Zephyr Gallery
November 3 - December 30, 2017
Exhibition Brochure

The judgment involved in naming something a success or a failure is symptomatic of the time and place, and contingent on the critical apparatus one uses to define it. Paradoxes are at the heart of all dealings with failure –it is a position to take, yet one that cannot be striven for; it can be investigated, yet is too vague to be defined.
–Lisa Le Feuvre

In their juxtaposition, “success” and “failure” usually represent two poles on a scale of absolute outcomes. In this exhibition, the constructed binary instead marks the boundary of a liminal space that offers an opportunity to contemplate experimentation, process, and inquiry. The five artists featured here counter-intuitively embrace failure­– employing it as content, technique, and material– thus dislocating it from its otherwise negative connotations.

 Josh Azzarella’s video works deal with the transitions and transformations that result from failure– he amplifies the moments when catastrophe morphs into possibility, calculation into disorder. Untitled #125 (Hickory) samples a portion of the Wizard of Oz beginning from the sighting of the tornado and ending when Dorothy meets Glinda the Good Witch. Azzarella has manipulated and slowed the six minute and thirty second segment to span 120 hours, making it difficult to view the work in a single uninterrupted screening. The deceleration exaggerates Dorothy’s disorientation as disaster unfolds and she acclimates herself to a new position on the cusp of wild possibility. Azzarella’s considerable technical dexterity often exceeds the limits of the technology he uses. Software and hardware can still only handle so much, and so Azzarella must often find novel solutions to technological limitations. Similarly, the viewer’s own perceptual limits hinder access to his work– the film progresses so slowly, for example, that it is not discernable as a moving image.

 Andrew Cozzens’ practice investigates the subjective experience and degenerative effects of time. Success or failure is often discussed as the static point of a resolution, while progress has come to be understood as result-oriented and measured by the passage of time. Failure/Success For Sale! does not allow us to confuse the suspended state of the artwork for permanence, and undermines the tendency to demarcate incremental waypoints of a process as a viable gauge of either progress or success. As the countdown clock runs out the artwork advances towards its physical demise, but accomplishes its intended resolution.

Gautam Rao seeks levity and whimsy in failure. He appropriates symbols and exercises from childhood as a means of re-submitting to the innocent experience of discovery through failure. Sorting Cubes Revised revisits a common educational toy that cultivates childhood development, particularly problem solving skills. The original toy encourages trial and error through matching rudimentary shaped blocks to their corresponding slot in a box. Rao uses this simplified form to deconstruct much more complex concepts, and provides the viewer with “incorrect” ways of “solving” the puzzle as a way of challenging fully formed minds to question their ability to solve complicated problems.

Alex Serpentini’s Yes, offers an illustration of the symbiosis found in the duality of success and failure, often viewed as a zero sum game.­ For one to succeed, the other must fail. In creating Almost Something, Serpentini solicited responses to the prompt “In seven sentences or less, please tell me about something you consider a failure because you never tried.” Under the veil of anonymity, respondents candidly describe personal failures born of inertia. These confessions are concealed from the world by author and artist, pointing to fear of failure itself, as well as the judgment endured as a result of failure.

Melissa Vandenberg’s burn drawings are the product of a destructive process that is equal parts planning and risk. She methodically positions incendiary materials atop paper that she has prepared with water so that it can withstand the flame. However, Vandenberg has limited control over the outcome, as unpredictable combustion and errant sparks leave unintentional marks. Vandenberg further engages failure through the content of her work, offering critique and, at times, a resistant view of the world; the imagery contained within conveying discontent with the subject matter it alludes to– political, social, and personal failures.

Acceptance of the inherent potential of failure in creative undertaking– or any undertaking for that matter– enables focus to shift away from determining if something is a failure, onto how failure is being effected. The ambiguity of failure provides possibility for its recuperation, affording space for both optimism and indifference– leaving room for failure to be a fruitful venture. This raises the question, is there such a thing as irrefutable failure?