Coco Young at Interstate Projects

Artist: Coco Young

Exhibition title: Nadja

Venue: Interstate Projects, New York, US

Date: October 21 – November 20, 2016

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy the artist and Interstate Projects, New York

All I can see in this moment are my hands/fingers typing this and the tip of my nose if I cross my eyes. My so-called “legs” have disappeared under a desk. Do I even have feet? I don’t believe that they exist, but I would notice if they were cut off. If I look beyond my screen, out of the window and into the next building, one of those shadows is Nadja, standing in the institution where she is being cared for. Nadja, she embodies freedom, but only inside of her own mind; the rest of her is constricted to four pastel-colored walls. When she screams, nobody can understand her. To Nadja, we don’t even exist.

* I remarked on the quai of the Vieux-Port in Marseille, shortly before sunset, a curiously scrupulous painter struggling with skill and speed on his canvas against the fading light. The spot of color corresponding to the sun gradually descended with the sun. Finally, nothing remained. The painter suddenly discovered he was far behind: he obliterated the red from a wall, painted over one of two last gleams lingering on the water. His painting, finished for himself, for me the most unfinished thing possible, looked very sad and beautiful.

The italic text is a footnote by André Breton from Nadja (1928)

Coco Young was born in New York City and raised in Marseille, France. She attended Columbia University where she studied Art History. She currently lives and works in NYC. This is her first solo exhibition.