Rafik Greiss
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Press Release
In recent years, Serpas has made numerous freestanding sculptures from discarded items found on the streets of cities where she was invited to exhibit her art. In what the artist classifies as a private performance, she athletically arranges various forms of trash in galleries, held together only by gravity and destroyed following their display. For her exhibition at SI, this practice of assembly and deconstruction is made in collaboration in atmospheric photographs taken by artist Rafik Greiss in Paris: on the street, in the studio, in a junkyard and in a forest on the outskirts of the city. Coolly composed, with Serpas in customized jumpsuits circulating her creations, Greiss’s near-still lives merge styles of formal documentation and fashion editorials. These pictures adorn a prop wall that blocks the gallery’s street-facing windows, commanding SI’s own architectural body, ascending through the ground floor to the gallery above.
On the second floor, where the wall and photographs continue to climb, the artist’s Moleskine journals, stolen from stores and sporadically filled during her years as a Columbia University undergraduate, have been disassembled. Never-before presented to the public, the pages contain dry observations, playful drawings, pop lyrics and manifestos. Some pages are signed with a glossy kiss. Together, Serpas considers the journals a “nervous system” for her later practice. In a painted backdrop to this archive, the inky script of a tattoo, a name, runs down the subject’s arm.
Hall (with Ser Serpas)
Swiss InstituteJanuary 25 — April 23, 2023
checklist
Chromogenic print
27 ½ x 75 in / 29 ¼ x 76 ½ in framed
Chromogenic prints
33 ½ x 22 ¼ in; 36 ½ x 25 ¼ in framed
31 Inkjet prints
4 x 6 in each
Detail
31 Inkjet prints
4 x 6 in each
Chromogenic print
22 x 32 ¾ in.
Chromogenic print
27 ½ x 75 in; 29 ¼ x 76 ½ in framed.
Paper, chromogenic prints, inkjet prints.
43 ¼ x 45 ¾ in
Installation detail
Inkjet prints on Japanese paper
Each 12 ½ x 9 ½ in; 15 ½ x 12 ¼ in framed
Chromogenic print
24 ¾ x 33 ½ in; 27 ¾ x 36 ½ in framed.
Chromogenic print
44 ½ x 29 in; 47 x 32 in framed
Chromogenic print
44 ¼ x 22 in; 46 x 23 ½ in framed
Chromogenic print
44 ¼ x 22 in; 46 x 23 ½ in framed