Am Schmidt: Recess: May 21, 2014
April 15 – May 21, 2017
Due to the process-based nature of the Session program, Recess: May 21, 2014 will undergo constant modifications; the features of this page provide accruing information on the project’s developments.
Events
All events are free and open to the public. Events are subject to change.
Middling Reception with Special Invitation to Dave Navarro: April 27, 6-8pm
Screening of Mourning Son: May 11, 6-8pm
Closing Reception with Special Invitation to Dave Navarro: May 21, 6-8pm
Recess: May 21, 2014
On April 15, Am Schmidt will begin work on Recess: May 21, 2014, a month-long summoning of musician Dave Navarro. The Session’s title references the date of Schmidt’s first and only Navarro sighting, which occurred while she was participating in a meeting at Recess. With her return to the space, Schmidt—a long-term Navarro fan—will create an installation that revolves around Navarro’s biography and personal tastes. Throughout, the artist will also conduct an outreach campaign via social media, with the aim of soliciting Navarro’s presence at Recess.
The installation, which will take shape over the course of Schmidt’s Session, will be inspired by the design of Navarro’s home as it appears on a 2002 episode of MTV’s Cribs. Amidst domestic elements such as furniture, tchotchkes, and wall décor, the artist will display her research on Navarro, including a highlighted and annotated printout of his Wikipedia page and found images of the musician on the streets of Soho (a neighborhood he purportedly frequents on his visits to New York). At times, TV shows featuring Navarro—including Ink Master and ‘Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen & Dave—or his instructional guitar DVD will be playing on screens, infusing the space with Navarro’s virtual presence. A script of the dialogue from the May 21, 2014 meeting will be available in the space as an anchor to the genesis of the project and an invitation to imagine folding re-enactment into the staged environs.
The appearance of the space and activities of the Session will walk the line between creation and re-creation, summoning for the future and homage to the past, fandom and devotion. Overall, with its unwavering focus on Navarro—a musician and artist who has enjoyed a multifaceted, if not always even, career—Recess: May 21, 2014 will put forth a meditation on celebrity while interrogating the discrepancy between celebrity and non-celebrity, the hierarchy within celebrity itself, the fame culture of New York City (and Soho specifically), and the disparity between the financial implications of “the celebrity” and those of “the emerging artist.”
Open to the public Tuesday-Saturday, 12-6pm; Thursday, 2-8pm
About the Artist
Am Schmidt (b.1986, New Jersey) just closed Rachel’s Wardrobes, her second solo show at 321 Gallery in Brooklyn. In fall 2017 she will attend a residency at The Wexner Center for the Arts in Ohio to finish her shot-for-shot Dirty Dancing remake. She has shown work in recent group exhibitions including TEN: PopRally at MoMA via Recess; Rubbings at ZAX, Queens; Will You at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; and No Dice at Kimberly Klark, Queens. Schmidt is a 2018 MFA candidate at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College. She lives and works in New York.
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his program is supported, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. This project is also supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Art Works, the VIA Art Fund, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc.
