Just one more week to see Geoff Hendricks' & Sur Rodney (Sur)'s installation of Money for Food Press books at Printed Matter in their new space on Tenth Avenue, including their Tenth Anniversary Special Edition Box, together with a recreation of Brian Buczak's timely window: "Flags - ANARCHY / SURRENDER" that he created first for the windows of the original Printed Matter space on Lispenard Street, July 4th 1985:
through Saturday, May 13, 2006
Printed Matter, Inc
195 Tenth Avenue (21st & 22nd Streets)
New York City 10011
Money for Food Press (MFFP) was originally created to expand the practices of its founders' artwork, which was rooted in Fluxus and Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence School. The press began with the booklet "Rulers, Ladders and Buckets," which documented a performance by Buczak and Hendricks at P.S. 1 in 1977. Over the next decade, dozens of publications were produced and distributed that intersected with the practices of New York-based artists such as George Maciunas, Lawrence Wiener, Alison Knowles and Nancy Spero. MFFP remained an essential compliment to Buczak’s painting and post-Fluxus practice until his death from HIV/AIDS and related complications in 1987 and the exhibition reflects this through the inclusion of over thirty of his individual publications.
Throughout its existence, MFFP has embraced an accessible, democratic, do-it-yourself practice that encourages the breakdown of boundaries separating art and life. In the introduction to the offerings in their 1980 catalog, Dick Higgins writes "They exist as paradigms for our own imaginative processes rather than (at least primarily) investment commodities. Buy them and live well – keep them in your own private treasure chest, to be fished out and shown only to those with whom you share your own private elegances."
In addition to the wide selection of books, edition and ephemera that will be on display, a recreation of a window installation that Brian Buczak originally designed in 1985 will be featured in the storefront window. This piece, which questions conventional notions of patriotism, has been shown twice at Printed Matter's previous locations: in 1985 on Lispenard Street and in 1997 on Wooster Street.
The exhibition opening will also feature the launch of the latest MFFP publication, A Special Edition Box Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of a Wedding Event, which is a collaboration between Hendricks and Sur Rodney (Sur). Through text and illustrations as well as relics like a rubber stamped Hershey wrapper, the archival box looks back at their wedding Happening in 1995 that took place during a memorial celebration for the artist Al Hansen. Concurrent exhibitions including MFFP collaborators, such as Al Hansen and Ray Johnson, will also be taking place in Chelsea at Andrea Rosen Gallery and Pavel Zoubok Gallery.
For additional information, please contact James Hoff, Director of Development at (212) 925-0325 or at jhoff @ printedmatter.org.
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