AK/OK: You Will Be My Witnesses to the End of the Earth
@ Fernwey
916 N Damen Avenue
Opening Friday, June 2nd, from 7PM - 10PM
On view through Saturday, July 8th
Fernwey is pleased to present You Will Be My Witnesses to the End of the Earth our third annual exhibition organized in partnership with Artist Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions (ACRE).
You Will Be My Witnesses to the End of the Earth reimagines our current political moment by way of the Gideons International, an organization of evangelical traveling businessmen who place Bibles in hotel rooms around the world (currently two billion Bibles and counting). During their ACRE residency last summer, AK/OK investigated the nearby town of Boscobel, Wisconsin to research its claim to fame as the birthplace of the Gideon Bible. This series of new works speculates on the figure of Donald Trump, our nation’s hotelier-in-chief, as a wannabe Gideon — a traveling salesman on a global mission, whose pandering to evangelicals has fueled his political success. Gideons International, meet Trump International. Through photographs, drawings, video, and found objects, the artists address questions of power, self-promotion, and political anxiety.
AK/OK is Kate Jarboe and M. Wright, an art/design collective based in Austin, TX. They investigate historical sites and archives, in order to construct alternative narratives. Their work takes the form of video and sound pieces, photographs, artist’s books, and printed ephemera.
Their work has been exhibited and presented at the Bishopsgate Institute, London; SOMA, Mexico City; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Brown University, Providence; and the Oakland Museum of California. Their artists’ books are distributed by Printed Matter in New York City, and their work resides in the permanent collections of Columbia University’s Butler Library, New York; the Allen Ginsberg Estate, New York; the GLBT Historical Society, San Francisco; the National Design Archives at the Denver Art Museum; and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History Library, Washington, DC. Upcoming projects include a research residency at Harvard University’s Schlesinger Library and exhibitions in San Francisco and London.
Jarboe holds an MFA in Studio Art from the Meadows School of the Arts at SMU; Wright holds an MFA in Visual Communication Design from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
More information about AK/OK can be found at www.ak-ok.com.
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Tags: AK/OK, Chicago, Fernwey, Kate Jarboe, M Wright, West Town
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