and a brown bag lunch provided by
Pecan Street Deli. Please call ArtPace to make reservations.

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, 12-5 PM,
Thursday until 8 PM and by appointment. There is no charge for admission.

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