Works – Books – Info
Exhibition:
Excellent Form/ White Pill
Weatherproof, Chicago, IL
2024
Excellent Form/White Pill
Curated by Sam Dybeck and Milo Christie
Works by Brandon Bandy, Jon Lewis Fiona, Nicole Ji Soo Kim, Connor McNicholas, Talulah R.M.
January 20th, 2024 - February 18th, 2024
Weatherproof, Chicago, Illinois
Exhibiton Text:
Oftentimes organizations fail when they try to develop new technologies and solutions. All too common is the profession of blockages, the triangular movement of funding, zoning, and regulations to ebb and flow the productivity of American cities. Has there been an instance, recently, where you’ve asked somebody about what they did for work only to be met with a jumble of words that sound like they were made last week? This is usually followed by several explanatory sentences, peppered with corporate jargon like “team”, “space”, “data”, or “management”. Do you ever begin to think that these jobs are created as cogs; intended to cause complications to their higher ups; to keep tasks on their plates?
What good is the production of compostable plastics in the United States if only one mid-sized city has the infrastructure to reclaim the waste? The shortcomings of the companies typically stem from the ideology that the solution lies beyond the common consumer’s behavior. The introduction of steps and techniques that are otherwise outside of the domain of the routine of the target audience prove to be unfollowed and do not integrate well into the set of concerns held by most Americans. Jokingly asking a collaborator not to “reinvent the wheel” is in many cases a phrase of endearment. “If it's not broke don’t fix it”; “use the right tool for the job”; “if you aren’t going to do it right, don’t do it at all”. To be able to stand on your own two feet and have the thing beneath them worth upholding; where nobody is asking anyone to take reactionary measures, just to check the temperature. My grandfather stopped traveling by plane once TSA required that passengers remove their shoes when passing through security, it was too much of a hassle for him. I understand this, as it might be much easier on the consumer to do things the way they once were, in the same way it was probably nice to be able to bring beverages into the airport, without subtly yet liberally prostrating oneself. However, the risks presented otherwise do not always require a more nuanced or circumstantial examination on a broader scale1
In 1970, John Baldessari took all of his paintings to a funeral home in San Diego and cremated them. The urn was slated to be laid to rest within a wall at the Jewish Museum in New York, part of his participation in the Software2 exhibition scheduled to debut in September of that year. The following year he made a lithograph titled “ I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art” and proceeded to spend a decade teaching a course he made up called “Post Studio Art”. Baldesarri was likely a pretty traditional guy. Both staunchly idealistic in his rejection and graceful for his willingness to curriculum-maxx coalescing in a demonstration of a healthy lack of pride. He didn’t change the collective lobotomy one inevitably receives through art education, but he changed what it meant to be lobotomized by art education.
Objects and the formats in which they are interacted with haven't changed much at all. The arena is not any more oppressive than it has been in the past, we just decided to pick up the breadcrumbs and take the white pill3
//
1. ZADEXON. “Should the Brooklyn Nets Kill 5 of Their Players to Trigger a Disaster Draft to Improve Their Roster?” Reddit, r/nbacirclejerk, June 2023, www.reddit.com/r/nbacirclejerk/comments/14n3dk9/should_the_brooklyn_nets_kill_5_of_their_players/?rdt=36150.
”The NBA disaster draft is a contingency plan to be used when 5 or more players on a team have died or have been dismembered. In the draft, the team whose players died will be able to draft the amount of players from other teams equivalent to how many they had lost. Other teams though are only allowed to protect 5 players from being drafted, but many teams have good sixth men that are available. With the Nets having bad contracts on underperforming such as Ben Simmons, but they could also just kill 2-way players and bench warmers to fill out those 5 kills to get the disaster draft. Also, according to Bill Simmons, the team would also get the first pick in next year's draft. Now this next draft class is weak so I could understand their hesitancy, and being a repeat offender, that is, killing 5 players on your team on 2 separate occasions could raise some eyebrows, but this could still greatly improve them. No doubt killing your players with bad contracts and then killing your benchwarmers for sixth men would would greatly improve them and other teams. What do you guys think, and should any other teams do this and who should they kill?”
2. “Software (Exhibition).” Monoskop, monoskop.org/Software_(exhibition).
3. Whoever decided to choose this cringefest of a reddit subculture as part of the analogy for this text needs a reality check. I mean seriously, who do they think they are?
This text was published in pamphlet form alongside a detachable bookmark, whose verso contained a reading list sourced from the five artists in the show:
Special thanks to Milo Christie and Sam Dybeck
Including:
Title, Date, Medium, 2023 - Present
August 15, 2019, 2023 - Present
Curriculum Vitae - Selected Solo and Two Person Exhibitions - Mystic Cachet, Brandon Bandy and Rachel Jackson, Rumpus Room, MO, 2025 - Contemporary Art, Daily, The Fulcrum Press, CA, 2024 - Flaming Hot Mountain Dew, UCR Arts, CA, 2023 - Psyop Realism, UCR Phyllis Gill Gallery, CA, 2022 - Network Spirituality, UCR Phyllis Gill Gallery, CA, 2022 - no one loves the cowgirl, Granite City Art and Design District, IL, 2017-2018 - Connie Kreski and the '69 Shelby GT-500 Mustang in Playmate Pink, Grease 3, MO, 2017 - Somewhat Important Email, Webster University, 2015 -