Exhibition: Anne Senstad "Soft Geometry - Liquid Commodity"

Anne Senstad
Soft Geometry - Liquid Commodity
Nov 12 – Dec 13 2015
Opening Nov 12 - 6-8 pm

Solivagant* is pleased to announce a solo show by New York based, Norwegian artist Anne Senstad.

The multi-location installation Soft Geometry-Liquid Commodity presents a series of new geometric and text based neon works that suggest a route running through Solivagant* gallery space and the city block hosting it; the gallery will physically expand from its 79 sq.ft room to the whole block between Orchard St., Hester St., Allen St. and Grand St.
Anne Senstad’s site-responsive installation aims to comment on and highlight the role of Chinatown as a cultural antecedent to New York and as one of its last bastions of authenticity. Solivagant*, as an intervening exhibition space stitched into the fabric of the local trade, investigates the value and experience of art by placing it outside of the conventional gallery context; taking it back to an informal trade space, and to its manufacturing place of origin.

Lighting systems, neon signs and displays are largely present in Chinatown cityscape. Soft Geometry creates a correspondence of light, shapes, text and color between the different displays along the city block, a cartographic and aesthetic anthropological intervention.
Liquid Commodity reflects ideas of trade, business, service industry and fast movement of commodities that we find in the market place and in the neighborhood. Art exists as commodity and currency, illuminating and directing desires to possession and consumerism. With the seduction of colors, neon lights and the object-art, commodification and trade is demystified and exposed.

The exhibition at Solivagant* will be accompanied by a number of collaborative performances in response to Senstad’s installations, starting with Fluxus artist Patrice Lerochereuil on Nov 12th. Swiss vocal performance artist Clarina Bezzola will present a political operatic piece Nov 21st and saxophonist Ilhan Ersahin will perform a site responsive piece during the closing event on December 12th.
Anne Senstad works in the multidisciplinary intersections of installation art, photography, video, site specificity and land art. Her work is concerned with sensorial aesthetics, perceptive and transformative ideas of art and philosophical practice and social-political awareness. She has exhibited widely internationally, chiefly at the 55th and 56th Venice Biennale, The Bruges Art and Architecture Triennale 2015, Zendai Moma, Shanghai, Abu Dhabi Art Hub, and ISEA Dubai 2014, UAE as well as in numerous private galleries, festivals and institutions.
Solivagant* is an Art Project Space measuring exactly 79sq.ft, located in the heart of New York CIty's Lower East Side. As a platform for experimentation and contemporary practices, it invites artists to work site-specifically, through public interactions, community involvement, installations and performances. Cultural Nomadism, contamination of productions and hybridism of ideas are the fundamentals of Solivagant*’s projects.

Artworks are on view daily from 9am to 7pm through the Gallery’s window. Gallery space opens by appointment and during performances. Documentation of exhibitions can be accessed 24/7 online at solivagantnyc.com.

For press inquiries please contact the Gallery at info@solivagantnyc.com