Mark Koven - A Stone’s Throw & Classroom at Dorsch Gallery (Wynwood Art District, Miami)

Image Courtesy Dorsch Gallery

October 11th - November 8th, 2008

Dorsch Gallery is pleased to present, in the East Gallery, Mark Koven’s installation “A Stone’s Throw.” In the West Gallery, “Classroom,” the exhibition, will put the objects of a classroom, and the classes that take place in it, on display. Both exhibitions will have an opening reception Saturday, October 11, 7-10:30pm. The shows will run October 11-November 8. The closing reception for both exhibitions will be Saturday, November 8, 7:30-10pm.

Mark Koven, a mid-career conceptual artist, has steered his art entirely into the social realm. He uses orchestrated situations, settings, and a series of instructions to pressure socially-loaded interactions. This October, for “A Stone’s Throw,” Koven will blanket Dorsch Gallery’s floor, which is 25 x 100 feet, with sand. He will ask visitors (in the invitation) to bring their own dirt to the exhibition, beginning a cycle of making stones. Visitors will add their dirt upon arrival to a pile of the same, which Koven collected during his travels. Each person can make a stone from this pile. Once a visitor makes his stone, he will set it aside to “cure.”  This stone will be used later on by someone else who comes into the gallery at a later date, and wants to throw a stone. Next, since he made a stone, and only if he has made one, he will have an opportunity to pick a stone, previously made by someone else, from a pile and throw it in the gallery.

“Skipping stones,” is a child’s game. Some adults play it too. On the other hand, stones are the earliest (and most simplistic) weapons used in invasions or punishments. Playing on these associations with throwing stones, A Stone’s Throw relates child’s play to violence in punishment, vandalism, protests and war. 

Koven’s works evolve from an intense research-based process, in which he consults sources as diverse as US Nuclear Import Laws or health statistics. For this exhibition, he sought out a Harvard study on human behavior: it observes that humans are the only beings able to throw a projectile with speed and accuracy. This ability has had physiological and psychological effects on our species’ evolution.

Concurrently with Koven’s exhibition, “Classroom” will take place in the West Room of Dorsch Gallery. For the opening reception of this project, the space will be roped off. From the barrier, the tell-tale components of a classroom will be evident: institutional chairs, tables and a blackboard. The components are slightly non sequitur, since the classroom will occupy gallery exhibition space. It is inactive and nonfunctional.

After the opening, during the month of October, the space will be rendered for use as a classroom. Speakers and lecturers will be invited in the usual manner of programming. This experiment responds to rumored changes to existing art programs or the possibility of new ones, the recent appearance of “Theory Night,” members-only Morning Lectures, and Miami’s ambition to be an essential year-round focal point for contemporary art.

Speakers will include Ruba Katrib (MoCA, North Miami); Rene Morales (Miami Art Museum); Brook Dorsch, Satellite Systems Engineer, SeaMobile; Fredric Snitzer, Professor, New World School of the Arts; and Kyle Trowbridge, Professor, Visual Arts, University of Miami; among others.

Check www.Dorschgallery.com for the growing schedule of events for “Classroom.”

Dorsch Gallery 151 NW 24 Street. Miami, FL 33127

Phone 305-576-1278

info@dorschgallery.com

www.dorschgallery.com

Tues - Sat 11-6pm