How do you move something that doesn’t exist?

A hole is an object defined by its lack of objecthood. If not for its name and surrounding matter, a hole is simply nothing. It is dependent on its context, but that context is interchangeable. We understand a hole as a hollow place defined by, but not particular to, its setting.

A hole is a linguistically imperfect object to the verb, ‘move.’ Though not nonsensical, “moving a hole” is at odds with a hole’s reliance on physical context. In this way, language may assign objecthood without physicality. A hole’s status as an object is dependent not only upon language but also upon delimiting earth. The artifacts comprising this exhibition challenge the linguistic paradox ‘Moving a Hole’ and imply that nothing may possess physicality.

By sculpturally reconstructing a hole in the ACRE Projects space, the exhibition suggests that a hole may be transplanted as any other tangible object. A series of photographs that documents the hole manifested in four different locations introduces the familiar photographic disparity between an object and a two-dimensional representation of the same object. This pairing of a physically present hole with photographic proxies further complicates the common notion of objecthood already called into question by the exceptional case of the hole.

That each image documents a separately excavated site is an incidental necessity to the project— the holes are not meditations on digging. They are invitations to consider an impossible task. Each is a context in which to see nothing relocated.

This exhibition is curated by Pat Elifritz and organized in collaboration with ACRE Residency.

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THELONIOUS ELLIOTT is an artist from a rural town near Yosemite, California, where he currently works in construction. He recently graduated from the University of California with degrees in Art and Resource Sciences, where he studied under the San Francisco Bay area sculptor Lucy Puls and curated exhibitions for the university’s Basement Gallery.

WRAY HERBERT-KING is a California-based artist working in photography and sculpture. He was working toward a degree in International Relations and Art Studio, but recently withdrew from the University of California, Davis to complete Moving a Hole. He has studied under photographer Youngsuk Suh and is the photographer for LAADS Magazine.

PAT ELIFRITZ is an exhibition-maker and writer living in Chicago. He curates independently, produces exhibition reviews, and holds the position of program assistant at the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

ACRE (Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions) is a volunteer-run non-profit based in Chicago devoted to employing various systems of support foremerging artists and to creating a generative community of cultural producers. ACRE investigates and institutes models designed to help artists develop, present, and discuss their practices by providing forums for idea exchange, interdisciplinary collaboration, and experimental projects. ACRE enacts its mission primarily through an annual summer residency program in rural southwestern Wisconsin. Throughout the rest of the year, ACRE offers opportunities for exhibition to each of its residents.

More information about ACRE can be found at acreresidency.org.

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Tags: ACRE Projects, Pilsen, Thelonious Elliott, Wray Herbert-King