[artinfo] ICA presents The Big Nothing

[e-Flux]

Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA)
"The Big Nothing"
May 1-August 1, 2004
Opening Reception Friday April 30th, 6-8pm
Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA)
University of Pennsylvania, 118 S. 36th St.
Philadelphia PA 19104
215-898-5911, <http://www.icaphila.org>http://www.icaphila.org
 
The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is pleased to announce "The 
Big Nothing," a major group exhibition exploring themes of nothing 
and nothingness in contemporary art. Filling both main gallery 
spaces, the exhibition will include over sixty artists' works from 
the 1970s to the present. ICA's exhibition also initiates a 
Philadelphia-wide constellation of music, art, film, and talks 
independently organized by 36 venues throughout the city. Driven by a 
core-group of curators and organizers over the past year-from the 
Philadelphia Museum of Art to the Edgar Allan Poe House to The Fabric 
Workshop and Museum-the various independently conceived projects will 
occur throughout the summer all around the city.

The void, the ineffable, the sublime, refusal, nihilism, zero-all are 
encompassed by "nothing." ICA's first floor gallery will trace a 
number of distinct takes on the idea. The vacuity or reproducability 
of consumer image culture can be seen in works by Roe Ethridge and 
Andy Warhol. Metaphysical nothings-from Zen to an updated American 
sublime-are evident in works by Jack Goldstein, Heavy Industries and 
Yayoi Kusama. Yet another section, with works by Louise Lawler, Jutta 
Koether, and others, conceives of nothing as a kind of refusal or 
negation. A fourth grouping will document art projects that have 
sought to close or empty the gallery space. This surprisingly 
recurrent gesture in contemporary art-Yves Klein, Robert Barry and 
Michael Asher have all made signature works by removing or displacing 
art from its normative contexts-will be showcased in photographs, 
announcement cards, press releases and other ephemera. ICA's upstairs 
gallery will be devoted entirely to film and video, and will include 
works by Bernadette Corporation, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Pierre 
Huyghe, John Smith, Nicolas Guagnini and Karin Schneider, and 
Charlemagne Palestine among others.

Artists in the exhibition: Bas Jan Ader, Ayreen Anastas, Richard 
Artschwager, Michael Asher, Michel Auder, Jo Baer, Robert Barry, 
Larry Bell, Bernadette Corporation, James Lee Byars, Maurizio 
Cattelan, Thomas Chimes, Bruce Conner, Day Without Art, Jessica 
Diamond, Roe Ethridge, Lili Fleury, Rene Gabri, Jack Goldstein, 
Katharina Fritsch, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Nicolas Guagnini, 
Heavy Industries, Richard Hook, Roni Horn, Pierre Huyghe, Gareth 
James, Ray Johnson, Yves Klein, Joachim Koester, Jutta Koether, Yayoi 
Kusama, Louise Lawler, Gordon Matta-Clark, Allan McCollum, Patrick 
McMullen, John Miller, Matt Mullican, Eileen Neff, Gabriel Orozco, 
Raphael Ortiz, Charlemagne Palestine, Philippe Parreno, William 
Pope.L, Doris Salcedo, Karin Schneider, Allan Sekula, Arlene Shechet, 
Santiago Sierra, John Smith, Robert Smithson, Paul Swenbeck, Rirkrit 
Tiravanija, Andy Warhol, James Welling, John Wesley, Steve Wolfe, and 
David Hammons and Sharon Lockhart (at The Fabric Workshop and Museum, 
Philadelphia).