AGAINST COMING SERIES

2014 - PRESENT

The Against Coming Series is based in erotic writing and artistic strategies that are ‘against coming’ in phallocentric, goal-oriented terms, to dismantle grandiose conceptualizations of time, and highlight a body response in the reader (TURN ON).

The series includes promotional materials for a romance novel that may never be written. Press releases, a teaser trailer, wiki page, and countless tear sheets from a fictional book highlight how value is created around the popular romance genre that embodies anticipation, longing and love.

All works were disseminated through multiple launches, group exhibitions, performances, and publications. The Against Coming Series led to several experimental romance novels, collective writing workshops that explore shared wants, and Come Early and Often, an exhibition and benefit event with Chapter NY, 2014.

The series includes:

Teaser, a fan made video book trailer, included in Bad Conscience, a group exhibition organized by artist and writer John Miller at Metro Pictures. The work in the exhibition elicited a disquieting effect that Miller attributed to a troubled process of representation. Artists included Dan Graham, Nic Guagnini, Lyle Ashton Harris, Takuji Kogo & Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Frank Lutz, Marilyn Minter, Wangechi Mutu, Greg Parma Smith, Aura Rosenberg.Teaser was also shown in Mistakes Were Made, a group exhibition, School of Realism, School of Kyiv, Kyiv Biennial, Ukraine, 2015. website

Tare Sheets, nine digital prints, included in Autograft, a group exhibition organized with Laurel Gitlen Gallery, New York, NY. Tare Sheets depicted landscapes with texts, excerpts from a fictional romance novel. Artists included Math Bass, Lydia Gifford, and Lisa Williamson. 

Sales Pitch, PowerPoint performance, was held at the opening of Autograft, a group exhibition organized with Laurel Gitlen Gallery, New York, NY; and Unlike Scene, a group exhibition organized by Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany. Sales Pitch, based on a TED talk by Steve Jobs, promoted a fictional romance novel.

PRESS release, press release for Autograft, a group exhibition organized with Laurel Gitlen Gallery.

Wiki Page, a wikipedia page, included in publication: The Stand in (or A Glass of Milk), curated by Alexandra Gaty & Lauren Mackler, February 2013. 

Bill Her Advent, billboard size advent calendar, XOXO, group exhibition at Night Gallery, LA, 2013. Bill her Advent references an advent calendar. Advent, meaning ‘coming’ in Latin is the first form of the marketing of anticipation, similar to romance novels. Numbers are in the image and each one correlates to a page from the novel. Viewers could purchase a page for $1 each. exhibition images

The Coming of Age, romance novel, Stuttgart, GE: University of Stuttgart, 2014. Book design by Dana Bishop Root. Edited by Asher Ireland.

The Coming of Age, Angry, Hunted, Stuffed, book launch and performance with students from writing and performance workshop, The Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, Stuttgart, Germany, 2015.

The Coming of Age, a reading at The Multifarious Array, poetry series, Pete’s Candy Store, Brooklyn NY, 2014. press release

The Coming of Age, book launch with Blonde Art Books, Molasses Books, NY, NY, 2015. press release

Come Early and Often, exhibition and event, Chapter NY, 2014.

The Wrapping Room, exhibition and event with Aura Rosenburg, Chapter NY, New York, NY, 2014; and Shoot the Lobster, New York, NY, 2015. Collaboration with Aura Rosenburg extending upon the notion of ‘goody bag’ or take-awayitem from Come Early and Often. We invited people to have their Christmas gifts wrapped over the course of four hours. The wrapping paper was created in collaboration and consisted of printed pornography with poems and drawings. Chapter NY Exhibition images

The Coming of Age was included in The Book Lovers at M HKA Ensembles, 2015. The Book Lovers is a research project on the phenomenon of the artist's novel curated by David Maroto and Joanna Zielińska. The central question was how a literary genre like the novel could be considered a medium in its own right within the visual arts, as video or installation could be. There have been artists throughout the 20th century who wrote novels as an activity more or less detached from their visual art production. However, in recent years, an increasing number of artists have begun to integrate their novels as a fundamental part of their visual art projects. The project developed in a number of different stages. Its base was the creation of a collection of artist's novels with a parallel online database, both supported by M HKA. This is complemented with a series of exhibitions and public programs, pop-up bookstores, and a publication. Artist profile

Burning Blue, a romance novel published by Badlands, 2014. Badlands New Lovers Erotica series published romance novels written by women. Founded by Paul Chan, he was completely uncritical of the romance genre. I used Paul Chan as a platform, jokingly called him my pimp, and incorporated him into my research. Instead of focusing on language as objects, and unconventional sexual relations as I had in The Coming of Age (written that same year), I focused on narrative and art world audience, to push against standards of success, ageism, racism, and sexism present in the art world.

Origin of Love and Other Tales of Degradation, a collection of degradation myths, playing off origin stories, that reinvent the relationship between want and language. An experiment in affect, new materialisms emerge through the arousal a reader may feel. Published with Night Gallery, 2020. Book design by nico fontana.