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Estate of Carolee Schneemann - Flange 6rpm - Exhibitions - PPOW

Carolee Schneemann
Flange 6rpm, 2011-13
foundry poured aluminum sculptures, motors 6rpm and projection
48 x 28 x 36 ins.
121.9 x 71.1 x 91.4 cm

P·P·O·W is pleased to present Carolee Schneemann’s fourth exhibition at the gallery entitled Flange 6rpm. Originally a painter, Carolee Schneemann is a pioneer of extended media, from her explorations of 'geometry of motion' in Lateral Splay, 1963, the provocative group performance Meat Joy, 1964, her self-shot erotic film Fuses, 1965, and the meditation of solitary movements in Up To and Including Her Limits, 1973-76. 

Estate of Carolee Schneemann - Flange 6rpm - Exhibitions - PPOW

Upon entering the gallery the viewer is immersed in the projected foundry fires of Schneemann’s latest multi-sensory installation, Flange 6rpm. Seven motorized sculptural units; containing hand-sculpted components, each unique, cast in aluminum from a lost wax process. The aluminum sculptures are not polished, but maintain a rough textured sill marked from the fire of the foundry. The sculptural units are each mounted on a motorized base which moves them at six revolutions per minute – slowly, side to side, as well as forward and back – in a continuous motion so that the sculptural elements are almost touching, creating a sense of tension and unpredictability.

Schneemann notes 'The fundamental life of any material I use is concentrated in that material's gesture -- gesticulation, gestation, source of compression (measure of tension and expansion), resistance, developing force of visual action. Manifest in space, any particular gesture acts on the eye as a unit of time.' This statement reigns true to the materials of the four Dust Paintings, 1983-86, that occupy the walls of the second gallery. Degraded materials, ashes, soot, layers of dust, spilled paint, circuit boards, posit a visual correlative to the endless bombardments of Lebanese and Palestinian villages.

Estate of Carolee Schneemann - Flange 6rpm - Exhibitions - PPOW

Carolee Schneemann
Vulva's Morphia, 1995
signed and dated on front
mounted 36 panel photo grid with hand painting, text inserts on wood, and fans
96 x 60 ins.
243.84 x 152.4 cm

Saw Over Want, 1980-82 and Vulva’s Morphia, 1995, are composed from photographic grids separated by strips of text that accentuate and destabilize their associated images. The text in Saw Over Want, is taken from Schneemann’s childhood alphabet exercises. The words “saw”, “want”, and “over” have been repeatedly practiced. Strips of text underline images of ordinary objects and self-shot erotic body details. This contrast produces an aesthetic seepage. Vulva’s Morphia consists of thirty-six images which address normative taboos within an undulating grid of Paleolithic vulvas inscribed on rocks as well as sacred, obscene, scientific, and self-photographed vulvic images. Each sectional grid is underlined with a taboo reflection. For instance, “Vulva reads biology and understands she is an amalgam of proteins and oxytocin hormones which govern all her desires....”

A feature length film on Schneemann’s work and history entitled Breaking the Frame by Marielle Nitoslawska has recently been completed and shown at the Telluride Film Festival, BFI/London Film Festival, FNC Montreal, Glasgow, Cleveland and this month at the WRO Biennial, Wroclaw, Poland and Videoex, Zurich.  Schneemann’s work has been exhibited worldwide, at institutions including the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Reina Sophia Museum, Madrid and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Her published books include Cezanne; She Was A Great Painter (1976); Early and Recent Work (1983); More Than Meat Joy: Complete Performance Works and Selected Writings (1979); Correspondence Course (2010) by Kristine Stiles, and Imaging Her Erotics–Essays, Interviews, Projects (2002). Color brochure to accompany the exhibition with essay by Melissa Ragona.

Exhibited Works

Exhibited Works Thumbnails
Carolee Schneemann, Saw Over Want, 1980-82

Carolee Schneemann
Saw Over Want, 1980-82
Self-shot photographic grid: chromaprints, dye, text inserts on wood
77 x 99 ins.
195.58 x 251.46 cm

Carolee Schneemann, Untitled (flange drawing I), 2010

Carolee Schneemann
Untitled (flange drawing I), 2010
acrylic and crayon on paper
27 x 22 ins.
68.58 x 55.88 cm

Carolee Schneemann, Untitled (flange drawing II), 2010

Carolee Schneemann
Untitled (flange drawing II), 2010
acrylic and crayon on paper
27 x 22 ins.
68.58 x 55.88 cm

Carolee Schneemann, Untitled (from Dust series), 1983

Carolee Schneemann
Untitled (from Dust series), 1983
ink, ashes, acrylic paint, string, vegetable dye, glass particles and circuit board on heavy rag paper
36 x 44 ins.
91.44 x 111.76 cm

Carolee Schneemann, Untitled (from Dust series), 1984

Carolee Schneemann
Untitled (from Dust series), 1984
ink, ashes, acrylic paint, string, vegetable dye, glass particles, deer fur, and circuit board on heavy rag paper
42 x 54 ins.
106.68 x 137.16 cm

Carolee Schneemann, Untitled (from Dust series), May 1984

Carolee Schneemann
Untitled (from Dust series), 1984
ink, ashes, acrylic paint, string, vegetable dye, glass particles, photgraph on fabric and circuit board on heavy rag paper
framed: 42 x 54 ins.
106.68 x 137.16 cm

Carolee Schneemann, Saw Over Want, 1980-82

Carolee Schneemann
Saw Over Want, 1980-82
Self-shot photographic grid: chromaprints, dye, text inserts on wood
77 x 99 ins.
195.58 x 251.46 cm

Carolee Schneemann, Untitled (flange drawing I), 2010

Carolee Schneemann
Untitled (flange drawing I), 2010
acrylic and crayon on paper
27 x 22 ins.
68.58 x 55.88 cm

Carolee Schneemann, Untitled (flange drawing II), 2010

Carolee Schneemann
Untitled (flange drawing II), 2010
acrylic and crayon on paper
27 x 22 ins.
68.58 x 55.88 cm

Carolee Schneemann, Untitled (from Dust series), 1983

Carolee Schneemann
Untitled (from Dust series), 1983
ink, ashes, acrylic paint, string, vegetable dye, glass particles and circuit board on heavy rag paper
36 x 44 ins.
91.44 x 111.76 cm

Carolee Schneemann, Untitled (from Dust series), 1984

Carolee Schneemann
Untitled (from Dust series), 1984
ink, ashes, acrylic paint, string, vegetable dye, glass particles, deer fur, and circuit board on heavy rag paper
42 x 54 ins.
106.68 x 137.16 cm

Carolee Schneemann, Untitled (from Dust series), May 1984

Carolee Schneemann
Untitled (from Dust series), 1984
ink, ashes, acrylic paint, string, vegetable dye, glass particles, photgraph on fabric and circuit board on heavy rag paper
framed: 42 x 54 ins.
106.68 x 137.16 cm

Installation Views

Installation Views Thumbnails
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 1
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 5
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 4
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 6
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 7
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 8
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 2
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 3
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 9
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 1
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 5
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 4
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 6
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 7
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 8
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 2
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 3
Flange 6rpm, 2013 install 9