Rattling the Dags at april april

Artists: Daphne Ahlers, Sharona Franklin, Bea Fremderman, HULFE

Exhibition title: Rattling the Dags

Curated by: Chris Andrews

Venue: april april, New York, US

Date: December 22, 2021 – February 13, 2022

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and april april, New York

In a mostly-empty living room of a second-floor flat, the parquet floor is scattered with objects and detritus from a dinner party that took place the evening prior. The floor has been mopped poorly, leaving a trail of swept gestures, powder caked into the cracks. It has been patched on more than one occasion and is strewn with half-full vessels.

The inhabitants of the room try to recount their pasts; some mythologized and others truth. There’s a fish without skin on the floor. It’s licking the cracks in the floorboards, pausing to incrementally scream. As it mops with its lips, it spits out single earrings that roll to the centre of the room. The cracks between the boards emit a kind of luminescence not always reserved for lively matter, but a downstairs neighbour.

Collectively, the objects of the living room with the bay windows worry about a life of perpetual work. The kettle seems to have disappeared with the other guests from the party. It had seven spouts — too many for many nights, not enough for others. The sides have been dented in numerous spots along its old walls, the metals turned soft — malleable to the hard-impression of a thumb. The gelatine-lives that scatter the room praise the kettle’s vulnerability, their insides always on view. Spoons, capsules, screws, organic matter: all baring themselves to the visitor like a recipe. From the wall is 4 erections. A curtain preaches to an audience of chairs… spinning a story about a sheep that can’t grow wool and a fish without skin. They are allegories that never seem to finish. The curtain beckons to the others as they assemble.

Entering from the hallway, we follow the clockwise floor plan, so as to not profoundly upset fans of symmetry. The chair’s legs are scuffed, gnawed by a dog. Its life has been mostly reserved for pathologizing the other objects in the room. The following is performed by a set of wooden chairs donning gowns, named Ashley and Ghislaine.

“It’s Sunday and I’m wearing 3 shirts.”

“One trillion holes in the coat that stands on the broomstick in the corner…”

“An embellishment is always two-fold, never merely innocent.”

“My concerns are as follows: staying hidden long enough that dirt begins to form around the edges, and slow death.”

“The kettle races the sheep, rattling their dags.”

Daphne Ahlers (b. 1987, Hamburg, Germany) lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Recent solo exhibitions include Gabi Plus, Vienna, Austria (2020); Mavra, Berlin (2019); Schiefe Zähne, Berlin (2019); Halle für Kunst Lüneburg (2019); Neuer Essener Kunstverein, Essen, Germany (2018); and Cordova, Barcelona, Spain (2018). Forthcoming solo exhibitions include Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland, and Sandy Brown, Berlin, Germany, both 2022. Ahlers is also a member of the band “Lonely Boys” together with Rosa Rendl, and collaborates with artist Lilli Thiessen with whom she co-founded HULFE, an accessory line that creates objects and wearables that relate to the human body.

Sharona Franklin (b. 1987, Vernon, Canada) lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. Franklin is a multidisciplinary disabled artist, writer, and advocate. Recent exhibitions and projects include LA MAISON DE RENDEZ-VOUS, Brussels, Belgium (2021); a city-wide public art project with the City of Vancouver, Canada (2020); The Audain Gallery of Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada (2020); La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain (2020); Kings Leap, New York, NY (2020); Unit 17, Vancouver, Canada (2019); G44 Center for Contemporary Photography, Toronto, Canada (2019); New Image Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2019); and Flux Factory, New York, NY (2019). Recent publications include Injustice in Biopharm (Cassandra Press, 2019) and Rental Bod (Peace Library Publications, 2016). A solo presentation of Franklin’s work will take place in 2022 at the MIT List Visual Arts Centre in Cambridge, MA.

Bea Fremderman (b. 1988, Kishinev, Moldova) lives and works in New York, NY. Recent solo exhibitions include Prairie, Chicago, IL (2021); Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA (2019); and Shoot the Lobster, New York, NY (2017). Recent collaborative exhibitions include La Kaje, with Loreta Lamargese, La Kaje, Brooklyn, NY (2019); and Springsteen Gallery, with Andrew Laumann, Baltimore, MD (2016). In 2020, Fremderman was featured on Cultured Magazine‘s Young Artists List.

Chris Andrews (b. 1994, Ontario, Canada) lives and works in Montreal, Canada. Both artist and curator, Andrews runs Tilling, a gallery in Montreal. Andrews is currently a resident at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, NY. Recent curatorial projects include You sit in a garden, Centre Clark, Montreal & Critical Distance Centre for Curators, Toronto; and Bog Morals, Tilling, Montreal, Canada, all 2021.

Sharona Franklin, Compassion Crip Clock, 2021, Spoons, metal alloy, & expired pharmaceuticals 11 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches

Sharona Franklin, Survival Repose, 2021, Gelatin, tapioca pearls, sanitary alcohol wipes, metal hardware, & gerbera daisy, 2 1/2 x 8 x 3 1/1 inches

Rattling the Dags, 2021, exhibition view, april april, New York

Sharona Franklin, Compassion Crip Clock, 2021, Spoons, metal alloy, & expired pharmaceuticals 11 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches

Daphne Ahlers, Turisti Sputati, 2017, Denim, neoprene, latex, styrofoam, metal, dried flowers Dimensions variable

Rattling the Dags, 2021, exhibition view, april april, New York

Sharona Franklin, Compassion Crip Clock, 2021, Spoons, metal alloy, & expired pharmaceuticals 11 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches

Sharona Franklin, Homebound Cepheid Companion, 2021, Metal, gelatin, phone cords, shoelaces, expired pharmaceuticals, wood, polyester, dried wild botanicals, & black cherry extract, 20 x 14 x 13 inches