Sam PulitzerDenials and Supplications plus SubdivisionSeptemberSep 6th - NovemberNov 1st, 2014Gaga Mexico City

Denials and supplications each refer to something that could be labeled as status conditions. Denial notes a state of being and supplication a presumption of becoming. It has been pluralized in the exhibition’s title to suit attachment to the multiple works on view.

This couplet of concern claims analogy in two scenic components of a construction central to the exhibition. One half of this construction dedicates space to a processional candelabra poised on a stand (a denial of darkness, a supplication to the visible). The second portion presents a makeshift table on which 6 identical, artistically fabricated greeting cards rest, presumably awaiting dispatch from a theatrically absent sender (a denial of distance, a supplication to discursive communion). In each of these scenes, the status conditions of denial and supplication are suggested thanks to an artistic exaggeration of absence—particularly the absence of utility. This can be described by the following: the absence produced by utility’s denial begets a supplicatory motor for ecstatic affirmation. To further clarify, this affirmation-from-without (which is also to say, the social grace by which this material plea becomes art) is an anointment of matter with system-optimized significance —that is to say, optimizing the contents of this exhibition with interest-appreciative wordings such as those of the exhibition’s title.

Subdivision describes a cognitive procedure for viewing the exhibition’s assembly of artistically decorated paper. This product is to be cohered as a spatially contiguous environment in which each individual document is a presentation of a subdivided plot of a larger scenic-diegetic claim. For example, a wooden structure housing a well (as well as a glove, a gourd and an item of domestic deçor) is depicted in one image. A weeping willow-fashioned portal is witnessed in another. Through consistent and complimentary image material, a media-space if you will, these separate images are identified as though they are a navigable space for eyes capable of walking. It is worth noting that this technique of visualization is derived from Hypercard stacks such as the 1989 educational adventure game, “The Manhole.”

Subdivision refers additionally to the cultural style of image on display, derived as it is from normative archives of colonial- to reconstruction-era American craft, a stylistic wellspring that has supplied the subdivided residential communities of North America with one possible decorative life- joy. Aspects of this history’s nascent mediality are also in-roaded throughout the work and even analogized via the overdetermined material residues of administrative culture—namely printer paper, correction fluid and xerographic toner.

Installation
views

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision
House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision
House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision
House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision
House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision
House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Non-Opening with Decorative Accents

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
Non-Opening with Decorative Accents, 2014
Ink and correction fluid on paper
101.97 x 59.06 inches
259 x 150 cm
6.97 x 8.46 inches each
17.7 x 21.5 cm each

Exhibition design kits

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
The Seating, The Irrwisch, The Arabesque, The Target, The Recursion, The Safe, 2014
Mixed media
23.62 x 38.98 inches
60 x 99 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
The Banner, The Sanitorium, The Tumult, The Moon, The Shirt, 2014
Mixed media
23.62 x 38.98 inches
60 x 99 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
The Lines, The Path, The Window, The Defibrillator, 2014
Mixed media
23.62 x 38.98 inches
60 x 99 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
The Orchard, The Kit, The Pincers, The Brim, The Screen, The Tear, 2014
Mixed media
23.62 x 38.98 inches
60 x 99 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
The Hall, The Pests, The View, The Yard, The Dorm, 2014
Mixed media
23.62 x 38.98 inches
60 x 99 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
The Gambol, The Kites, The Show, The Blemish, 2014
Mixed media
23.62 x 38.98 inches
60 x 99 cm

Denial + Supplication Induction Site

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision
House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision
House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision
House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision
House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision
House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision
House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision
House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision
House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision
House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision
House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
Denial + Supplication Induction Site, 2014
Assorted 19th and 20th century antiques, acrylic, wood, steel, handmade greeting cards and envelopes
96.06 x 48.03 x 99.02 inches
244 x 122 x 251.5 cm

Individual plots

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
Individual Plots, 2014
Ink and correction fluid on paper 11 artistic decorative papers

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
Individual Plot: Spider’s Lull, 2014
Toner on Paper
14.17 x 9.84 x 1.38 inches
36 x 25 x 3.5 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
Individual Plot: Cruciform Jail, 2014
Ink and correction fluid on paper
10.43 x 10.83 x 1.38 inches
26.5 x 27.5 x 3.5 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
Individual Plot: Bush- League Mechanism, 2014
Ink and correction fluid on paper
14.92 x 10.47 x 1.38 inches
37.9 x 26.6 x 3.5 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
Individual Plot: Branchy Egress, 2014
Ink and correction fluid on paper
18.78 x 18.74 x 1.38 inches
47.7 x 47.6 x 3.5 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
Individual Plot: Lightening Carriage, 2014
Ink and correction fluid on paper
18.74 x 14.8 x 1.38 inches
47.6 x 37.6 x 3.5 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
Individual Plot: Tumid In-Road, 2014
Ink and correction fluid on paper
14.84 x 18.39 x 1.38 inches
37.7 x 46.7 x 3.5 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
Individual Plot: Service Fowl, 2014
Ink and correction fluid on paper
12.4 x 12.4 x 1.38 inches
31.5 x 31.5 x 3.5 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
Individual Plot: Doleful Well, 2014
Ink and correction fluid on paper
14.96 x 10.43 x 1.38 inches
38 x 26.5 x 3.5 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
Individual Plot: August Literacy, 2014
Ink and correction fluid on paper
13.46 x 13.46 x 1.38 inches
34.2 x 34.2 x 3.5 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
Individual Plot: Bannered Copse, 2014
Ink and correction fluid on paper
14.92 x 10.39 x 1.38 inches
37.9 x 26.4 x 3.5 cm

House of Gaga ❧ Denials and Supplications plus Subdivision

Sam Pulitzer
Individual Plot: Introductory Tell, 2014
Toner on Paper
11.81 x 12.4 x 1.38 inches
30 x 31.5 x 3.5 cm