Ofri Cnaani: File Under: ?
December 12, 2015 – January 30, 2016
Equity Gallery, 245 Broome Street, New York, NY 10002
Opening Reception: Saturday, December 12, 2015, 6-8pm
“Help Desk” Performance: Saturday, January 16, 2016, 12-5pm
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 11am-6pm, and by appointment
New York, New York, November 17, 2015 – Equity Gallery is pleased to announce File Under: ?, a solo exhibition by Ofri Cnaani running from December 12, 2015 to January 30, 2016, with an opening reception for the public on Saturday, December 12, 6-8pm and a performance on Saturday, January 16, 2016, 12-5pm.
For Equity Gallery’s second exhibition, Cnaani will take over the non-profit art space, creating a participatory piece that functions as a visualization of Artists Equity’s mission to support artists.
Artists Equity was founded in 1947 when over 160 leading artists banded together to establish and protect artists’ rights. To define the organization’s mission, the founders asked questions of themselves, their friends and advisors, focusing on what could be achieved when artists come together. Cnaani was inspired by this history of collaboration and advocacy to create this exhibition and its related events.
Artists address theoretical, conceptual and political questions in their work, but what of the other questions in their lives as artists? From November through January, Cnaani invites all artists to submit such questions – the burning questions that each individual artist wants answered to help him/her. All topics are welcome: from career advice to health insurance to copyright law to housing – whether philosophical, trivial or deeply personal. These questions will be collected, displayed and discussed in a variety of ways at Equity Gallery and through online platforms.
Questions can be submitted via email to info@nyartistsequity.org, via Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #artistquestion or anonymously via Artists Equity’s website at nyartistsequity.org/questions.
Throughout the run of the exhibition, the rear gallery will become an immersive space that draws upon Cnaani’s selection of visuals and documents from the Artists Equity archive and the questions of artists from the past. She will turn a file cabinet into a projection system filling the space with shadows and colors. Based on Cnaani’s selections, viewers will be able to explore the “visual files” firsthand, and through their interaction modify the projection of the archive.
On January 16, 2016, between 12pm and 5pm, experts from a variety of fields will be on hand at the gallery at Cnaani’s “help desk marathon” – a performance that presents itself as an opportunity of equity exchange – where as many of the artists’ questions as possible will be answered. The answers to the artists’ questions will be transcribed, processed and made available through Artists Equity’s website as a service for the art community. Furthermore, these concerns will be analyzed in order to shape the organization’s future programming.
File Under: ? not only aims to challenge artists to focus on the essential needs of their practices, but looks to raise awareness of artists’ concerns when they are free to ask absolutely anything.
About Artists Equity
New York Artists Equity Association, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1947 by artists and art patrons with the mission to promote opportunities for artists. It operates Equity Gallery, an art space located on the Lower East Side of New York City. For more information, please visit www.nyartistsequity.org.
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Image: Ofri Cnaani, Flat Files, 2015, digital image © Ofri Cnaani.
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