As Far as the Heart Can See
September 21–November 17, 2018
Curated by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful
Curatorial Fellow JP-Anne Giera
Nao Bustamante
Billy X. Curmano, Irina Danilova & Project 59
Beatrice Glow
Ivan Monforte
Linda Mary Montano
Praxis (Delia & Brainard Carey)
Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle
and Martha Wilson & Franklin Furnace Archive
To celebrate EFA Project Space's 10th year, we return to the heart of the matter with As Far as the Heart Can See, an exhibition that brings art and everyday life together through performance-based acts of care, transgression, and multigenerational collaboration. The show assembles a constellation of artists who have shifted gear, broken away, found shelter in the wilderness, or ventured astray from art-historical validation in order to speak truth.
Curated by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful – whose elusive creative path embodies intimacy, healing, empathy, and radical generosity – the exhibition focuses on figures who parry institutional canons and over-professionalization to pursue art as a call to the heart. Artists fatigued by pressure to both make and be objects, take note: one might say that those in As Far As the Heart Can See pursue what they do as a ‘vocation,’ suggesting bold acts and a readiness to trade normative success for something more.
The exhibition includes public performances by Linda Mary Montano and Billy X. Curmano; an afternoon of live actions in honor of exhibition participants during EFA Open Studios by Nina Isabelle, Sindy Butz, Elena Bajo, Xinan (Helen) Ran, and Larissa Gilbert; a public screening of Good Bye Gauley Mountain: An Eco-Sexual Love Story (2013) by Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle and a post-Q&A conversation with Lillian Ball and Brooke Singer; an Anti-Professional Development Workshop with Bill Carroll, Mary Ting, Jodi Waynberg, and Martha Wilson; and an artist-dinner by Irina Danilova and Project 59.
Praxis (Delia & Brainard Carey), Pray for Me, 2018. Handmade sign, ongoing performance.
Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, Blue Wedding to the Sea, 2009.
Beatrice Glow, Taparaco Myth, 2007. Video (20:00) and assorted objects.
Beatrice Glow, Taparaco Myth, 2007. Video (20:00) and assorted objects.
Beatrice Glow, Taparaco Myth, 2007. Video (20:00) and assorted objects.
Beatrice Glow, Taparaco Myth, 2007. Video (20:00) and assorted objects.
Beatrice Glow, Taparaco Myth, 2007. Video (20:00) and assorted objects.
Beatrice Glow, Taparaco Myth, 2007. Video (20:00) and assorted objects.
Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle, Ecosex Manifesto, 2014. Banner.
Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle, Ecosex Manifesto, 2014.
Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle, Ecosex Weddings, 2015. Video documentation of performances, 00:10:27.
Nao Bustamante, Given Over to Want, 2007. Photograph, bedsheets, oranges, boxed wine.
Nao Bustamante, Given Over to Want, 2007. Photograph, bedsheets, oranges, boxed wine Courtesy of the artist.
Nao Bustamante, Given Over to Want, 2007. Photograph, bedsheets, oranges, boxed wine.
Nao Bustamante, Given Over to Want, 2007. Photograph, bedsheets, oranges, boxed wine.
Left:
Billy X. Curmano, Swimmin’, 2018. Video
Billy X. Curmano, ContainCase (Containment Case), 2018. Wood, plexiglass sculptural case with objects collected and created while Swimmin’ the River.
Billy X. Curmano, NavCharts25’, 2018. Navigational charts.
Right:
Nao Bustamante, Given Over to Want, 2007. Photograph, bedsheets, oranges, boxed wine.
Billy X. Curmano, ContainCase (Containment Case), 2018. Wood, plexiglass sculptural case with objects collected and created while Swimmin’ the River.
Billy X. Curmano, NavCharts25’, 2018. Navigational charts.
Billy X. Curmano, ContainCase (Containment Case) (detail), 2018. Wood, plexiglass sculptural case with objects collected and created while Swimmin’ the River.
Billy X. Curmano, ContainCase (Containment Case) (detail), 2018. Wood, plexiglass sculptural case with objects collected and created while Swimmin’ the River.
Irina Danilova and Project 59
Invitation for the exploration: 59 Art & Facts from the Project 59, 1996 - ongoing. Installation.
Irina Danilova and Project 59
Invitation for the exploration: 59 Art & Facts from the Project 59, 1996 - ongoing. Installation.
Irina Danilova and Project 59
Invitation for the exploration: 59 Art & Facts from the Project 59, 1996 - ongoing. Installation.
Irina Danilova and Project 59, Invitation for the exploration: 59 Art & Facts from the Project 59, 1996 - ongoing. Installation.
Left:
Irina Danilova and Project 59
Invitation for the exploration: 59 Art & Facts from the Project 59, 1996 - ongoing. Installation (detail).
Back center:
Ivan Monforte, Feeling Uneasy, 2010. Video, 3:00.
Ivan Monforte, I Belong to You, 2006 Video, 4:15.
Ivan Monforte, There But For The Grace Of God Go I, 2018. Performance.
Right:
Franklin Furnace Archive, Selection of Funded Proposals, 2000-18. Bond paper 48 proposals, each 8 1⁄2” x 11” and series of 15 videos 02:13:53.
Franklin Furnace Archive, Selection of Funded Proposals, 2000-18. Bond paper 48 proposals, each 8 1⁄2” x 11”, and series of 15 videos 02:13:53.
Ivan Monforte, Feeling Uneasy, 2010. Video, 3:00.
Ivan Monforte, I Belong to You, 2006 Video, 04:15.
Ivan Monforte, There But For The Grace Of God Go I, 2018. Performance/social sculpture.
Ivan Monforte and GMHC, There But For The Grace Of God Go I, 2018. Performance/social sculpture.
Martha Wilson, Political Evolution, 2017.
6 photos: Nancy Reagan (Photo: Susanna Dakin), 1984
Barbara Bush (Photo: Dennis W. Ho), 2005
William Jefferson Clinton (Photo: Michael Katchen), 2009 Tipper Gore (Photo: Benita Abrams), 1994
Michelle Obama (Photo: Matthew McNulty), 2014
Donald Trump (Photo: Kathy Grove), 2016
Linda Mary Montano, NURSE! NURSE!, 2016. Video, 00:18:26.
Linda Mary Montano, Interactive Dance for Ana Mendieta, 2018. Video, 00:12:23.
Linda Mary Montano, NURSE! NURSE!, 2016. Video, 00:18:26.
Praxis (Delia & Brainard Carey), Forget me not, 2004. Video, 33:00.
Praxis (Delia & Brainard Carey), Pray for Me, 2018. Handmade sign, ongoing performance.
Praxis (Delia & Brainard Carey), Forget me not, 2004. Video, 33:00.
Praxis (Delia & Brainard Carey), Pray for Me, 2018. Handmade sign, ongoing performance.