For the first iteration of this virtual exhibition series we bring together the work of three artists that will take you “out for a walk”.
In the presented works, Esther Hovers, Magali Duzant and Hugo Rocci look at New York City through lenses that might appear different, but despite those differences they all try to respond to unanswerable questions in a period of uncertainty. The query oscillates around mathematical problems about movement, esoteric searches in the NYC Subway System, and narratives embedded in the city’s store fronts.
They portray the city as a space that allows for data collection, as a metaphor for the unpredictable, and most importantly as a space that beholds, perceives and considers its inhabitants –tourists, strollers, commuters and other types of professional and amateur walkers, in parallel intensity.
The Moon and Stars Can Be Yours is a pocket-sized guide to modern mysticism by way of the NYC subway system, published in late 2019 by Conveyor Editions. This collection of writing and photography includes a short history of psychics in our popular imagination and more than a dozen vignettes about humorous and historical forays into new age beliefs, alongside a curious collection of artifacts and archival images from the NYPL Picture Collection.
The book follows a freewheeling investigation into the rise of contemporary spiritualism in an age of uncertainty. Each chapter is presented in the form of an unanswerable question—Will I find happiness? Is there luck in my future? Will I find love that lasts?—and meanders into the murky world of palm readings and impromptu sauna astrology sessions, to name a few.
Esther Hovers
Traveling Salesman is based on the simple idea of a narrative about a walk. The story is about a traveling salesman. This idea is taken from a mathematical problem called ‘The Traveling Salesman Problem’. This problem asks the following question: ‘What is the shortest route through a list of cities in which you visit each city exactly once and return to the starting city?’
In an age where there is a pervasive need for everything to be controlled and quantified, I use the city as a metaphor for the unpredictable.
The final work is a collection of photographs, screen prints, and image transfers. Through my work I reflect on (intangible) power structures in public space. To what extend are our movements determined by the architecture, surveillance and norms of this space?
Hugo Rocci
The new exhibition at the Patty Morgan showroom is an installation of Hugo Rocci’s most recent work, made during his residency at the New York Art Residency and Studios (NARS) Foundation. Inspired by the New York shop windows, which Hugo encountered during his strolls around the city, the artist came up with the idea to create his own shop fronts, that offer a glimpse in the everyday life of these New York shops. Every facade suggests its own narrative and focuses on the mysterious choices of decoration by the shop owner. Neon signs, flower pots, air-conditioner, hand-written notes, and dust are the main actors in Hugo’s most recent work.
Hugo noticed that the craft of hand painted signs is vanishing. The smaller works in the exhibition therefore emphasize the hand painted signs in shop fronts that serve the purpose of communicating the absence of the owner for a small period of time. For instance the post-it note that says the owner will be back in 5 minutes ...