TANA HARGEST
PERRY HOBERMAN
GEORGE KIMMERLING
DAVID OPDYKE
JACQUELINE SALLOUM
PETER SCOTT

David Opdyke

Momenta Art is pleased to announce a preview at our Williamsburg Galley of Focus Group, a group show curated by Eric Heist for The Soap Factory, a not for profit space located in Minneapolis. (Focus Group will open at the Soap Factory on July 12 and run through August 24th.)

The work in "Focus Group" embraces humor, satire and irony in a critique of the systems that propagate corporate ideology – an ideology that replaces critical discourse with brand loyalty. The artists in this show engage with corporate information systems, mimic corporate aesthetics and produce networks of disinformation that call

into question the aims of corporate America. By doing so, these artists expose the foundation of our worldview and remind us of the important role art has to play in facilitating knowledge. Much of the work in Focus Group suggests the nearly invisible and the unconscious, the hidden forces that threaten humanity itself. This work constantly reminds the viewer, through means more sophisticated than straightforward propaganda, of the complex ways in which our humanity is being undermined.

Tana Hargest’s "Bitter Nigger" installation includes an interactive trade show kiosk selling "blackness". Hargest's work explores how intrinsic qualities are sold back as consumable products. Presented with deadpan irony as Chairwoman and CEO, in her report to Potential Shareholders, Hargest states, "Since I became Chairwoman in 1997, we have divested all our non-cultural-intervention businesses, including in 1998 all of the businesses that had been part of out Art Career/Art Star Group. Despite these divestitures, in the last 8 months Bitter Nigger’s ideas have doubled, viewer investment in Bitter Nigger, Inc. has more than tripled, and the value of our, relevancy stock has grown eightfold." Tana Hargest received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of design in 1999. She received a Creative Capital Grant in 2002. Her work was exhibited in the "Freestyle" exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2001. She will present her new installation "Negrotopia", at Momenta in September 2003.

Perry Hoberman’s "Infringement and OK/Cancel" digital prints of computer dialog boxes present the limited options of individuals in relation to the corporation. Detecting a corporation’s trademarked slogan being used by an individual through e-mail, a box pops up giving the user a price list for using the English language. Hoberman is represented by Postmaster’s in New York, where his most recent exhibition, "Accept" was presented. His work is exhibited nationally and internationally.

George Kimmerling’s "New Homes for America" presents a fictional real-estate circular that posits the locations of sex offenders. Under Megan's Laws, information about the addresses of sex offenders becomes public for the rest of their lives. This piece explores how these laws lead to the erosion of privacy under the guise of moral indignation. Kimmerling attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study program and received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. His most recent exhibition, Clipped, was presented at Momenta Art in 2003.

David Opdyke’s "Vote Your Subconscious" presents electoral maps of the US. Each panel shows a grid of 36 national electoral maps, each map articulated with red and blue states. The individual maps combine into the composite image of a common brand logo – McDonald's, 7UP, Target, one brand for each panel. The 15 panels also form a larger composite image, that of a one-dollar bill behind the election maps, suggesting the power systems that underlie US policy. David Opdyke is represented by Roebling Hall, Brooklyn, NY. His work was recently included in "Pop Patriotism" group exhibition at Momenta Art.

Jacqueline Salloum’s 24 minute video titled "Interview" reflects on the dissimulation and commodification of information construed through the media. Combining a 1975 Playboy interview conducted with ex-CIA agent Philip Agee on his controversial book exposing the misdeeds of the CIA with images from the magazine, this work conveys those rare moments that buried information leaks out and surfaces via pop culture and entertainment. The viewer is distracted from a deluge of historical information on U.S foreign policy by the procession of Playmates, suggesting the mechanisms that allow us to forget and allow those in power to alter and erase. Salloum is a recent graduate of NYU’s MFA program. Her work has been exhibited at the Galway Arts Centre, Galway, Ireland, ATA, San Francisco, CA. Other Cinema, Freewaves Festival, Los Angeles, CA, and the Palace Theater, Hollywood, CA.

Peter Scott makes paintings on raw cotton which he removes from the stretcher, reverses and re-stretches, effectively making the image into a residual portrait. In the piece exhibited in "Focus Group", jubilant consumers taken from advertising sources combine facial types with products. The individual becomes completely identified with the product, resulting in a loss of autonomy and a phantom-like individual. Peter Scott, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, curated Pop Patriotism at Momenta in September 2002. His work has been exhibited extensively in the US and internationally.

Special thanks to FOXY Productions.

Jacqueline Salloum

George Kimmerling

Perry Hoberman