Monumental
Exhibition at Y Gallery, New York
May 1-June 5 2010
Y Gallery
355A Bowery Street (basement)
between 3rd and 4th street, New York
During exhibitions:
Wednesday - Friday: 2 - 7 pm
Saturday and Sunday: 2 - 5 pm
info@ygallerynewyork.com
917 721 4539
For immediate release
Y Gallery is pleased to present Monumental a solo exhibition by Swiss artist Christoph Draeger, curated by Cecilia Jurado. The artist, who's work is often reflecting upon mega disasters as media events, now shifts his focus onto more autobiographical possibilities of tragedy, with a series of subtly rendered observations and a discreet and poetic yet politically charged intervention.
Draeger photographed ghost bikes in Manhattan and Brooklyn, white memorials of anonymous authorship for bicycle riders killed by cars in the streets of the city. These markers, old bikes painted all white, are locked to 'No Parking' poles and were erected without a permit. As the city doesn't take them down, probably out of respect, they become successful squatters in public space, silent reminders of recurrent tragedies.
In addition, in a video of a recent performance, the artist is seen joining the Critical Mass ride as a ghost rider, dressed from helmet to toe in white on a white bicycle - a ghost among protesters for a more bike friendly and green environment. Critical Mass is a grass root movement that originated in San Francisco, soon spreading all over the world. Massive crowds of cyclists all riding together can sometimes bring the traffic in a city to a standstill. The American dream of auto-mobility is critically questioned with a peaceful protest of bike enthusiasts, usually escorted by an oversized police detachment. One day before his opening on May 1st, the international workers day, Draeger will once again join Critical Mass as a ghost, this time with an unknown number of other white riders. In Europe, anarchists, all dressed in black (the black block), come out to fight the police on May 1st. Here, people will join the Critical Mass demonstration all dressed in white, the color of peace. Being peace a concept that paradoxically shows up like a ghost. So this new piece connects conceptually to both, Draeger's recent opus "Hippie Movie" - shown at MoMA in February 2010- as well as his general concern for disaster.
Christoph Draeger’s work has been featured in many solo exhibitions, including shows at Kunsthaus Zurich and Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Switzerland; Orchard Gallery in Derry (UK), ; Halle für Kunst in Lueneburg in Germany, CCCB Barcelona, as well as in group exhibitions at P.S.1, the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA, Paço das Artes São Paulo, MassMoca- Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and KunstWerke, Berlin, among many other venues. He participated to the KwangJu-, Havana-, Valencia-, Turin- and Liverpool Biennials. The Centre Pompidou, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Kunsthaus Zurich and the Centre pour l’image Contemporaine in Geneva are among the public collections that house his work. He lives and works in New York.