project : rendition



	www.projectrendition.info project: rendition is a collaboration by JC2, a group composed of artists Joy Episalla, Joy Garnett, Carrie Moyer and Carrie Yamaoka. It examines the concept of rendering through an installation that incorporates elements of architecture, printed agitprop, audio, and performance in an interactive environment. The project title refers to "extraordinary rendition," the Bush Administration's practice of clandestine kidnapping and extradition of suspected terrorists to countries where they can be interrogated and tortured beyond the reach of the US judicial system. While extraordinary rendition is an extreme form of political repression, state-induced fear and disenfranchisement are far more common means of rendering individuals and whole populations politically mute or existentially invisible. The exhibition revolves around a five-sided structure built entirely of one-way mirror, which functions as an inverted Panopticon, or surveillance tower. Visitors may either observe those inside the illuminated structure from the safety of the darkened gallery or reverse roles and become potential objects of scrutiny or fascination by entering it. An excerpt from the famous 1630 sermon, "A Model of Christian Charity," written by the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop, will be available as a free broadside to visitors. From Ronald Reagan's "Shining City on the Hill" to George Bush Sr.'s "Thousand Points of Light," Winthrop's Puritan text has served as the lynchpin for the philosophy of American exceptionalism for the past 200 years. Performances are scheduled to take place on site throughout the duration of the show. Please check the project: rendition website for performance schedule: www.projectrendition.info JC2 thanks Brian Webster for his invaluable technical expertise, without which this project would not have been realized. Joy Episalla's photographic, video and sculptural work have been exhibited widely in the U.S. and abroad--at the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Phoenix Art Museum, Mercer Union (Toronto), Studio 1.1 (London), and Aeroplastics Contemporary (Brussels). This past December she was a participant in Fenenin El-Rahhal, (Nomadic Artists), the 2006 international artists summit held in the Western Desert and Cairo, Egypt. She is a longtime AIDS activist and was a member of fierce pussy, a lesbian public art collective active in the early 90's in NYC. Her work is currently on view in "The Last Seduction" at Carrie Secrist Gallery in Chicago. She lives and works in New York City. Joy Garnett is a painter based in New York. She appropriates news and documentary photographs from the Internet and re-enacts them as paintings. Notable past exhibitions include "Image War," organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art (2006), and "Without Fear or Reproach," De Witte Zaal, Ghent, Belgium (2003). In 2002 she curated "Night Vision," an exhibition examining surveillance, networks, and media representations of war, which traveled to White Columns , New York. Her solo show "Strange Weather" is currently up through July 30 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. Carrie Moyer is a New York-based painter and a co-founder of the renowned public art project, Dyke Action Machine! Her paintings and agitprop interventions have been widely exhibited both nationally and internationally, including such venues as PS1, the Palm Beach ICA, the Weatherspoon, Cooper-Hewitt and Tang Museums, Shedhalle (Zurich), Le Magasin (Grenoble) and the Project Centre (Dublin), among others. She is a contributing writer for Modern Painters, the Brooklyn Rail and Gay City News. Moyer is represented by CANADA, New York. Carrie Yamaoka's reflective and optically charged paintings of mylar encapsulated in resin have been exhibited widely over the past decade, notably at Artists Space, New York; the Wexner Center for the Arts; the Museum of Modern Art, Arnhem, Holland; Mass MOCA, and at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY. She was a member of fierce pussy, a lesbian public art collective active in the early '90s. She lives and works in New York. Momenta Art is located at 359 Bedford Avenue, ground floor, between S4th and S5th Sts. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. By subway, take the L train to Bedford stop (the first stop in Brooklyn). Exit on the Bedford side. Walk south 12 blocks. By car, take the outside lane of the Williamsburg Bridge to the first exit. Make a sharp right onto Broadway. Drive 2 blocks to Bedford Avenue and make a right. We are located a half block on the right after you pass under the bridge. Momenta Art is supported by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, The Greenwich Collection, Ltd., The Jerome Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York Foundation on the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and individual supporters.