Above All WE are Not Done

White Box, New York

November 8, 2017

Sculptural Intervention and Durational Performance

This project, conceived as a response to the political climate surrounding the 2017 US Presidential Election, utilized a sculptural intervention and a series of durational performances. JAŠA deliberately occupied a section of the exhibition space by inserting a sculptural duplication of the existing architecture, creating a stage for the performative testimony of his position. The construction was followed by a sustained action of color layering. This seemingly pure aesthetic act, employing a classical painterly approach to achieve chromatic depth, served to question the work's intention within a politically charged exhibition context. The core critique involved the engagement of an anonymous worker to perform the repetitive, durational task of painting the structure, thereby highlighting the mechanisms of invisible labor and class-based distrust in the contemporary art field. The work climaxed on the eve of the elections when the structure stood in its final black state. The last act involved a group of artists who, dressed in black, silently and unanimously lifted the structure in an embodied political gesture against the impending reality. A subsequent restaging was necessitated by the theft of documentation following the election results, underscoring the immediate chaos and precarity of the sociopolitical environment.

Artist: JAŠA

Technical Support: Drew Conrad

Performers: Marty Cacic, Maura Pelletri, Jaanika Paerna, Xiren Wang, Franc Lesbros, Giorgio Guidi, and an anonymous painter.