Artists: Marc Kokopeli, Andy Hope 1930, Jeffrey Joyal, Win McCarthy, James Ensor, David Douard, Robert Bittenbender, Joseph Geagan, Danh Vo, Valerie Keane, Jakub Julian Ziolkowski, Rochelle Goldberg
Exhibition title: These Are Not My Horses
Curated by: Alexander Shulan
Venue: James Fuentes, New York, US
Date: June 12 – July 3, 2015
Photography: images courtesy of the artists and James Fuentes, New York
“…his sense of justice turned him into a brigand and a murderer.”
– Michael Kohlhaas, Heinrich von Kleist, trans. Martin Greenberg
On a balmy morning on the 22 of March, 1540, the horse dealer Hans Kohlhase was broken at the nd wheel in the center of the public square in Cölln (what is now modern day Berlin). Ten years earlier, Kohlhase, while traveling from Brandenburg to a fair in Leipzig, had his horses stolen by a Saxon nobleman. Kohlhase, a generally well-liked and reputable merchant, first attempted to reason with the noble, but found him unwilling to return his property. He mounted an unsuccessful lawsuit, and finally appealed to the local government, again in vain. In desperation, Kohlhase gathered together a small army of sympathetic citizens and inaugurated a vicious rebellion against the Saxon nobility. For six years, as peasants rioted in solidarity, he rampaged the countryside. Wittenburg burned to the ground. Neither the elector of Brandenburg nor even Martin Luther himself could do much to resolve the situation. Ultimately, surrendering himself to the authorities, Kohlhase was compensated for the illegal seizure of his property, and then summarily executed.
This exhibition gathers together the work of twelve artists. It contemplates the aesthetics of late medieval violence and its modern equivalents.
David Douard, The reason we no longer s’speak. Slipper of snow, 2015
James Ensor, Exterminating Angel (L’Ange Exterminateur), 1889
Danh Vo, 30.1.1861, 2009
Robert Bittenbender, Broadway Nights, 2015
Jeffrey Joyal, Statler Silenced, 2015
Jeffrey Joyal and Valerie Keane, Venus Flower Basket, 2015
Joseph Geagan, Lucky Lushun, 2015
Joseph Geagan, Mrs. Gorgina, 2015
Win McCarthy, Sunday afternoon at 5CR, 2015
Andy Hope 1930, Absolute Machine, 2015
Rochelle Goldberg, the element of stain, 2015
Jakub Julian Ziolkowski, Galoty (Posters #1-4), 2010
