Seattle Art Fair Announces Programming ft. Trevor Paglen, Heather Dewey Hagborg, and Mark Pauline’s Survival Research Laboratories

Daily Talks, Special Projects, and Performances Curated by Seattle Art Fair’s Artistic Director Nato Thompson

(SEATTLE, WA — June 19, 2018) — The Seattle Art Fair, presented by AIG, is proud to announce this year’s on-site programming, curated by the fair’s Artistic Director, Nato Thompson. From August 2-5, the Seattle Art Fair will host daily talks, special projects, and performances, in addition to the over 100 participating galleries from around the world. Read Thompson’s curatorial statement here.

“Art is a vehicle that conjures new possibilities, new worlds. My hope is that this year’s Seattle Art Fair program is dreamy, bizarre, yet tangible—something people new to art can get excited about,” said Nato Thompson, Seattle Art Fair Artistic Director. “I want to create space for different forms of art, reflect on the city of Seattle, highlight local voices, and, of course, be political. We’re considering the future from many angles, from a first-nations perspective to a robotic, tinkering one. This broad range of complex, sometimes contradictory attitudes will both refresh and captivate.”

Programming participants include Heather Dewey Hagborg, Beth DeWoody, Maria Hupfield, C. Davida Ingram, Jennifer Levonian, Wanda Nanibush, Trevor Paglen, Mark Pauline of Survival Research Laboratories, Bruce Sterling, Robert Stilin, Charlene Vickers, and Wayne White.

SEATTLE ART FAIR HIGHLIGHTS:

TREVOR PAGLEN’S NEW SATELLITE

MacArthur Fellow Trevor Paglen will present a preview of his satellite, Orbital Reflector, which will be launched into space and orbit the Earth starting in late August. Paglen will join Artistic Director Nato Thompson in conversation about the project and the transformation of “space” into “place.”

HEATHER DEWEY HAGBORG’S 3D PORTRAITS OF CHELSEA MANNING

Heather Dewey Hagborg will present Probably Chelsea, an installation of thirty different possible 3D portraits of Chelsea Manning that were algorithmically generated by an analysis of her DNA, showing the multitude of ways DNA can be interpreted as data, and how subjective the act of reading DNA really is.

SURVIVAL RESEARCH LABORATORIES— NEW MACHINE DEMO

Mark Pauline, founder of Survival Research Laboratories, brings the newest of his infamous machines to the Seattle Art

Fair for a series of live demonstrations. Pauline will join acclaimed science fiction author Bruce Sterling in conversation about the technological future.

WAYNE WHITE’S 14-FOOT-TALL PUPPETS

This debut of a new work by Emmy Award-winning artist Wayne White, who designed the set of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, will feature two 14-foot-tall puppets of Seattle pioneer women, Mary Ann and Louisa Boren. Using large ropes, the public is able to move these puppets and participate in a recollection of the hard work done by these early female settlers.

CHARLENE VICKERS AND MARIA HUPFIELD’S GIANT MEGAPHONES

Anishinaabe artists Charlene Vickers and Maria Hupfield will deploy their large-scale cardboard megaphones in a new performance series. They will remind us that Seattle, the land of the Suquamish tribe, is a land whose future is rooted in its past. The artists will will also join Wanda Nanibush, Inaugural Curator, Indigenous Art of the Indigenous + Canadian Art department of Art Gallery of Ontario, in conversation about cultural specificity, embodied sound in public spaces, and futurity.

FULL PROGRAM*:

*Schedule in formation. For updated dates and times, visit our website.

PROJECTS

C. Davida Ingram

Rootsystems and ley lines

C. Davida Ingram presents a multimedia project that reconsiders Seattle’s changing cultural landscape as it evolves in the global economy. The videos will be a poetic revisitation of the 1999 World Trade Organization protests, which earned the nickname “The Battle of Seattle.” This fictive reimagining poses indigenous, black and otherwise displaced interlocutors as the central players in the Battle of Seattle of past, present and future.

Charlene Vickers and Maria Hupfield

Jingles and Sounds For Speaking To Our Grandmothers

Presented with Fazakas Gallery

Vickers and Hupfield’s new performance will feature monumental jingles, and build on their collaborations with hand-sewn cardboard megaphones. It is inspired by the groundbreaking work of Anishinaabekwe artist Rebecca Belmore, whose

work Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother (92-95) featured a large megaphone for people to speak into. The work allowed viewers to experience the megaphone as an object to speak to history, to landscape, and the socio- political conditions that bring people together or drive them apart. The lightweight cardboard-and-paper object seen in Jingles and Sounds For Speaking to Our Grandmothers becomes an activated prosthetic that speaks to jingles worn in Anishinaabe women’s jingle dress dancing.

Heather Dewey Hagborg and Chelsea E. Manning

Probably Chelsea

Presented with Fridman Gallery

Genomic data can tell a multitude of different stories about who and what you are. Probably Chelsea shows just how many ways your DNA can be interpreted as data, and how subjective the act of reading DNA really is, by presenting thirty different possible portraits of Chelsea Manning algorithmically generated by DNA analysis. Suspended at a variety of human heights at the intersection of aisles, Probably Chelsea evokes the form of a diverse crowd or mass movement standing with Chelsea. It is a refutation of outmoded notions of biologically inscribed identity and a testament to the commonality of all, a molecular solidarity that is clearly present even at the cellular level.

Trevor Paglen

Orbital Reflector

On view will be a model for Trevor Paglen’s upcoming satellite launch, which he is undertaking with the Nevada Museum of Art. Orbital Reflector is a sculpture constructed of a lightweight material similar to Mylar that will be a non-functional aesthetic object. Once in low Earth orbit at an altitude of about 350 miles (575 kilometers), the CubeSat opens and releases the sculpture, which self-inflates like a balloon. Sunlight reflects onto the sculpture making it visible from Earth with the naked eye — like a slowly moving artificial star. Orbital Reflector will transform “space” into “place,” making visible the invisible and thereby rekindling our imaginations and fueling potential for the future.

Mark Pauline

Survival Research Laboratories – New Machine Demo

Artist and Survival Research Laboratory founder Mark Pauline will produce several demonstrations during the Seattle Art Fair. The word “analogue” is too mild to describe the truly massive force and sound that erupts from the work of this wildly imaginative pioneer of industrial performance. Visceral, hypnotic, and freakish, the performance of these machines gives the viewer much to consider, and feel, in regards to the technological future to come.

Jennifer Levonian

Xylophone

Presented with Adams and Ollman

In this animated short, Philadelphia-based artist Jennifer Levonian features the bizarre journey of a single mother in a run- down, gentrified hipster neighborhood attempting to raise a daughter, go to yoga, and simultaneously steal a goat from a paintball petting zoo.

Wayne White

Here Comes the Boren Sisters

Presented with Joshua Liner Gallery

This new work by artist Wayne White features two 14-foot-tall puppets of Seattle pioneer women, Mary Ann and Louisa Boren. Using large ropes, the public is able to move these puppets and participate in a recollection of the hard work done by these early female settlers.

TALKS

Bruce Sterling + Mark Pauline

Artist and robot maker Mark Pauline and science fiction author Bruce Sterling discuss their mutual interest in the good, the bad and the ugly of a technological future. With each artist operating at the forefront of what was once called cyberpunk and industrial culture, they bring their insights to the table to discuss their evolving thinking, their current work and their dreams of a future still be written.

Charlene Vickers + Maria Hupfield + Wanda Nanibush

A conversation by Anishinaabe women on cultural specificity, embodied sound in public spaces, and futurity, led by performance artist duo Charlene Vickers and Maria Hupfield with Wanda Nanibush, Inaugural Curator, Indigenous Art of the Indigenous + Canadian Art department, Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada.

C. Davida Ingram

Artist C. Davida Ingram is known for making social inquiries that show how we relate to power and difference. Join her to look at her recent project that examines Seattle’s global economies past, present and future, through the lens of the upcoming 20th anniversary of the WTO protests. Ingram will be in conversation with local scholars, artists and community organizers.

Trevor Paglen + Nato Thompson

This talk will focus on Trevor Paglen’s Orbital Reflector, a satellite project set to launch this fall with the Nevada Museum of Art. Paglen’s second satellite project, it works on a continuing theme of using the orbiting realm to produce aesthetic ventures that tell those viewing eyes on earth something about themselves.

COLLECTORS CONVERSATION – VIP PROGRAM

Beth DeWoody & Robert Stilin, moderated by Nato Thompson

Longtime friends and collectors Beth DeWoody and Robert Stilin will have a conversation about their mutual passion for collecting and their influences on each other. In doing so, they will touch upon works they have deployed in their projects and homes, Beth DeWoody’s travelling show Reclamation!, Pan-African works from the Beth Ruden DeWoody Collection, and her current venture, Bunker Artspace, located in West Palm Beach.

ABOUT SEATTLE ART FAIR

Seattle Art Fair 2017. Courtesy of Seattle Art Fair.

This year’s Seattle Art Fair, presented by AIG, will take place August 2 – 5 2018 at the CenturyLink Field Event Center. The 2018 Seattle Art Fair boasts a diverse roster of local, national, and international galleries representing over 100 galleries from 36 cities from 10 countries, including 25 international galleries.

The fourth edition of the fair welcomes returning international stalwarts such as David Zwirner, Gagosian, Galerie Lelong & Co., and Adams and Ollman, and Seattle’s Greg Kucera Gallery, Foster/White Gallery and James Harris Gallery. The fair continues to expand its reach, drawing new exhibitors from around the globe, including Tokyo’s Gallery

Yufuku and Talion Gallery, Berlin’s Kuckei+Kuckei, Los Angeles’ Samuel Freeman Gallery, and New York’s C24 Gallery and Hirschl & Adler Modern.

Abmeyer + Wood | Seattle, WA

Absolut Art | Stockholm, Sweden and New York, NY

ACA Galleries | New York, NY Adams and Ollman | Portland, OR Alexandre Gallery | New York, NY Allan Stone Projects | New York, NY

Axiom Contemporary | Santa Monica, CA

Back Gallery Project | Vancouver, BC Canada

Berry Campbell | New York, NY

C24 Gallery | New York, NY

Ceysson & Bénétière | Paris, France Charlie James Gallery | Los Angeles, CA Chimento Contemporary | Los Angeles, CA Chosun Hwalang | Seoul, South Korea

CK Contemporary | San Francisco, CA Claire Oliver Gallery | New York, NY COHJU contemporary art | Kyoto, Japan CYNTHIA-REEVES | Walpole, NH

David Zwirner | New York, NY

Davidson Contemporary | New York, NY

Debra Force Fine Art | New York, NY

Diane Rosenstein Gallery | Los Angeles, CA

Dolan/Maxwell | Philadelphia, PA

Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery | San Francisco, CA Elissa Cristall Gallery | Vancouver, BC Canada Elizabeth Leach Gallery | Portland, OR

G. Gibson Gallery | Seattle, WA

Gagosian Gallery | New York, NY

Gail Severn Gallery | Ketchum/Sun Valley, ID Galerie 55Bellechasse | Paris, France Galerie Lelong & Co. | New York, NY Galerie PICI | Seoul, South Korea

Galerie Richard | New York, NY Galerie Taménaga | Tokyo, Japan Galerie Youn | Montréal, QC Canada Gallery Dei Gratia | LaConner, WA

Gallery Jones | Vancouver, BC Canada Gibbons & Nicholas | Dublin, Ireland Greg Kucera Gallery | Seattle, WA

Hall Spassov Gallery | Seattle, WA

Harris Harvey Gallery | Seattle, WA Hashimoto Contemporary | San Francisco, CA Heather Gaudio Fine Art | New Canaan, CT

HEXTON | modern and contemporary | Northbrook, IL

K. Imperial Fine Art | San Francisco, CA

Koki Arts | Tokyo, Japan

Kuckei+Kuckei | Berlin, Germany

Lapis Press | Culver City, CA

Linda Hodges Gallery | Seattle, WA

Long-Sharp Gallery | Indianapolis, IN

Nil Gallery | Paris, France Ohshima Fine Art | Tokyo, Japan Opera Gallery | New York, NY

Over the Influence | Los Angeles, CA Patricia Rovzar Gallery | Seattle, WA PDX Contemporary Art | Portland, OR Peter Blake Gallery | Laguna Beach, CA

Peter Robertson Gallery | Edmonton, AB Canada

UNIX Gallery | New York, NY

Upsilon Gallery | New York, NY

William Shearburn Gallery | St. Louis, MO Winston Wächter Fine Art | Seattle, WA Woodside/Braseth Gallery | Seattle, WA Yufuku Gallery | Tokyo, Japan

YUKI-SIS | Tokyo, Japan

ABOUT SEATTLE ART FAIR

The Seattle Art Fair, presented by AIG, is a one-of-a-kind destination for the best in modern and contemporary art and a showcase for the vibrant arts community of the Pacific Northwest. Based in Seattle, a city as renowned for its natural beauty as its cultural landscape, the fair brings together the region’s strong collector base; local, national, and international galleries; area museums and institutions; and an array of innovative public programming. Founded in 2015 by Paul G. Allen, the Seattle Art Fair is produced by Vulcan Arts + Entertainment, and Art Market Productions.

ABOUT NATO THOMPSON

Nato Thompson is a curator, author, and, as of 2017, the Artistic Director at Philadelphia Contemporary. Philadelphia Contemporary is a mobile contemporary art organization in the process of creating a non-collecting museum in the city of Philadelphia. Previous to Philadelphia Contemporary, he worked at the New York-based public art organization Creative Time as Artistic Director which he joined in January 2007. Since then, Thompson has organized such major Creative Time projects as The Creative Time Summit (2009–2015), Pedro Reyes’ Doomocracy (2016), Kara Walker’s A Subtlety (2014), Living as Form(2011), Trevor Paglen’s The Last Pictures (2012), Paul Ramírez Jonas’s Key to the City (2010), Jeremy Deller’s It is What it is (2009, with New Museum curators Laura Hoptman and Amy Mackie), Democracy in America: The National Campaign (2008), and Paul Chan’s Waiting for Godot in New Orleans (2007), among others. Previously, he worked as Curator at MASS MoCA, where he completed numerous large-scale exhibitions, including The Interventionists: Art in the Social Sphere (2004), with a catalogue distributed by MIT Press. He has written two books of cultural criticism, Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the 21st Century (2015) and Culture as Weapon: The Art of Influence in Everyday Life published in January 2017.

2018 SCHEDULE OF EVENT

Collector’s Preview by Invitation

Thursday, August 2, 3:30PM – 6PM

Opening Night Preview

Thursday, August 2, 6PM – 9PM

Public Fair Hours

Friday, August 3, 11AM – 8PM Saturday, August 4, 11AM – 7PM Sunday, August 5, 11AM – 6PM

ADMISSION:

1-Day Tickets $30 3-Day Tickets $50

All Access Tickets $85 Tickets available online here.

LOCATION:

CenturyLink Field Event Center 1000 Occidental Ave S

Seattle, WA 98134

PRESS CONTACTS

Marcella Zimmermann
Vice President, Cultural Counsel marcella@culturalcounsel.com

Ali Rigo
Account Executive, Cultural Counsel ali@culturalcounsel.com

Seattle Art Fair Announces Programming

June 19, 2018

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