An Unusable Archive
@ Parlour and Ramp
2130 W 21st St, Chicago, IL 60608
Opening Friday, July 10th, from 6PM - 9PM
Chicago is entering phase 4 of reopening and we are having our first show since the pandemic began. Please know that we will be limiting the number of people that can be in the gallery at the same time and face coverings are required to enter. We have ample outdoor space for people to congregate either before you enter the gallery or after you come out.
An Unusable Archive is the most recent installation by collaborative duo N/A (Neeraja D and Ahmed Ozsever). The duo works across continents, Neeraja is based in Bangalore, India, Ahmed in Bloomington, IN and Chicago, IL. Their practice is rooted in conversation and locates subjectivity in linguistic communication, relative to the geographical and physical space one occupies.
An Unusable Archive channels this process through found materials and blurs the distinction between a fictional and an archetypal archive. The artists simultaneously assume the roles of an archivist and interpreter. They compile material and appear to ascertain meaning from remnant documents.
An archetypal archive specifically locates history and functions as a memory. It becomes a system of complex relationships if one is able to locate, understand, and interpret the material as part of a larger framework. Works in An Unusable Archive appear to be whole, complete, and absolute in terms of this vision: to record the evidence. However, in order to be useful, an archive must achieve the status of a catalogue. At the very least, it must be able to function on the principle of some discerning classification. Yet, N/A particularly ask: is it possible to look at found material beyond the randomness of its discovery, and towards its potential as a mutable history?
An archive conjures up notions of objectivity: here is the record, the witness, the evidence of time, motion, action and existence. Yet, it can never escape the limits of its generative impulse: what, why, and whose archive?
* An Unusable Archive opens on July 10th 6-9pm at Parlour and Ramp. 2130 w. 21st Street, Chicago.
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Tags: Ahmed Ozsever, An Unusable Archive, Bridgeport, Chicago, Neeraja D, Parlour and Ramp
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