AN EXHIBITION BY FRANÇOIS LANGELLA
NOV 5 – DEC 1, 2016
On view are objects I picked from old, worn-out buildings.
They were restored and installed in a way that befits their exhibition in the gallery space.
The exhibition closes as a professional demolition team is hired to dispose of the artworks.
Artist’s statement
Some of these buildings had been left vacant for quite some time, in various states of neglect. It so happened after they were declared unsafe, or after a business went bankrupt or moved to some more upscale part of town. Some others were about to be vacated and are soon to be demolished, because the land they sit on now makes a good upscale part of town.
The objects on show were some time ago designed to fit a particular function in a particular building. Put to good use and valued for years or decades, they lost their relevance the day the people moved out of the building, where they remained. As such they went on to carry no value other than their scrap value, if any. I chose them for their aesthetic appeal and also the bits of popular history they evoke.
Value is a construct, all the more so monetary value: fast changing at the whim of speculation and fueled by a process of production, obsolescence and destruction, the valuable is essentially precarious, and with precarity comes a sense of insecurity and urgency most felt as the cycle closes to an end.