↳ Exhibitions

Amalia Pica at Marc Foxx

November 19, 2016

Artist: Amalia Pica

Exhibition title: BLOW THE WHISTLE, BEAT THE DRUM

Venue: Marc Foxx, Los Angeles, US

Date: October 22 – November 26, 2016

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Marc Foxx, Los Angeles

MARC FOXX is pleased to present BLOW THE WHISTLE, BEAT THE DRUM, an exhibition by Amalia Pica, the artists’ third solo exhibition with the gallery. In the exhibition of new work the artist also includes a 2009 work, bracketing her history & investigation into the ways and means of communication.

Pica continues to have deep interest in the cultural intimacy that public actions of protest and celebration can forge. (un)heard, 2016 presents a kind of ad hoc archive and archeology, implied through the immense wall installation of 100+ noise making objects of protest and/or celebration which have been significantly altered by the artist through her use of plaster bandaging thereby both muting & preserving their function and potential.

Blank A4 paper has been haphazardly wallpapered in Leaflets, 2009, the fugitive earlier work included in the exhibition and has a friendly relationship to the white ghost like expanse of (un) heard, and its history of protest. The didactic text panel provides information about the 1960s Dutch activist group Provos and its playful use of non-violent protest.

The four In Praise of Listening, 2016 works are comprised of two stone carved sculptures connected by translucent silicone tubing which initially appear to be abstracted forms smiling at modernism. The elegant biomorphic shapes, some which include identifying text, are soon deciphered as large-scale representations of the inner & outer components of hearing aids. In these works, Pica visually refers to the listener and pays tribute to the active action of listening, the act that makes thought possible.

Despite the discussion of the global digital world, bureaucratic procedures continue to be based on hard copies, e.g. one’s passport booklet, driver’s license, or official mail. Utilizing a lexicon of formal
compositional possibilities Joy in Paperwork, 2016 presents 42 rubber-stamp drawings from the 1000+work project currently on view in the Gwangju Biennial. The stamps from different countries in different languages mark something has been paid, received, delivered, or duplicated within the bureaucratic machine. Although not only linked to immigration, the work speaks to Pica’s arduous process as a non-European person applying for citizenship in a European country.

Amalia Pica was born in Neuquén, Argentina in 1978. She is currently working towards a forthcoming solo exhibition at The Power Plant, Toronto, and has solo exhibitions on view at the Kunstverein Freiburg and in the 2016 Gwangju Biennial. Other exhibitions of note include solo exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the List Visual Arts Center MIT Cambridge, the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, and Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today at South London Gallery and touring the Guggenheim.

Amalia Pica, Leaflets, 2009, Blank A4 paper and placard, dimensions variable installation, 80 x 220 inches, 203.2 x 558.8 x 0 cm

Amalia Pica, (un)heard, 2016, Plastered noisemaking objects of protest, metal hardware, rope, dimensions variable, 105 x 360 inches, 266.7 x 914.4 cm

Amalia Pica, In Praise of Listening, 2016, Soapstone and marble, silicone tubing, dimensions variable, 19 x 25-1/2 x 4-1/4 inches, soapstone: 8-1/2 x 7-1/2 x 17 inches

Amalia Pica, In Praise of Listening, 2016, Marble, paint, silicone tubing, dimensions variable, 11 x 12 x 18 inches, 5 x 26 x 20 inches

Amalia Pica, In Praise of Listening, 2016, Marble, paint, silicone tubing, dimensions variable, 28-1/2 x 19 x 16 inches, 19 x 18 x 48 inches

Amalia Pica, In Praise of Listening, 2016, Black granite, marble, silicone tubing, dimensions variable, black granite: 4 x 15 x 17 inches, white marble: 10 x 10 x 21”

Amalia Pica, Procession (Reconfiguration), 2016, Acid free paper, acrylic, wood, Overall dimensions variable, 9 units : 91 x 290 inches, 231.1 x 736.6 cm