now what

Debora Delmar Corp
Francisco Cordero Oceguera
Alex DeCarli
Adrienne Garbini
Natalia Ibáñez Lario
Adriana Lara
Theo Michael
Dmitri Obergfell
Zach Reini
SANGREE

Curated By: Brett W Schultz

June 11 — July 19, 2015

Opening Reception
Thursday, June 11, 2015 | 7-9pm

There’s a thin line between TED and fiction. Last week I went to see my shrink. I told him, I’m thinking about becoming a Futurist. He said, that’s fantastic news, I’ll take next week’s payment in advance.

I was having panic attacks about the Singularity. I said to my wife, I’m worried I’ll be replaced by a machine. She said, that reminds me, I need some AA batteries.

And you may ask yourself: how did I get here? Originally, this was a show about uh-oh. But, at the end, it’s probably much more about meh. If the present moment – now – perpetually rings of hope, outrage, exhilaration, fear, sweaty anticipation and/or collective hysteria, then this show is the moment that immediately follows, when now fails to meet the future scripted for it. The let-down, the bounce-back. Situation Normal: All Fucked Up. Same as it ever was.

The other day, I tried asking Siri for directions. She told me to get lost.

Civilizations, as organizing systems, have incredible inertia but they also tend to sugar-coat our primitivism. We, as humans, are governed by a biochemistry that’s often at odds with that which we seek to achieve. We are not rational actors. This show is okay with that. This show is not in control. This show identifies with you. This show totally understands your issues.

From retail therapy to buyer’s remorse, what we all get in the end is dirty laundry. The alarm always rings just the same the morning after doomsday.

So let’s talk about now. Because if that’s all there is, my friends, then let’s keep dancing. Let’s break out the booze and have a ball, if that’s all there is.

— BWS

Gildar Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition anticipating the upcoming 2015 Biennial of the Americas themed Now. On view from June 11th to July 19th, 2015, now what features contemporary works probing an anxious moment, an ever so slightly post-present that hasn’t lived up to expectations of a fantastic future––neither utopian nor dystopian. Guest curator Brett W. Schultz, co-director of Yautepec Gallery and Material Art Fair in Mexico City, has gathered ten artists who puckishly engage this nagging cultural malaise.

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterwards.

Much like satirist Kurt Vonnegut revealed the pains of the human condition with absurd science fictions, the artists in now what employ altered realities and a dark comic language to wag a middle finger in the direction of contemporary unease. However, well after the debunking of Modernism’s singular narrative, and the persistent flatlining of Post Modern pluralities, the obliteration of any convincing plot seems likely. Rather than trying to steer the ship back on course or succumbing to existential apathy, these artists all appear to bask in uncertainty — wryly examining, appropriating and at times exacerbating the mechanisms of a societal machine barreling along without a clear direction.

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