Sunday, February 15th to Friday, February 20th, 2015
Opening February 15, 2015, at la Esquina (1000 W. 25th Street, Kansas City, MO 64108), Full Time is a performance and installation that spans a typical 40-hour work week. For eight hours each day, the artists will work to create an edition of 150 concrete blocks and 150 cotton pillows, while keeping a meticulous record of their production. As the objects are completed, they will be installed within the gallery.
Visitors entering the exhibition during the performance will encounter the sounds of the cement mixer and sewing machine, and witness the repetitive movements of the artists working. This simple manual labor is a visual and tactile way of representing the idea of work as a basic component of human life by reducing it to the sum of time, repetition, and material. The ultimate goal of this show becomes the exploration of the humanness of work and the balance between employment and fulfillment.
As the culminating gesture of this show, the objects will be for sale at a price based on the combined costs of material, gallery overhead, and the artist’s time at minimum wage.
As part of the closing reception for Full Time, there will be an artist talk from 7:00-8:00 PM on Friday, February 20th. The artists, Rena Detrixhe and Eli Gold, will be joined by University of Kansas art history professor David Cateforis and Salina-based artist Priti Cox for a discussion about their performance and the concepts behind their work.
David Cateforis specializes in American art, modern and contemporary art and has taught a.t the University of Kansas since 1992. Priti Cox is a politically motivated artist whose continuing project, Vanishing India, reveals the effects of corporate globalization on the social, political and economic fabric.
Special thanks to Strasser Hardware and Elements of Green for their charitable contributions to this exhibition. Thanks also to Cotter Mitchell and Jaime David.
Rena Detrixhe received her BFA in Expanded Media from the University of Kansas in 2013 and currently lives and works in Kansas City as a Charlotte Street Foundation Studio Resident. Her contemplative works combine a repetitive process and collected or scavenged materials to produce large-scale objects or installations. Her recent work includes an entirely hand sewn site-specific installation in a historic church in Lawrence, KS.
Eli Gold received his MFA from The University of Kansas in May. His work uses elements of performance, installation, and craft to create compelling narratives that deal with object, labor, community and time. He recently completed a ten-week residency at the Salina Art Center in Salina, KS, where, with the help of a class of local high school students, he created a large installation in the Art Center’s gallery using junk donated by Salina residents.
