PULL IN CASE OF EMERGENCY | DEEP SPACE | online 2017

PULL IN CASE OF EMERGENCY

a solo exhibition in progress by Roin Morigeau

curated by Satpreet Kahlon

CURATOR'S STATEMENT

Hi friends. This past month, I've been thinking a lot about Deep Space, who it serves, and what it is for. When the artist who was lined up for March had to back out a few weeks ago (because life is complicated and messy), I had a few moments of panic. Even though I want Deep Space to be a ~laid back~ experimental space that owes nothing to no one, of course I want it to be both consistent and consistently good. I essentially want Deep Space to say, "omg fuck the art world" while continually impressing aforementioned art world. Oh, hypocrisy. 

But when I found myself with no concrete plan, I was forced to be honest with myself. And out of that lack of plan and self-reflection came the following show by Roin Morigeau. Although Roin is an experienced artist, having worked as a fabricator in a high end set design shop in NYC for several years, after they suffered a debilitating injury in 2013 that left them with nearly unbearable amounts of chronic pain, unable to do the work that they were accustomed to, Roin has been shifting the direction of their practice to focus on movements that are sustainable for their body and allow them to heal and create simultaneously.

This exhibition is a part of that shift. 

After bravely volunteering to fill the empty March spot, Roin started working on this exhibition two weeks ago. But we both quickly realized that neither of us had the time or emotional and mental capacity to create a fully flushed out show in such a tight timeline. Not only would this timeline be challenging for any artist, but especially because this kind of exhibition is new to Roin, we both felt that we needed to go through multiple iterations of a proposal to get to a place that we felt was good enough to publish. And yet we didn't have time. 

At this point, I felt torn between the stated goals of Deep Space (giving underrepresented artists access to create shows without thinking about geographical, financial, and physical constraints) and the unstated desires I hold for this site (you know, blow everyone away with how awesome Deep Space is and make everyone want to be my friend and prove how worthy I am of the white art world that I kind of hate but ultimately still feel kinda beholden to because I'm colonized and weak tbh).

Would it be better to show an underdeveloped show that hadn't gotten the time or care it needed to reach its potential, or would it be better to leave Deep Space empty for March?

Ultimately, what we have chosen to present this month is an exhibition about the creation of an exhibition. What is published below are the screenshots of texts/emails/google docs that show the first iteration of Roin's exhibition, PULL IN CASE OF EMERGENCY. Included in these screenshots are the comments that I left on the doc and the conversations we had about the show.

For the next four weeks, every Monday, Roin and I will be updating the website to show the latest iteration of the exhibition, which we will be working on throughout the month. Our hope is that, by the end of March, we will have come to an iteration that is well-developed, thoughtfully constructed, and well-worth the journey -- for our viewers, but always more importantly, for ourselves.

-Satpreet Kahlon

WEEK 1

Click thru to DEEP SPACE Gallery for full exhibition